Hugh Hefner Gets His Way

After heated debate, the Chicago City Council Tuesday approved naming a street after Hugh Hefner, who started his Playboy empire there in the 1950s.

On Monday, the committee had voted down the proposed "Hugh M. Hefner Way", after listening to arguments that Hefner's work is degrading to women.

But the street got the OK after Hefner's daughter took center stage a day later and called her father's story one of "quintessential American success."

"I understand that my father and Playboy provoke debate and discussion about deeply felt issues of personal freedom, about sexuality and about morality," said Playboy chairman and CEO Christie Hefner, who requested the street naming.

But she said her father's work was also a celebration of things "that are beautiful and sexy."

Christie Hefner listed for the council a laundry list of donations her father has made to local organizations, including the Women's Rights Project of the American Civil Liberties Union and the Chicago Urban League.

The sign, which was put up Tuesday on a corner of the city's Magnificent Mile, needs approval by the full council to be permanent. That vote is expected Wednesday.

And while in Chicago to sign a Playboy issue featuring his twin girlfriends, Hefner took the debate in stride.

"Hey, they made it very exciting," he said. "It shows the prejudice in this society that still exists. But it's what has made me a very successful and very wealthy man."

Hefner started Playboy in Chicago in the 1950s. The company has grown beyond the magazine, moving into cyberspace and pay-television, but remains headquartered in the Windy City.