Hefner's Grandchild

Playboy, like the studs it celebrates, seems ever in its prime. Hugh Hefner's middlebrow melange of sex, pop sociology and fiction now sells nearly 7,000,000 copies a month, and sets new records for advertising revenue with almost every issue. This summer it spawned a German-language edition that is selling well. And yet...

There seems to be an impression abroad that the magazine, like a jaded gigolo, has run out of new techniques that titillate. Even Richard Koff, assistant publisher of Playboy Enterprises, Inc., allows that "while Playboy still remains remarkably youthful, it has become sort of an institution." A new generation of readers has come along to whom Playboy seems neither revolutionary nor even risque. Penthouse, begun in Britain, is an earthy and unabashed imitator with a European accent that has more than doubled its U.S. circulation to 2,000,000 in the past year. Penthouse Pets obviously glory in showing off their buxom bodies, moles and all, while Playboy's Playmates seem unreal, plasticized and antiseptic. Penthouse is pitched more heavily to the young, while one-third of Playboy's readership is now over 35.

How to keep the kids? Hefner thinks that he knows. Enter, early in September, the first issue of his now, new monthly Oui. "We have a Playboy philosophy," Hefner told TIME Correspondent Burton Pines, "but I don't expect that there will be a Oui philosophy. Oui will concentrate on the joy of living, while Playboy concentrates a tremendous amount of space on social problems . . . Playboy is still me, but Oui not so much. In a way Playboy was my son, but Oui is a grandchild."

The distinction in gender between "son" and "grandchild" is not accidental. While Playboy is male-oriented, Oui is supposed to speak to both sexes. European stringers and photographers are contributing news and nudes from the Continent. As one of two co-editors, Hefner hired Jean-Louis Ginibre, 38, from Lui, France's own answer to Playboy. The other co-editor is Jon Carroll, 28, a long-haired, full-bearded alumnus of Rolling Stone and former editor of the now defunct counterculture magazine Rags. "We will not be as polished as Playboy," Carroll promised. "Certainly there will be male nudity. We will want to turn on women as well as men. One of our central goals is to help facilitate communication between the sexes.

We will have more units of eroticism than Playboy does --more pubic hair, or whatever the measure of eroticism is.

We will see if we can make a magazine erotic without being exploitive."

Oui's first issue does not succeed on that score. The centerfold is nonsexist in showing a man and woman in bed, but it is actually a copout; while she is fully exposed in strong light, he is in shadows and coyly covered with a sheet.

Oui's first effort is obviously for the boys. The graphics are good and reminiscent of Playboy, the nudes largely European and evocative of Penthouse. There are features on French wines and women, fashions in leather and rough-country motorbiking. The oddest item is a gross featurette that shows animals copulating. Overall, the first issue seems a bit sophomoric in its straining for sensuality.

Unlike Playboy, Oui will concentrate on young writers rather than big names. While Oui goes its less than weighty way, Playboy is undergoing some subtle changes, becoming both sexier and more serious. Its new executive editor, up from the ranks, is Arthur Kretchmer, 31. Though only three years older than Carroll, Kretchmer seems of another generation--lithe, clean-shaven and as elegantly tailored as the men in the Playboy clothing ads. "The magazine has grown up," said he. "We have a serious concern for the way the country is going, and a concern that we also entertain ourselves." Thus Playboy's August issue contains an uninhibited color act on the joys of sexual intercourse, and September's features a long section on the drug problem.

Hugh Hefner, now 46 and the boss of a pleasure-products empire that has made him a millionaire 120 times over, sees both Oui and the changes in Playboy as logical evolution: "Some of Playboy's strengths are also its weaknesses. Almost 20 years have gone by since we started Playboy. In that time, society has drastically changed--and continues to change. Playboy reflected something of that society and its stereotype of the male-female relationship. Oui won't be locked into those previous stereotypes."

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