Playboy founder Hugh Hefner, who shook up American morality with an ideal of swinging singlehood, dies at 91

Hugh Hefner, the incurable playboy who built a publishing and entertainment empire on the idea that Americans should shed their puritanical hang-ups and enjoy sex, has died. He was 91.

He died of natural causes at his home, the Playboy Mansion, according to Teri Thomerson, a Playboy spokesperson.

Hefner was the founder of Playboy magazine, launched amid the conservatism of the 1950s, when marriage and domesticity conferred social status. Hefner pitched an alternative standard — swinging singlehood — which portrayed the desire for sex as being as normal as craving apple pie. He redefined status for a generation of men, replacing lawn mowers and fishing gear with new symbols: martini glasses, a cashmere sweater and a voluptuous girlfriend, the necessary components of a new lifestyle that melded sex and materialism.   More at link.
http://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-hugh-hefner-snap-story.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+latimes%2Fsports%2Fbasketball%2Fnba+%28L.A.+Times+-+Basketball%29&utm_content=Yahoo+Search+Results

It's amazing he lived so long; he always struck me as pretty sleazy, under all the 'glamour'.