As a sex obsessed 12 year old, I would sneak down into the living room late at night and watch Playboy after Dark with the sound so low I had to put my ear to the speaker. I never did understood what the hell they were talking about...and still don't. I learned to just mute it and watch.
Barbi always on the couch next to Hef and a room full of -- what must'a been -- a major suck-up convention. Still, I thought it was the ultimate in sophistication. Years later it doesn't hold up at all. But dig those opening credits. That Mercedes 600 Limo. The overhead shot of what looks like Lake Shore Drive and that piano music that begs you to shake something with ice and pour it neat with an olive. Playboy got me young and I bought into the lie that being a man was nothing more than smoking, drinking and sex. I guess if you're gonna buy into a lie...it ain't a bad one.
Wait. It's a lie?
ReplyDeleteI did the same thing! It felt kinda dirty watching the cool, sophisticates having fun. This was the era of "cool." Now we have posers, wannabees, douches etc., who think they invented the word. They havent a clue.
ReplyDeleteBack when adults actually ran the television world.
ReplyDeleteI never knew Playboy After dark existed. But you know, I did the same sort of thing at about the same time with my little black and white TV in my bedroom! I would turn the sound down real low and take the contrast and brightness way, way down so as not to appear turned on.
But I remember being turned on by the sight of a platinum blond whose tee shirt was so tight I lost sleep. The movie: Tony Rome. Frank Sinatra in Miami during his waning acting career. He was one of the few back then who could wear a porkpie Panama and not look too much like an old guy. Just a tough one. Like I said, back when adults ruled TV.
-DB
I loved this song. I saw it years later when they ran it on the Playboy Channel.
ReplyDeleteI bought into that as well, subscribing to the mag at 18 and reading and re-reading the "Playboy Philosophy." Still, I love "Playboy After Dark" for the clothes, jazz and pure hedonism. It introduced me to the world of Coltrane and Beat writers, and for that I am grateful. Seeing Hef now with the bleach blonde silicone "babes" in reality T.V. disappoints me. It would of so much nicer to see him settle down with a Sophia Loren type.
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