Playboy: the car that inspired the magazine

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We may be an online magazine, but that does not necessarily say we are opponents of print magazines. As a matter of fact we love anything printed, magazines in particular. And so the news that one of the great names in post war magazines passed away, needs sharing here, too. Mister Playboy, Hugh M. Hefner, passed away at the age of 91. Now, a lot has been said and written about the extraordinary life of mister Hefner in the past, so we would not want to mix us in there. But how about the car baring the name of his illustrious magazine? There certainly was a link between the two, with the Playboy car pre-dating Hefner’s Playboy magazine.

The Playboy car, made in Buffalo, New York, shortly after the War, didn’t last very long. The company behind it had in fact been building more prototypes and pre-production vehicles than actual production cars between 1946 and 1950. Not unlike Crosley, the Playboy was a miniature car for American understanding, in this case using a 40bhp four-cylinder sidevalve engine. It came at a price of under a thousand dollars, but that didn’t help it, though, as the company struggled to pay the bills and eventually went under.

There is a wealth of information on the supposed 97 Playboys built. It also uncovers the link to Hefner. Quoted from them: “According to an episode of the Biography television series and of ‘The E! True Hollywood Story’, as well as in a 2010 documentary entitled ‘Hugh Hefner: Playboy, Activist and Rebel’, a woman who worked for Playboy Motor Cars at the time they shut down, suggested to her son's friend that he should use the Playboy name for his new magazine. That friend's name was Hugh Hefner! This story was confirmed by a letter that the webmaster of this site personally received from Hugh Hefner in June, 2002 which reads, in part: ‘The Playboy name was suggested by a friend whose mother had worked at the then defunct Playboy Motor Car Company...’  - Signed Hugh M. Hefner. Hefner does not own a Playboy car.” May he rest in peace.

Pictures Playboy Motor Cars
 

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