HUGH HEFNER - HEFNER: 'I USED PLAYBOY TO PRESS FOR SOCIAL CHANGE'

HUGH HEFNER is urging Playboy readers to look beyond the magazine's overt sexuality and see the good it has done society. The publishing magnate boasts helping the civil rights movement by inviting the late James Brown to appear on Playboy After Dark at a time when black performers were seldom shown on U.S. television. And he's adamant sex and social change can often go hand in hand. He says, "I don't want anyone to hail me the hero of my generation, but I did use Playboy as an instrument of change. "People forget that. Sex can kinda close people's eyes to other issues sometimes."