Hugh Hefner biographer puts (photos of) Playmates in the library

Here’s something most people wouldn’t expect to see at the Kansas City Public Library: Playboy Playmates projected on a big screen. But that was part of last night’s presentation at the downtown library by Hugh Hefner biographer Steven Watts. The author, a history professor at the University of Missouri, spent five years researching, interviewing and observing the controversial publisher for the book Mr. Playboy: Hugh Hefner and the American Dream.

Published in 2008 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., the 529-page volume provides a definitive look at Hefner’s personal history and his impact on American culture. With a subject as flamboyant as Hefner, it would be easy for a writer to get lost in the scandal and glamor. But Watts achieves a thoughtful, academic yet decidedly un-stuffy analysis of Hefner’s complex influence on modern American values.