Patty Farmer - Playboy Swings: How Hugh Hefner and Playboy Changed the Face of Music

1. Cover
2. Praise for PLAYBOY SWINGS!
3. PLAYBOY SWINGS!
4. Half Title
5. Copyright
6. Dedication
7. Contents
8. Foreword by Victor Lownes III
9. Introduction by George Wein
10. PART ONE: THE ORIGINAL SWINGER
11. 1 BIRTH OF A LIFESTYLE
12. 2 All That Jazz
13. 3 The Greatest Three Days in the History of Jazz
14. 4 Playboy on Record
15. 5 In the Penthouse After Dark
16. PART TWO: SWINGING AT THE CLUBS
17. 6 Setting Chicago on Fire
18. 7 Miami Heat
19. 8 The Big Uneasy
20. 9 Taking a Bite of the Apple
21. 10 Welcome to L.A.
22. 11 Its a Playboy World
23. 12 Playboy in Paradise
24. 13 A Woman on Top
25. PART THREE: THE SWING GOES ON
26. 14 Just a Bowl of Jazz
27. 15 Paradise Lost
28. 16 Playboy Rebooted
29. Acknowledgements
30. Playboy Chronology
31. Index
32. REFERENCE GUIDE
33. The Playboy ALLSTAR Jazz Poll Winners
34. TV: Playboys Penthouse
35. Playboys Penthouse Season Two (19601961)
36. TV: Playboy After Dark
37. Playboy After Dark Season Two October 1969May, 1970
38. The Playboy Interviews
39. Playboy Club Opening Dates
40. The Playboy Jazz Festival
41. Playboy Records

Praise for PLAY BOY SWINGS!

One would not immediately think of Hugh Hefner as an important contributor to the jazz scene of the 1950s and early 60s, but he was all of that and more. The magazine, the TV shows, the Jazz Festivals, and the Playboy Clubs were important components in the promotion of jazz artists. Playboy and its associated enterprises brought the music to people who might otherwise not be aware of it. All this is neatly documented by Patty Farmer in Playboy Swings. She has interviewed the right people and produced an eye-opening account of a largely forgotten era when jazz appreciation was part of the hip way of life.

Bob Porter, WBGO radio host

Hugh Hefner His Playboy Clubs promoted laughter and music. Comedians and hot little jazz combos and singers were staples of his supper clubs. His festivals brought the legends of jazz to the world. His impact was huge. Music and laughterhealing stuff. The BALM. And Playboy Swings really tells the story.

Al Jarreau, jazz singer

Playboy was, in its prime, less a magazine than a kit of tools to make men feel worthy of the perfect women in its pages, and sophisticated taste in musica taste for jazzwas the best tool it provided. Patty Farmer does full justice to this largely forgotten, essential story in American cultural history.

David Hadju, Professor of Arts and Culture, Columbia University

Both jazz and Playboy meant something to me. Hugh Hefner always kept jazz busy at his mansion. He always had jazz on the scene. It was never behind the scenes, it was always out front. Hughs love of jazz made it better available to more people. I think that Hugh Hefner has an outlook towards jazz much deeper than anyone else who promotes the music. Patty Farmer really captures how Playboys relationship to the music and the artists evolved from the beginning to what it is today.

Jon Hendricks, jazz lyricist and singer

Hugh Hefner and Playboy have a legacy of nurturing and supporting jazz, particularly women in jazz. Its indisputable that Playboy has played a pivotal role in the music. I cant imagine any contemporary not clamoring to headline at Playboy Jazz Festival. Thats a career making achievement!

Dee Dee Bridgewater, actor and singer

We (Greg, my father and myself) were discovered at the Chicago Playboy Club, which led to us being on The Tonight Show around 25 times. Playboy and Johnny Carson propelled our act (Hines, Hines and Dad) to the next level. Thank you Playboy and Johnny Carson for the success that Im still enjoying to the day.

Maurice Hines, entertainer

For anyone interested in the good old days of jazz, rye old-fashioneds and life after dark, this book brings back the music, rough glamour and excitement of the Playboy Empire in all their exhilarating, ground-breaking glory. Playboy Swings is well-researched, breezily written, incredibly informative, and a lot of fun.

Rex Reed, film critic and television host

Playboy Swings is an intimate look at what went on in the clubs, the racial barriers they helped to eliminate, and the careers that skyrocketed from the Playboy Club stages. This is as entertaining as an evening at a club itself. Four Bunny Tails for the effort.

Bill Boggs, television host and producer

Mirroring Hugh Hefners penultimate passion, Playboy has demonstrated an avid interest in jazz since the magazines debut issue in 1953. And in this lively anecdotal survey, author and former model Patty Farmer offers a behind-the-scene glimpse of how Playboys jazz festivals, key clubs, and magazine enthusiastically celebrated Americas only original art form. Farmer combines the voices of Playboy execs, managers, and bunnies, and scores of celebrity musicians and performers to shape an entertaining oral history that attests to Playboys role as a major proponent in the resurgent popularity of jazz during the mid and late twentieth century.

Mel Watkins, author of On the Real Side: A History of African-American Comedy and Stepin Fetchit: The Life and Times of Lincoln Perry

PLAYBOY SWINGS!

PLAYBOY
SWINGS!

BY PATTY FARMER

CONTRIBUTIONS BY WILL FRIEDWALD

PLAYBOY SWINGS

Copyright 2015 by Patty Farmer

TO AL BELLETTO, DAVID BRENNER, JOAN RIVERS, JULIE WILSON, STEVE ROSSI,
and all the other talented and dedicated entertainers who left us much too early.

When Patty Farmer told me that she was planning a book about the music produced and presented by Playboy, I knew she was onto something, because music has always been as much a part of the Playboy experience as beautiful women. Andthough I cant play any musical instrument and I doubt that my singing voice would get me into even the most desperate choirI like to think that I had something to do with that. Before you dig in and enjoy the many stories Patty has gathered from all those who helped make Playboy the institution it is, Id like to share my own perspective on how we got started. You might as well hear it from the source!

I had been traveling between Chicago and New York on business in the years after I graduated from the University of Chicago. One night, I saw a mention of a little club called RSVP on East 59th Street, in an article in Park East magazine. I stopped in and was enchanted by a singer there, Mabel Mercer, a half-English, half-American chan-teuse. Ive spoken with Patty at length about my passion for Mabel, and theres more about her in various chapters throughout, but for now, suffice it to say that she was one of a kind.

One night in 1954, I gave a party for the comedian Jonathan Winters. My good friend, the photographer Mike Shea, brought along a young guy who was putting out a new magazine. Im sure you can guess that the magazine was called Playboy and Mikes friend was Hugh Hefner. To entertain my guests that evening, I played a recording I had made of Mabel. Hefner was so impressed he asked me if I would write an article about the singer for Playboywhich I did. It was the only piece I ever wrote for him, but it was the start of my career as