Victor Lownes
Encyclopedia
Victor Aubrey Lownes III (born 17 April 1928, Buffalo, NY, 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 Club
s from the mid-sixties until his dismissal in the early eighties. During this time he was Britain's highest paid executive, drawing a salary of $113,800 and was Playboy Enterprises second biggest shareholder. He 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.”
. At the age of 12 his father gave him a cigar to smoke as aversion therapy
. The young Victor apparently asked for another. However at the same age 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 seemed to have everything a man could want – a beautiful, loving wife (Judith Downs), two fine children (Victor "Val" Aubrey Lownes IV and Meredith Lownes), a magnificent home, and a good job. However, following his father's death, after 7 years of marriage he had what in an older man would be called a mid-life crisis
. He realized he hated the smug respectability of the middle class American dream
. He felt trapped by marriage and green-lawn suburbia. He abandoned his family.
. Lownes moved to Chicago where he lived for several months entertaining scores of young women. At a party 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 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 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 29, 1960 and it was an immediate success. More clubs followed in cities over the USA.
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 guinea
s 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 realized 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 1, 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 1960s 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
and Sharon Tate
.
He later moved to 1 Connaught Street in 1967 which had previously been the London residence of Mary Augusta Ward
, a novelist of the late 19th and early 20th century. A massive Francis Bacon painting he acquired during this time was so hideous that it was exiled to hanging in the hall. A grandfather clock in the property was painted by Timothy Leary
.
In the 1970s, 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 Berkley 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. As well as being Victor Lownes residence the mansion was used as a training camp for Playboy bunnies
and was well known for hosting extravagant parties, including the infamous 1978 25-hour party (to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the founding of Playboy
magazine), when guests and Bunny Girls who were given green dots to wear, were allowed upstairs to Stocks' many bedrooms.
In 1973 the Manchester and Portsmouth Casino Clubs were opened. 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.
In 1975 Hefner's penchant for becoming involved in various ventures and then losing interest led to unprofitability in many areas of Playboy. Lownes was brought back to Chicago by Hefner personally as a hatchet man to trim the fat off the corporation. He was given virtually unlimited powers and on the job, Lownes was so dedicated to cutting expenses that he was known within the company as "Attila" or "Jaws".
, 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 provide $1,500,000 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".
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. 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.
, whose affections he and Hefner had both attempted to gain. Marilyn was the first full frontal Playboy Playmate of the Month, in January 1972, Playmate of the Year 1973 and she continued to pose for Playboy until 1984. Marilyn is now a journalist who has written for the London Observer
, Irish America, Esquire
magazine, and the British GQ.
Lownes reconciled with Polanski following his dismissal. 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 place.
Lownes is a now reclusive figure and little is known about his current activities. Cole and Lownes maintain homes in New York, London, and Fuengirola, Spain.
Playboy Enterprises
Playboy Enterprises, Inc. is a privately held global media and lifestyle company founded by Hugh Marston Hefner to manage the Playboy magazine empire. Its programming and content are available worldwide on television networks, Websites, mobile platforms and radio...
in various capacities, various vice-presidencies, always a close confidant of Hugh Hefner
Hugh Hefner
Hugh Marston "Hef" Hefner is an American magazine publisher, founder and Chief Creative Officer of Playboy Enterprises.-Early life:...
. Headed Playboy Europe and the UK Playboy Club
Playboy Club
The Playboy Club initially was a chain of nightclubs and resorts owned and operated by Playboy Enterprises. The first club opened at 116 E. Walton Street in downtown Chicago, Illinois, United States, on February 29, 1960. Each club generally featured a Living Room, a Playmate Bar, a Dining Room...
s from the mid-sixties until his dismissal in the early eighties. During this time he was Britain's highest paid executive, drawing a salary of $113,800 and was Playboy Enterprises second biggest shareholder. He 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.”
Early life
He was born to a wealthy family in Buffalo, NY but they later moved to FloridaFlorida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
. At the age of 12 his father gave him a cigar to smoke as aversion therapy
Aversion therapy
Aversion therapy is a form of psychological treatment in which the patient is exposed to a stimulus while simultaneously being subjected to some form of discomfort...
. The young Victor apparently asked for another. However at the same age he also accidentally shot and killed his best friend. This resulted in his forced enrollment at the New Mexico Military Institute
New Mexico Military Institute
New Mexico Military Institute is a state-supported educational institution. NMMI is located in Roswell, New Mexico, United States. It is sometimes referred to as the West Point of the West and it is the only state-supported military college located in the western United States. NMMI includes a...
in Roswell
Roswell, New Mexico
Roswell is a city in and the county seat of Chaves County in the southeastern quarter of the state of New Mexico, United States. The population was 48,366 at the 2010 census. It is a center for irrigation farming, dairying, ranching, manufacturing, distribution, and petroleum production. It is also...
, where he met Nicky Hilton
Conrad Hilton, Jr.
Conrad Nicholson "Nicky" Hilton, Jr. was an American socialite, hotel heir, businessman, and TWA director. He was one of the sons of Conrad Hilton .-Early life:...
. From there he went on to the University of Chicago
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...
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 seemed to have everything a man could want – a beautiful, loving wife (Judith Downs), two fine children (Victor "Val" Aubrey Lownes IV and Meredith Lownes), a magnificent home, and a good job. However, following his father's death, after 7 years of marriage he had what in an older man would be called a mid-life crisis
Quarter-life crisis
The quarterlife crisis is a period of life following the major changes of adolescence, usually ranging from the late teens to the early thirties, in which a person begins to feel doubtful about their own lives, brought on by the stress of becoming an adult...
. He realized he hated the smug respectability of the middle class American dream
American Dream
The American Dream is a national ethos of the United States in which freedom includes a promise of the possibility of prosperity and success. In the definition of the American Dream by James Truslow Adams in 1931, "life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each...
. He felt trapped by marriage and green-lawn suburbia. He abandoned his family.
A New Beginning
He was fired from his job as his newly single status made him eligible for the draftConscription in the United States
Conscription in the United States has been employed several times, usually during war but also during the nominal peace of the Cold War...
. Lownes moved to Chicago where he lived for several months entertaining scores of young women. At a party in 1954 Lownes met Hugh Hefner
Hugh Hefner
Hugh Marston "Hef" Hefner is an American magazine publisher, founder and Chief Creative Officer of Playboy Enterprises.-Early life:...
, a man whose almost identical interests had led him to recently create Playboy
Playboy
Playboy is an American men's magazine that features photographs of nude women as well as journalism and fiction. It was founded in Chicago in 1953 by Hugh Hefner and his associates, and funded in part by a $1,000 loan from Hefner's mother. The magazine has grown into Playboy Enterprises, Inc., with...
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 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 he changed his mind.
Under Lownes' management the first Playboy Club
Playboy Club
The Playboy Club initially was a chain of nightclubs and resorts owned and operated by Playboy Enterprises. The first club opened at 116 E. Walton Street in downtown Chicago, Illinois, United States, on February 29, 1960. Each club generally featured a Living Room, a Playmate Bar, a Dining Room...
opened in downtown Chicago on 116 E Walton Street. It was essentially a bar with entertainment featuring Playboy Bunnies
Playboy Bunny
A Playboy Bunny is a waitress at the Playboy Club. The Playboy Clubs were originally open from 1960 to 1988. The Club re-opened in one location in The Palms Hotel in Las Vegas in 2006...
serving drinks and performances by some big names in entertainment. The doors opened for the first time on the leap year night of February 29, 1960 and it was an immediate success. More clubs followed in cities over the USA.
Move to the UK
In 1963 Victor Lownes became restless and asked Hefner to be sent to LondonLondon
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
to open a British Playboy club. He placed an advertisement in The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
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
Harrods
Harrods is an upmarket department store located in Brompton Road in Brompton, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, London. The Harrods brand also applies to other enterprises undertaken by the Harrods group of companies including Harrods Bank, Harrods Estates, Harrods Aviation and Air...
which he rented for 75 guinea
Guinea (British coin)
The guinea is a coin that was minted in the Kingdom of England and later in the Kingdom of Great Britain and the United Kingdom between 1663 and 1813...
s 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 realized 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
Hyde Park, London
Hyde Park is one of the largest parks in central London, United Kingdom, and one of the Royal Parks of London, famous for its Speakers' Corner.The park is divided in two by the Serpentine...
, on July 1, 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 1960s A-List went, the same cast list that played the tables at the club including the Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
, George Best
George Best
George Best was a professional footballer from Northern Ireland, who played for Manchester United and the Northern Ireland national team. He was a winger whose game combined pace, acceleration, balance, two-footedness, goalscoring and the ability to beat defenders...
, Warren Beatty
Warren Beatty
Warren Beatty born March 30, 1937) is an American actor, producer, screenwriter and director. He has received a total of fourteen Academy Award nominations, winning one for Best Director in 1982. He has also won four Golden Globe Awards including the Cecil B. DeMille Award.-Early life and...
, Michael Caine
Michael Caine
Sir Michael Caine, CBE is an English actor. He won Academy Awards for best supporting actor in both Hannah and Her Sisters and The Cider House Rules ....
, Judy Garland
Judy Garland
Judy Garland was an American actress and singer. Through a career that spanned 45 of her 47 years and for her renowned contralto voice, she attained international stardom as an actress in musical and dramatic roles, as a recording artist and on the concert stage...
, Sean Connery
Sean Connery
Sir Thomas Sean Connery , better known as Sean Connery, is a Scottish actor and producer who has won an Academy Award, two BAFTA Awards and three Golden Globes Sir Thomas Sean Connery (born 25 August 1930), better known as Sean Connery, is a Scottish actor and producer who has won an Academy...
, Roman Polanski
Roman Polanski
Roman Polanski is a French-Polish film director, producer, writer and actor. Having made films in Poland, Britain, France and the USA, he is considered one of the few "truly international filmmakers."...
and Sharon Tate
Sharon Tate
Sharon Marie Tate was an American actress. During the 1960s she played small television roles before appearing in several films. After receiving positive reviews for her comedic performances, she was hailed as one of Hollywood's promising newcomers and was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for...
.
He later moved to 1 Connaught Street in 1967 which had previously been the London residence of Mary Augusta Ward
Mary Augusta Ward
Mary Augusta Ward née Arnold; , was a British novelist who wrote under her married name as Mrs Humphry Ward.- Early life:...
, a novelist of the late 19th and early 20th century. A massive Francis Bacon painting he acquired during this time was so hideous that it was exiled to hanging in the hall. A grandfather clock in the property was painted by Timothy Leary
Timothy Leary
Timothy Francis Leary was an American psychologist and writer, known for his advocacy of psychedelic drugs. During a time when drugs like LSD and psilocybin were legal, Leary conducted experiments at Harvard University under the Harvard Psilocybin Project, resulting in the Concord Prison...
.
Vision Vindicated, Value Verified
A large rural property a few miles from London was added to the organization in 1972. Stocks House
Stocks House
Stocks House is a large Georgian mansion, built in 1773, that is the largest property in the village of Aldbury, Hertfordshire. It was built by owners of Stocks Farm and used as their family home for many years...
, a 42 room Georgian Mansion located outside Aldbury
Aldbury
Aldbury is a village and civil parish in Hertfordshire, England, near the borders of Bedfordshire and Buckinghamshire, in a valley close to Ashridge Park. The nearest town is Tring; Tring railway station, 1 mile west, is in the parish of Aldbury...
in Hertfordshire
Hertfordshire
Hertfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England. The county town is Hertford.The county is one of the Home Counties and lies inland, bordered by Greater London , Buckinghamshire , Bedfordshire , Cambridgeshire and...
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. As well as being Victor Lownes residence the mansion was used as a training camp for Playboy bunnies
Playboy Bunny
A Playboy Bunny is a waitress at the Playboy Club. The Playboy Clubs were originally open from 1960 to 1988. The Club re-opened in one location in The Palms Hotel in Las Vegas in 2006...
and was well known for hosting extravagant parties, including the infamous 1978 25-hour party (to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the founding of Playboy
Playboy
Playboy is an American men's magazine that features photographs of nude women as well as journalism and fiction. It was founded in Chicago in 1953 by Hugh Hefner and his associates, and funded in part by a $1,000 loan from Hefner's mother. The magazine has grown into Playboy Enterprises, Inc., with...
magazine), when guests and Bunny Girls who were given green dots to wear, were allowed upstairs to Stocks' many bedrooms.
In 1973 the Manchester and Portsmouth Casino Clubs were opened. 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.
In 1975 Hefner's penchant for becoming involved in various ventures and then losing interest led to unprofitability in many areas of Playboy. Lownes was brought back to Chicago by Hefner personally as a hatchet man to trim the fat off the corporation. He was given virtually unlimited powers and on the job, Lownes was so dedicated to cutting expenses that he was known within the company as "Attila" or "Jaws".
Film production
Lownes was the executive producer for And Now For Something Completely DifferentAnd Now For Something Completely Different
And Now for Something Completely Different is a film spin-off from the television comedy series Monty Python's Flying Circus featuring favorite sketches from the first two seasons. The title was used as a catchphrase in the television show....
, the first Monty Python
Monty Python
Monty Python was a British surreal comedy group who created their influential Monty Python's Flying Circus, a British television comedy sketch show that first aired on the BBC on 5 October 1969. Forty-five episodes were made over four series...
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
Terry Gilliam
Terrence Vance "Terry" Gilliam is an American-born British screenwriter, film director, animator, actor and member of the Monty Python comedy troupe. Gilliam is also known for directing several films, including Brazil , The Adventures of Baron Munchausen , The Fisher King , and 12 Monkeys...
, Victor Lownes insisted on getting an animated executive producer
Executive producer
An executive producer is a producer who is not involved in any technical aspects of the film making or music process, but who is still responsible for the overall production...
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
Roman Polanski
Roman Polanski is a French-Polish film director, producer, writer and actor. Having made films in Poland, Britain, France and the USA, he is considered one of the few "truly international filmmakers."...
when his wife Sharon Tate
Sharon Tate
Sharon Marie Tate was an American actress. During the 1960s she played small television roles before appearing in several films. After receiving positive reviews for her comedic performances, she was hailed as one of Hollywood's promising newcomers and was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for...
was murdered by the Manson Family
Charles Manson
Charles Milles Manson is an American criminal who led what became known as the Manson Family, a quasi-commune that arose in California in the late 1960s. He was found guilty of conspiracy to commit the Tate/LaBianca murders carried out by members of the group at his instruction...
in August 1969. Later Lownes persuaded Hefner to provide $1,500,000 to finance Polanski's first film since the murder through Playboy when no other movie studio would touch it. Macbeth
Macbeth (1971 film)
Macbeth is a 1971 British-American drama film directed by Roman Polanski, based on William Shakespeare's The Tragedy of Macbeth, about the Highland lord who becomes King of Scotland through treachery and murder. It features Jon Finch as Macbeth and Francesca Annis as Lady 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".
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. 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.
After Playboy
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 ColeMarilyn Cole
Marilyn Cole was Playboy magazine's January 1972 Playmate of the Month. She was the magazines's first full-frontal nude centerfold, although her pubic hair was partly covered by the shadow cast from the book in her hand, so the first clearly full-frontally nude Playmate of the Month was Bonnie...
, whose affections he and Hefner had both attempted to gain. Marilyn was the first full frontal Playboy Playmate of the Month, in January 1972, Playmate of the Year 1973 and she continued to pose for Playboy until 1984. Marilyn is now a journalist who has written for the London Observer
The Observer
The Observer is a British newspaper, published on Sundays. In the same place on the political spectrum as its daily sister paper The Guardian, which acquired it in 1993, it takes a liberal or social democratic line on most issues. It is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper.-Origins:The first issue,...
, Irish America, Esquire
Esquire (magazine)
Esquire is a men's magazine, published in the U.S. by the Hearst Corporation. Founded in 1932, it flourished during the Great Depression under the guidance of founder and editor Arnold Gingrich.-History:...
magazine, and the British GQ.
Lownes reconciled with Polanski following his dismissal. During the Roman Polanski libel case against Vanity Fair
Vanity Fair (magazine)
Vanity Fair is a magazine of pop culture, fashion, and current affairs published by Condé Nast. The present Vanity Fair has been published since 1983 and there have been editions for four European countries as well as the U.S. edition. This revived the title which had ceased publication in 1935...
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 place.
Lownes is a now reclusive figure and little is known about his current activities. Cole and Lownes maintain homes in New York, London, and Fuengirola, Spain.
Quotes
"We take English for granted but if we explore its paradoxes, we find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square, and a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig. There is no egg in eggplant, no ham in hamburger, no apple nor pine in pineapple. English muffins weren’t invented in England or French fries in France. Sweetmeats are candies while sweetbreads which aren’t sweet, are meat.”