Playboy Mansion

Meet Daren Metropoulos, The New Owner Of The Playboy Mansion

Sep 292017

When Playboy founder Hugh Hefner passed away this week, the entire world mourned his demise. However, questions about the future of his multi-million Playboy Empire started floating on the internet. Cooper Hefner, who is Hugh’s son, will now take over the company’s day to day operations but one big question that has not been answered is the fate of the legendary Playboy Mansion.

Daren Metropoulos Is The New Owner Of The Playboy Mansion © Architectural Digest

In 1971, when Hugh’s career graph started going upwards, he purchased the iconic Playboy Mansion in Los Angeles where he relocated to permanently and lived until the time of his passing. (He even breathed his last inside that mansion, surrounded by family and friends.)

However, it is not known by many that in 2016, Hugh gave up his ownership rights when he sold the mansion to his neighbor, Daren Metropoulos.

Daren is a wealthy 33-year-old entrepreneur who had been living next to the mansion since 2009. During the summer of 2016, he purchased the Playboy Mansion for $100 million but with a condition; the contract signed between the two said that the transaction would not be completed till Hefner passes away and until then Hefner could still live there.

Now, you’ve got to be someone special to be able to purchase a mansion like this one and Daren is just that. He is the son of a private-equity investor and multi-millionaire C. Dean Metropoulos who has served as the owner of a number of firms like Chef Boyardee, Pabst, and Bumble Bee Tuna.

Daren has worked with his dad for years at Metropoulos & Co. as the co-CEO of the Pabst Brewing Company from 2010 to 2014. He is currently 33-years-old but at the age of 25, he had enough money to purchase the house next to the Playboy Mansion from Hugh Hefner for $18 million.

A lesser known fact is that both the houses were originally designed together and were once known as ‘Wolfskill Ranch’ (a single unit) by the architect Arthur R. Kelly. It was built in 1927 for the department store mogul Arthur Letts, Jr.

Metropoulos is now the owner of both properties and has already started with his plans for expansions. At the time of purchase in 2016, Metropoulos said in an interview that he felt, “’fortunate and privileged to own a one-of-a-kind piece of history and art.” He also revealed his plans for the two properties, “I look forward to eventually rejoining the two estates and enjoying this beautiful property as my private residence for years to come.”

Daren Metropoulos, new owner of Playboy Mansion, at its sister house, his home since 2009. pic.twitter.com/Bpn8AuqII2

— Daren Metropoulos (@JDMetro) August 16, 2016

If we look at Daren’s life so far, there’s no doubt that he would make an ‘ideal’ owner of the Playboy Mansion. He and his brother Evan have been portrayed as hard-partying rich kids or brilliantly instinctual budding tycoons.

Also, if you have ever wondered what’s so great about the Playboy Mansion, then brace yourself.

It has 22 rooms including a wine cellar that includes a Prohibition-era secret door, a screening room, a game room, a zoo, pet cemetery, a tennis/basketball court, a waterfall and a swimming pool area that includes a grotto and sauna. The lavish grounds include a large pond, a citrus orchard, tree ferns and redwoods.

Daren Metropoulos Is The New Owner Of The Playboy Mansion © Architectural Digest

If this doesn’t leave you awestruck then have a look at this tour of the mansion:

Now we can only hope that Daren doesn’t make any changes that might affect the integrity of the mansion.

10 Little-Known Facts About Hugh Hefner That Reveal The Man Behind The Playboy Dream

Celebrities

Sep 282017

The original porn king of the world, Hugh Hefner led an unapologetic life. Starting from a single photograph (of the iconic Marilyn Monroe) he built a magazine empire responsible for the sexual awakening of many generations of men. Known for its erotic content, the magazine was a reflection of its founder who led an equally scandalous life in his Playboy Mansion. The man who was famous for popping Viagra like chocolates claims to have slept with thousands of women. The fact that he lived up to the ripe age of 90 is proof enough sex is good for your health.

We picked a few facts from his life that reveal a little more of the glorious personality of the king of porn. A life lived just right. No wonder he was voted by his class in high school as the ‘most likely person to succeed’.

Little Known Facts About Hugh Hefner © Reuters/Disha Bhatia

Clearly, the man had his priorities right. A former Playboy model revealed how he lost hearing in one ear due to Viagra, and had to resort to hearing aids, but that didn’t stop him from using it.

Little Known Facts About Hugh Hefner © Reuters / Disha Bhatia

The man who defined the teen years of boys across the world was a virgin until 22.

Little Known Facts About Hugh Hefner © Daily Mirror/ Disha Bhatia

Even the king of porn had rules.

Little Known Facts About Hugh Hefner

Little Known Facts About Hugh Hefner © Reuters/ Disha Bhatia

Who would have thought the man who lived a life of pleasure and opulence would have served for 2 years in the army during WW II?

Little Known Facts About Hugh Hefner © AP / Disha Bhatia

Little Known Facts About Hugh Hefner © Daily Mirror/ Disha Bhatia

Little Known Facts About Hugh Hefner © Reuters/ Disha Bhatia

A crush that lasted for a lifetime.

Little Known Facts About Hugh Hefner © AP/ Disha Bhatia

Little Known Facts About Hugh Hefner © Wikimedia Commons/ Disha Bhatia

RIP Playboy Founder Hugh Hefner: His Life And Career Through The Years

Celebrities

Sep 282017

You can hate him or love him but you cannot disagree with the fact that Hugh Hefner changed the world in a way that was beyond the understanding of many. The man was responsible for bringing about a cultural revolution in America and was a proponent of free speech and a champion of civil rights.

However yesterday, the publishing legend who was regarded by most as ‘forever young’ breathed his last at the age of 91. Playboy magazine announced in a statement, that he “peacefully passed away today from natural causes at his home, The Playboy Mansion, surrounded by loved ones.”

American Icon and Playboy Founder, Hugh M. Hefner passed away today. He was 91. #RIPHef pic.twitter.com/tCLa2iNXa4

— Playboy (@Playboy) September 28, 2017

His son Cooper Hefner, now the company’s chief creative officer, wrote in the company’s statement:

“My father lived an exceptional and impactful life as a media and cultural pioneer and a leading voice behind some of the most significant social and cultural movements of our time in advocating free speech, civil rights and sexual freedom. He defined a lifestyle and ethos that lie at the heart of the Playboy brand.”

Hugh Hefner’s life and career was nothing short of legendary and the man was never shy to admit the same to the world.

He founded Playboy magazine more than 60 years ago as a niche upscale men’s magazine, with in-depth articles, interviews and fiction. But let’s face it; the selling point of the magazine was the explicit pictures of women who graced the covers of the magazine every month.

Hefner started his career in 1952, when he worked as a copywriter for Esquire magazine in Chicago. When he was turned down for a $5 raise, he decided to leave and come up with his own magazine. He gathered $8,000 from 50 investors, including his mother, to create a prototype for his magazine and then found a 5-year-old shot of a nude model in a Chicago calendar company. The model was Marilyn Monroe before she became a star and with that, the first issue of Playboy was born.

Mr. Hefner published the very first issue of Playboy in December of 1953.

1950s was a rather conservative era but Playboy magazine was focused on bringing about a change while advocating a progressive, lavish lifestyle. Hefner was of the view that the reason behind advocating a swinging lifestyle might have been a reaction to growing up in a repressed family where affection was rarely exhibited.

The magazine’s success led Hefner to create Playboy Clubs in Chicago in 1960s.

Apart from hiring beautiful models for his covers, Hugh also made sure that he had the most progressive literary figures writing for Playboy including, Hunter S. Thompson, John Updike, Ian Fleming, Joseph Heller, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Margaret Atwood, Jack Kerouac and Kurt Vonnegut.

During that time he was married to his first wife Mildred Williams, with whom he fathered two children, daughter Christie and son David. But their decade-long marriage came to an end in 1959 and after that Hefner was public about being intimate with numerous women.

By the 1970s, Playboy was selling 7 milllion copies a month and its logo became iconic across the world due to a variety of reasons that Hefner discussed in an interview. He said, “The rabbit, the bunny, in America has a sexual meaning; and I chose it because it’s a fresh animal, shy, vivacious, jumping — sexy.”

The success led to a turning point in his life when in 1971, he purchased the legendary Playboy Mansion in Los Angeles where he relocated to permanently and lived until the time of his passing.

The mansion was not only popular for its beautiful architecture, but for the legendary parties that Hefner threw where male celebrities swarmed to mingle with beautiful young women.

In the year 1985, Hefner turned 59 and suffered a minor heart stroke. In order to keep up with his health, his daughter Christie assumed more responsibility in the management of the company.

In 1989, he tied the knot with second wife and Playmate of the Year, Kimberley Conrad. The couple had two children together and separated almost a decade later and officially divorced in 2010.

Throughout his life in the Playboy Mansion, Hefner was known for housing multiple young women in the home at the same time. In fact, there even was a reality show ‘Girls Next Door’ that documented the lives of the Playmates and their relationship with Hefner inside the mansion.

Hefner dated multiple women before falling in love with Crystal Harris, whom he married on Dec. 31, 2012 in a lavish ceremony at the Playboy Mansion. However what shocked everyone was the fact that there was a 60 years age difference between the two.

In 2016, Hugh finally stepped back from the day to day operations of his multi-million empire because of his ailing health and continued to lead a rather private life within the mansion despite the fact that it was sold in 2016 to Daren Metropoulos for $200 million.

Metropoulos lived next door to the Playboy mansion since 2009, and agreed to buy it with the condition that Hef could remain there till the time of his demise.

Hefner will now be laid to rest in the crypt next to Marilyn Monroe at the Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in California as per his wishes.

He is survived by his wife Crystal, four grown children, Christie, David, Marston and Cooper Hefner.

Although today, through its websites, it’s storied U.S. magazine and 20+ licensed international editions, Playboy reaches more people than ever before in its 64-year history but without Hugh, it’ll never be the same.