Hefner hopes GenNow will power club

LAS VEGAS: Growing up in the conservative mid-West during the Great Depression, Hugh Hefner looked back wistfully at the age of flappers as an era of freedom and fun that he missed.

Now, the 80-year-old founder of Playboy magazine sees young people seeking the same kind of nostalgia — the kind that may lure them to a new Playboy Club atop the Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas, the first to open in about 20 years.

“What happened is a whole new generation grew up who had not experienced the Playboy phenomenon and it was perceived that it was a party that was missed,” Mr Hefner said before the official opening night party.

As his three blonde live-in girlfriends lounged nearby sipping strawberry cocktails from tall glasses that resembled a bikini-clad woman, Mr Hefner said the opening of the club was emotional for him, but also a validation of the brand that helped bring the sexual revolution to the mainstream nearly a half-century ago.

Though times have changed and images of nude women in the internet age hardly raise eyebrows or make the same political and sociological statement they once did, Playboy appears to be on a roll once more.

A successful licensing business and a popular reality television show that shadows Mr Hefner’s girlfriends
has brought new fans to the bunny brand and a movie about Hefner’s life is in the works.

“The brand will be here forever and the magazine will be here forever, whether it’s printed on paper or it’s electronic,” he said.