Victor Lownes
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Victor Aubrey Lownes III (born 1928, Florida, USA). An executive with Playboy Enterprises in various capacities, various vice-presidencies, always a close confidant of Hugh Hefner. Headed Playboy Europe and the UK Playboy Clubs from the mid-sixties until his dismissal in the early eighties. During this time he was Britain's highest paid executive and was constantly in the gossip magazines and tabloid newspapers for his antics. Where Hefner always seemed in the grip of his obsession. Lownes, in contrast, was an immensely attractive and shrewd philanderer. It was said that he used to have five girls a day, sometimes two at a time. He remarked “What is a playboy? It is usually someone who is getting more sex than you are.” [1]
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[edit] Early life
He was born to a wealthy family and had an unremarkable childhood until the age of 12. His father, suffering from tuberculosis gave him a cigar to smoke as aversion therapy. The young Victor loved it and asked for another. However he also accidentally shot and killed his best friend. This resulted in his forced enrollment at the New Mexico Military Institute in Roswell, where he met Nicky Hilton. From there he went on to the University of Chicago where he obtained an MBA and met his first wife. He was married at 18 in 1946 and had two children. After several mundane jobs he found employment at an industrial time lock firm. “I was promoted to manager within a few months,” he would later write, “due solely to hard work, conscientiousness and the fact that my grandfather owned the company.” He had everything a man could want – a beautiful, loving wife, two fine children, a magnificent home, and a good job. However after 7 years of marriage he had what in an older man would be called a mid-life crisis. He realised he hated the smug respectability of the middle class American dream. He felt trapped by marriage and green-lawn suburbia. He abandoned his family.
[edit] A New Beginning
He was fired from his job as his newly single status made him eligible for the draft. Lownes moved to Chicago where he lived for several months entertaining scores of young women. In 1954 Lownes met Hugh Hefner, a man whose almost identical interests had led him to recently create Playboy magazine. Lownes was asked to write a couple of articles and in November 1955 he was offered a full time job with the company.
As Promotions Director Lownes set about drumming up advertising for the pariah publication, most conservative companies wanting nothing to do with the magazine. He was quite successful in changing minds. Advertising for a club called Gaslight in Chicago, Lownes saw an opportunity to diversify the Playboy brand and suggested to Hefner that Playboy should open a club of its own. Hefner immediately saw the commercial and promotional benefits. Plans for a Playboy Club were begun in 1959. Victor Lownes' then girlfriend, Ilse Taurins, suggested to Hefner the idea of dressing the hostesses in the image of the tuxedoed Playboy Bunny character. Hefner took some persuading as he had always viewed the rabbit as a male character but once he saw a prototype of the outfit (made by Taurins' mother) he changed his mind.
Under Lownes' management the first Playboy Club opened in downtown Chicago on 116 E Walton Street. It was essentially a bar with entertainment featuring Playboy Bunnies serving drinks and performances by some big names in entertainment. The doors opened for the first time on the leap year night of February 29th 1960 and it was an immediate success. More clubs followed in cities over the USA.
[edit] Move to the UK
In 1963 Victor Lownes became restless and asked Hefner to be sent to London to open a British Playboy club. He placed an advertisement in The Times' personal columns that read: "American millionaire seeks a flat in the most fashionable part of London. Rents up to £100 a week." He found a house at 3 Montpellier Square, opposite Harrods which he rented for 75 guineas a week. He spent months in London working out how and where to open a club.
Gambling had recently been legalised in the UK and Lownes realised there was an opportunity to add the attraction of a casino to the nightclub. A Playboy Club was opened in the heart of the capital, at 45 Park Lane overlooking Hyde Park, on July 1st 1966 and was an immediate success. It was nicknamed the 'Hutch on the Park.'
'UK One', as Lownes became known, slid easily into the feverish atmosphere of 'Swinging London'. Regular parties were thrown at his house and the 1960's A-List went, the same cast list that played the tables at the club including the Beatles, George Best, Warren Beatty, Michael Caine, Judy Garland, Sean Connery, Roman Polanski, Sharon Tate.
He later moved to 1 Cannaught Street in 1967 which had previously been the London residence of Mary Augusta Ward, a novelist of the late 19th and early 20th century.
[edit] Vision Vindicated, Value Verified
In the 1970’s Playboy Magazine encountered competition and profits dropped, at the same time gaming profits from the London casino kept rising, making future expansion into gaming very attractive. In the spring of 1972 the Clermont Club in Berkely Square, famous for its high rollers and celebrity clientele, was purchased.
A large rural property a few miles from London was added to the organization in 1972. Stocks House, a 42 room Georgian Mansion located outside Aldbury in Hertfordshire which, coincidentally, had previously been the country home of Mary Augusta Ward. At the time of Lownes' purchase it had been in use as a Catholic girls' school since 1944. It was used for training new bunny croupiers as well as Victor Lownes residence and venue for outrageous parties.
1973 saw the addition of the Manchester and Portsmouth Casino Clubs. With the gaming license approval for the Victoria Sporting Club in February 1981, Playboy Enterprises became the largest, and, table for table, one of the most profitable gaming operators in the UK. They had three London casinos, two provincial casinos, interests in two others, 72 off track betting parlors, and six bingo parlors. In these casinos they attracted some of the highest of the high rollers and societies’ upper crust.
[edit] Film Production
Lownes was the executive producer for And Now For Something Completely Different, the first Monty Python film. He was a fan and proposed the idea of a film specifically designed to introduce the British comedy troupe to a US audience. He was very egotistical. According to Terry Gilliam, Victor Lownes insisted on getting an animated executive producer credit equal in size to those of the group members. Gilliam refused and so Lownes had the credit made elsewhere at his own cost. Gilliam then created a different style of credit for the Pythons so Lownes' credit is the only one that appears in this way.
Lownes was out partying with Roman Polanski when his wife Sharon Tate was murdered by the Manson Family in August 1969. Later Lownes persuaded Hefner to finance Polanski's first film since the murder through Playboy when no other movie studio would touch it. Macbeth was influenced heavily by his experiences. Polanski proceeded to go $600,000 over budget and then mock Playboy's generosity. Lownes' friendship with Polanski was at an end. Angrily, he returned a cherished gift to Polanski, the life-sized gold penis Polanski had modeled for during happier days. Lownes wrote that "I'm sure you'll have no difficulty finding some friend you can shove it up".
[edit] Downfall
By 1981, Lownes was senior VP in charge of the casinos worldwide, the moneymaking part of the whole Playboy empire. He was leading the effort to open up Atlantic City, New Jersey, U.S.A. for gambling from his London base. Work was started on the future Atlantic City Casino building.
However the British had always been uneasy with a foreign controlled casino operating in London. Lownes was (falsely) accused of irregularities by the British gaming authorities. Hefner panicked and before Lownes even appeared before the authorities he was fired in an obvious attempt to save the New Jersey deal. Lownes may have been able to sort out all the problems had he been given the chance. Without him, the British gaming licence was revoked and Playboy lost their most valuable assets. Playboy's temporary gaming licence in Atlantic City was not renewed.
Playboy, which made $31 million in the year ending June 30 1981 lost more than $51 million in the year ending June 30, 1982. Playboy barely survived.
Lownes himself suffered little more than wounded pride. He had accumulated a fortune during his years as Britain's best paid executive and he still had his wife, Marilyn Cole, a former Playmate, whose affections he and Hefner had both attempted to gain. He also reconciled with Polanski following his dismissal.
Lownes is a reclusive figure these days and little is known about his current activities. During the Roman Polanski libel case against Vanity Fair' in July 2005, Victor Lownes was ill and could not attend the trial in support of his old chum, and so his wife came in his stead [2].
[edit] References
- Lownes, Victor (autobigraphy). Playboy Extraordinary (London : Granada, 1982)
- Miller, Russell. Bunny: The Real Story of Playboy (London : Corgi, 1985. ISBN 0-03-063748-1)
