The Playboy Mansion
From Freepedia
Playboy Mansion West, commonly known as The Playboy Mansion, is located in Holmby Hills, Los Angeles, California (10236 Charing Cross Road) residence of Playboy magazine publisher Hugh Hefner, and is arguably one of the most famous residences in California. The house was built in 1927 and was acquired by Playboy in 1971. It became famous during the 1970s because of Hefner's lavish parties. Even when not hosting parties, Hefner's home is usually filled with friends, Playmates, and celebrities enjoying the mansion's amenities.
Some of the mansions amenities include 22 bedrooms, a large swimming pool with a water fountain and an artificial grotto. The grounds also contain a zoo and aviary. These features and many others have often been showcased on television.
The original Playboy Mansion was a 70-room residence in Chicago, Illinois at 1340 North State Parkway. It was built in 1899 and acquired by Hefner in 1959. For a period in the 1970s, Hefner divided his time between the Chicago mansion and the Mansion West, moving fulltime to the California mansion in 1974. The Chicago mansion boasted a brass plate on the door reading Si Non Oscillas, Noli Tintinnare ("If you don't swing, don't ring").
During the early 2000s, ESPN began broadcasting live boxing bouts from the house's large backyard. Vassiliy Jirov is one of the notables to have fought there. Sugar Ray Leonard, in his capacity as boxing promoter, has held boxing cards there.
In addition to numerous Playboy features and pictorials, the Playboy Mansion has been the subject of a coffee table book (Inside the Playboy Mansion, 1998, ISBN 157544044X), a video game (Playboy: The Mansion, in which the player must build the Playboy "empire"), and inspired the U2 song "The Playboy Mansion" on their 1997 album Pop.
Weezer shot the music video for the single "Beverly Hills" from their 2005 album Make Believe at the Mansion.
In 2005 life at the Mansion—specifically the world of Hef's girlfriends Holly Madison, Bridget Marquardt, and Kendra Wilkinson—was featured on the E! reality television series The Girls Next Door.
Financial
According to Playboy Enterprises' SEC filings, Hefner pays Playboy rent for "that portion of the Playboy Mansion used exclusively for his and his personal guests' residence as well as the per-unit value of non-business meals, beverages and other benefits received by him and his personal guests." This amount was $1.3 million in 2002, $1.4 million in 2003, and $1.3 million in 2004.
Playboy pays for the Mansion's operating expenses (including depreciation and taxes), which were $3.6 million in 2002, $2.3 million in 2003, and $3.0 million in 2004, net of rent received from Hefner. [1]
External link
World of Playboy - Inside the Mansion
