Within a year, Mr. Lownes became Playboy’s marketing director, helping to guide its advertising toward an upscale, urbane image. “He wanted girls in shortie nightgowns.”Mr. Lownes’s vision prevailed, and a string of Playboy clubs began to pop up across the country. With the added attraction of a casino, the London Playboy Club flourished. The Playboy clubs and casinos closed, and Mr. Lownes and Hefner did not speak for years. As an adolescent, Mr. Lownes was on a hunting trip in the Florida Everglades when he accidentally shot and killed a friend.

Source: Washington Post January 14, 2017 22:51 UTC