A Trio of Absent Friends

The Grandstander has been away from his post for the last eleven days, but that hasn't stopped the "Departure Lounge" from filling up......

Founder of the Playboy magazine empire and America's foremost hedonist High Hefner died last week at the age of 91.  There can be no doubt that Hefner contributed largely to a shift in American values and mores when he launched his magazine back in 1954.  Whether that was a good thing or not is a point that can be debated, and in the last week, you could find all sorts of commentary both praising and condemning Hefner and his legacy.  Perhaps the best one was a Facebook post from my friend in Ohio, Susan Petrone:

"Hugh Hefner was a great entrepreneur who championed progressive causes and created a massive publishing empire. Too bad he did so at the cost of instilling a societal view of women as decorative sexual objects. I have very mixed emotions about his death."

Well said, but I won't be a hypocrite here.  Like most American males of my age, I read (yes, I read the articles, too) Playboy over the years, but I can honestly say that it has probably been twenty years or so since I have bought or even looked at or read an issue of the magazine, and my question is, Who is actually reading Playboy today, in the year 2017?  The sexuality that was so salacious in my 1960's and -70s youth now seems quaint and almost prim.  Playboy and Hefner wrought a sexual revolution, alright, but that revolution passed both Hef and his magazine by a long time ago. When you look at pictures of Hefner from the last twenty or so years  in his silk robe and captain's sailing hat, surrounded by bevies of women decades younger than he, it called to mind an old saying of my mother's: There's no fool like an old fool.

By the way, a trip to the Google Machine tells me that, according to CNBC, Playboy's circulation peaked in 1972 at 7.2 million copies.  By 2015, circulation was at 820,000.  Like I said, just who is buying Playboy these days?

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Game show host Monty Hall died last week at the age of 96.   Game shows are game shows, and "Let's Make A Deal" was as shlockey and as any of them, but it was and remains immensely popular and it made creator and host Hall a multi-multi-millionaire, so good for him.  His obituaries also detailed how Hall then spent the latter part of his life as philanthropist and charitable fundraiser, responsible for raising hundreds of millions of dollars for various charities over the years, so Double-Good for him.

I was also surprised and interested to not the that one of Hall's daughters is the actress Joanna Gleason.

She is a Tony award winning actress and has appeared in dozens of movies over the years, including several for Woody Allen ("Hannah and Her Sisters" and "Crimes and Misdemeanors").  Like I always say, you learn the most interesting things reading the obits.

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Finally, death claimed rock & roll superstar Tom Petty at the age of 66.

Petty and his Heartbreakers came on the scene in the 1970's at a time when I was early in both my marriage and my working career, so my attentions were elsewhere, and I missed the dawn of Petty's career.  I can claim being familiar with some of his songs, but I can't claim to be a big fan or any authority on his career.  

His death did prompt me to visit YouTube and find his complete performance at the halftime of Super Bowl XLII in 2008.  It's good stuff, and I include it here for your enjoyment.

RIP Hugh Hefner, Monty Hall, and Tom Petty