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Who Knew? The ‘Playboy Penthouse’ Show

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Eyes Of A Generation.com

Picture Parade #5…Who Knew? The ‘Playboy Penthouse’ Show

This show, shot at WBKB in Chicago, was a syndicated production that aired late nights in some major markets for a little over a year. Below is a clip from the debut episode, October 24, 1959 with Hugh Hefner as host…his first guest was the great Lenny Bruce.

Did you know about this? I didn’t until I found this picture a few days ago. Of course I was only nine years old then, but I had seen a Playboy magazine and liked what I saw. The first centerfold picture I ever saw was a bunny naked in the snow. I remember wondering why she didn’t have goosebumps. Kids! Got a Playboy story? Tell us. Enjoy and share! -Bobby Ellerbee

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20 responses to “Who Knew? The ‘Playboy Penthouse’ Show”

  1. Tina Turner Sizzles For Playboy And The Rolling Stones in 1969 – Flashbak

    […] at CBS Television City in Los Angeles and followed much the same style as Hefner’s earlier show, Playboy’s Penthouse. The concept was that you’d been invited to a party at Hefner’s place, to get dizzy in the […]

  2. David Ruston

    In storage (once again) I have two dvd’s of the Playboy show. Hugh Hefner was very uncomfortable as a host but he did have some great bands on it. Steppenwolf comes to mind and, I think, Vanilla Fudge.

  3. Steve Dichter

    Steve Dichter We taped season one of “Playboy After Dark” at KTLA in the late 60’s. The 2 story set was supposed to be Hefner’s penthouse. One of our first uses of a handheld camera. Barbie Benton was his, then, current companion.

  4. Tony Papaleo

    Dig it! http://youtu.be/gxh02n0NNJg

  5. Jeff Rooney

    I remember my parents watching “Penthouse” on KTLA 5 in Los Angeles in the early ’60s ( at night, of course ). This show along with “Divorce Court” and Mike Wallace’s interview show from New York were the first syndicated shows on tape that I can remember ( Wallace’s show was syndicated by NTA ).

  6. Jackie Rawlings

    seems Iike many Iadies remember the Iife sex as the Hefner pIace as they give their interviews about Cosby and that free Iove and drugs. Yes I saw the news back when PIayboy Mansion was the pIace where the famous, powerfuI and ya those Iadies who wanted to be known went. Just think if the reaI stories of Hefner were written many women wouId ask him not to print their names.

  7. Al Pacer

    I bet you STILL have that magazine!

  8. Clark Humphrey

    Was Playboy’s Penthouse one of the first syndicated shows on videotape?

  9. Joel O’Brien

    It was cold here today. “How cold was it?” It was SO cold…I saw a copy of ‘Playboy’ shivering.

  10. Peter TenHaagen

    The turret lens … had to be on your toes with that piece of equipment. I got nailed on air changing lenses a few times, and the production people decided it could be a useful effect! Twilight Zone perhaps?

  11. Jim Stewart

    I was 16 in 59 watched it. I knew what a Playboy magazine was because my dad had a collection. When I was 34 I had the good fortune to be taken to the London Playboy Bunny Club by a British celeb.

  12. Val Ginter

    I watched it all the time; however, when Tower Records went out of business, they had a big sale, and one of the things I bought was the Playboy tv show package of DVD’s. Some of them were from WBKB, and then they moved the show to the West Coast. Some great stuff from Lenny Bruce and Nat King Cole, to Bill Cosby and the Ike and Tina Turner Review. Interesting to compare the production work between the WBKB and the Hollywood programs.

  13. Richard Warner

    It ran Saturday nights on WATL 36 Atlanta. Made me feel so grown up watching it.

  14. Mike Medrano

    Lenny appears to be a bit “plastered”.

  15. Dave Dillman

    It was directed by a WBKB staff director, who’s name escapes me. He came over to 32 to shoot a furrier commercial. It featured “vaseline” shots and Dick Miller, the 32 production director, who had come from Ch7 was very specific about our not preparing the glass until the director got there. It wasn’t Richie Victor, one of the other staff directors at ABC.

  16. David Crosthwait

    We transferred about a half-a-dozen of these about 4 years ago from 2″ quad videotape. They all had bad edits (splices) but we got around that. The Lenny Bruce episode was the first we did IIRC. Fairly rare tapes.

  17. Jay Phelps

    I’ve seen a couple of them and they still “play” really well. I think it could be a great format (a cocktail party with the host wandering from guest to guest) with the right host.

  18. Gary Walters

    Back in the days when syndicated programs were ‘bicycled’ from market to market, Playboy After Dark was one of them. It was such a delay then. One episode played in late December 1969, showed Hefner interviewing a young, promising movie star on the sofa. Sharon Tate. I recognized her face immediately, as she was murdered the previous August by the gang led by Charles Manson.

  19. Tori Lexi Kensington

    Didn’t recognize Hef at first….. The Tux, you know……

  20. John Coleman

    Playboy released that first show a few years ago as part of a dvd box set called “Playboy After Dark.” Nat Cole, Ella Fitzgerald, and Cy Coleman were also guest on that first show. It’s fantastic and still looks great in its b&w videotape. The set also has an episode from that season with Sammy Davis Jr. that will knock your socks off. There’s also episodes from Hef’s later 1969 show that are great too.

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