Althouse: "There were only 12 playboys - not more

May 9, 2011

"There were only 12 playboys - not more - in the world."

"They were charming and spoke languages and behaved well with women. I think that today most of the fun has gone. To go with a girl to Tahiti was incredible. Now everybody goes to Tahiti. This generation can do anything, but it's less fun."

53 comments:

Trooper York said...: Hey I have more than 12 Playboys in my bottom desk drawer. And a couple of Penthouses, Jugs and Hustlers.....oh....wait a minute...nevermind.; 5/9/11, 6:29 PM
Trooper York said...: They have great articles. Just sayn'; 5/9/11, 6:29 PM
edutcher said...: Now anybody can do that stuff.

Well, the travel part.

This is what VDH means when he says poverty ain't what it used to be.; 5/9/11, 6:32 PM
Mark O said...: How well I remember those days on the estancia near BA with her. Yes, twelve, like apostles. That's what it was.; 5/9/11, 6:34 PM
Smilin' Jack said...: To go with a girl to Tahiti was incredible.

Why would you go with a girl to Tahiti? That's like carrying coals to Newcastle, to use an obsolete idiom.; 5/9/11, 6:54 PM
test said...: So he believed part of the "fun" was knowing you were one of the select few. It's a small mind that derives such pleasure.

But the more interesting point is that the reporter believes this quote helps glamorize him. You have to love "journalists".; 5/9/11, 6:56 PM
ricpic said...: Gee, and I thought Gstaad was the great good place that could save you from everything. Guess not.; 5/9/11, 7:02 PM
Fred4Pres said...: I am sure the depressing over the lack of adequate health care caused him to end it all.

Oh wait...nevermind.; 5/9/11, 7:09 PM
David said...: "I thought Gstaad was the great good place that could save you from everything."

If you are rich enough.

In Gstaad he was middle class.; 5/9/11, 7:16 PM
MamaM said...: Bottom line: The legacy of suicide he received from his father has been passed on to his three sons.; 5/9/11, 7:28 PM
Carol_Herman said...: Well, they didn't have more virgins, then. Just, perhaps, better liars. And, "homes" for unwed mothers. Where adoptions were done by lawyers earning big bucks.; 5/9/11, 7:28 PM
ErnieG said...: I remember a poem from my high school days:

Richard Corey

WHENEVER Richard Cory went down town,
We people on the pavement looked at him:
He was a gentleman from sole to crown,
Clean favored, and imperially slim.

And he was always quietly arrayed,
And he was always human when he talked;
But still he fluttered pulses when he said,
"Good-morning," and he glittered when he walked.
And he was rich—yes, richer than a king,
And admirably schooled in every grace:
In fine, we thought that he was everything
To make us wish that we were in his place.

So on we worked, and waited for the light,
And went without the meat, and cursed the bread;
And Richard Cory, one calm summer night,
Went home and put a bullet through his head.; 5/9/11, 7:57 PM
Anonymous said...: It is not enough to travel. Others must stay home.; 5/9/11, 8:20 PM
Methadras said...: Trooper York said...

They have great articles. Just sayn'

I was 11 when I saw my first playboy. It was weird. I always thought, "why are these women posing naked like that." It seemed odd at the time. Then I started reading the articles and a lot of them were fascinating. I actually learned a ton of stuff from reading playboy articles. Then one day I got caught with it. My dad caught me. He said, "What are you doing with that son?" and I said, "I'm reading it." He looked at me funny and then laughed, "Don't let your mother hear you say that. I tried it once and it didn't work."; 5/9/11, 8:23 PM
rcocean said...: To quote Yogi:

No one goes there anymore, its too crowded.; 5/9/11, 8:34 PM
Anonymous said...: Today there are only 12 full-flavor women in the world :(((

Peter; 5/9/11, 8:52 PM
Freeman Hunt said...: When I was in college, guys thought it was cool to say that they wanted to take you to Aspen. I assume this is because they could drive a girl to Aspen in a car which would be much more affordable than taking a plane to Tahiti.

And no, to this day, I have not been to Aspen.; 5/9/11, 8:53 PM
Peter V. Bella said...: Even wealthy guys have wistful memories of much simpler times.; 5/9/11, 8:57 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: Millionaire playboy Gunter Sachs, the German-born former husband of Brigitte Bardot, has killed himself at the age of 78.

In a note distributed to Swiss and German media by his family, Sachs said he had been suffering from a 'hopeless illness' and that he felt he was losing his memory, ability to think and communicate clearly.
'That menace was for me always the lone criteria for putting an end to my life,'

Lets hope Hitchens doesn't get any ideas.

"Deprivation of the ability to speak is more like an attack of impotence, or the amputation of part of the personality."

Christopher Hitchens.; 5/9/11, 9:08 PM
A. Shmendrik said...: Bardot had it goin' on, back in the day.; 5/9/11, 9:11 PM
RuyDiaz said...: Gunter Sachs was the great-grandson of Adam Opel, the founder of the Opel car company and was born into the wealthy industrialist family in 1932.

Adam Opel was a hero to the Allied cause. The Opel trucks sucked.; 5/9/11, 9:13 PM
YoungHegelian said...: I really like how the article glosses over where this pompous clown got his money from.

I mean making money off the 3rd Reich, slave labor, all that trivial nonsense just doesn't stack up when you travel on your own jet, speak several languages, and fuck several really glam chicks.

It was just the best of times. Really, it was.; 5/9/11, 9:14 PM
RuyDiaz said...: And no, to this day, I have not been to Aspen.

Freeman, I'm not surprised. And I say that with the utmost respect.; 5/9/11, 9:14 PM
RuyDiaz said...: @YoungHegelian;

Don't forget the Astrology research. Teh heh.; 5/9/11, 9:17 PM
YoungHegelian said...: @Ruy

"Don't forget the Astrology research. Teh heh."

That's not my department to bitch about. We've got Crack for that.

Division of labor, and all that.; 5/9/11, 9:20 PM
edutcher said...: ironrailsironweights said...

Today there are only 12 full-flavor women in the world :(((

Peter

13

At least.; 5/9/11, 9:22 PM
traditionalguy said...: Funny thing is that most of the teenagers that I knew in college were convinced that they could be superior playboys so long as they were not forced to actually work. Maybe this guy had to work and life was not worth it to him anymore.; 5/9/11, 9:26 PM
RuyDiaz said...: Oh, I'm not bitching about anything. (Though, I must say, Crack does a sublime job on that.)

Thing is.... We are supposed to be in awe of this man? Really? Seeing his whole life story it seems exactly the kind of life I wouldn't want to live.; 5/9/11, 9:27 PM
Mark O said...: Ah, Freeman, Freeman, Freeman. Have you been to BA?; 5/9/11, 9:53 PM
William said...: The down side of going on a Tahitian honeymoon with Brigette Bardot is that you will never top that experience. Afterwards, it's all just anticlimax. Makes a nice story to tell the kids though.; 5/9/11, 10:17 PM
rcocean said...: "Thing is.... We are supposed to be in awe of this man? Really? Seeing his whole life story it seems exactly the kind of life I wouldn't want to live."

Sour grapes much?; 5/9/11, 10:27 PM
RuyDiaz said...: Sour grapes much?

Did what I said sound that incredible to you?

Meh. "Sour grapes" is the kind of insinuation for which there is no defense. It is like the psychopath who doesn't believe other people 'really' feel empathy. Enjoy your opinion.; 5/9/11, 10:56 PM
John said...: Maybe it is because I am not of a certain age. But I have never found Bardot attractive. She just has bad features. She a decent body but nothing like Barbara Eaden or Sofia Loren had. She isn't even in Jane Fonda's (circa Barbarella) league let alone someone like Anita Eckberg or Loren. I just don't get why she was such a big deal. Catherine Deneuve? For sure. But Bardot I just don't get.; 5/9/11, 11:23 PM
John said...: I am sure this guy enjoyed parts of his life. But here is the problem with the material pleasures in life, you pleasure from them varies with your expectations. It would be fabulous to be married to a beautiful hollywood starlett. But give it a few months and the novelty of banging her will wear off and she will be your wife just like any other wife. I would love to own an Astin Martin DB9, but after a year or two, it would just be the car I drove. The real pleasure of luxury comes because it is an improvement over what you had. Go a few weeks without a bed and a shower sometime and a shower, clean clothes, and a comfortable bed are more pleasurable than you can imagine. Live in a five star hotel for a few months and you will get tired of it.

In the end, none of this guy's material pleasures necessarily bought him any more happiness than what anyone else's pleasures bought them. Sure, he had more, but he was used to it and his expectations were higher. He was, like we all are, left alone with himself and the people he loved and loved him. Those are the only things that you actually get long lasting pleasure from.; 5/9/11, 11:28 PM
William said...: Yesterday in The Mail there was a lengthy article about Vanessa Redgrave. She had a troubled childhood relationship with her father. This relationship was further complicated when, as an adult, she found him in bed with her father.....Bin Laden was the middle child (out of dozens) of an unimportant middle wife. I read that as a teenager he would go to sleep hugging his mother's feet......According to an article in last week's New Yorker, Jane Fonda was also the child of a troubled marriage. Her father was aloof and disapproving. Her mother was depressive and eventually commited suicide. Her father neglected to inform Jane of this fact. She read about it in a fan magazine...I mention these three figures because, in a simplistic Freudian way, I would say that a lot of the rage that they expressed against America was misplaced anger against their father and their own fucked up childhoods......I salute men like the Opel heir and Charley Sheen who, unable to figure out the riddle of their own existence, turn to sex rather than politics to exorcise the demons. If he had done a stint with Che in Bolivia, the obits would doubtless have been more approving. Nonetheless, by my lights, no man is more harmlessly occupied than when on a honeymoon with Brigette Bardot. I salute him for having a pleasant life and not trying politicize the absurdity of his existence.; 5/9/11, 11:48 PM
William said...: errate: re Vanessa Redgrave above. It was said that she found her husband in bed with her father.; 5/9/11, 11:51 PM
VanderDouchen said...: I fucked her

WV: neati:

Sail to neati with a three girl crew!; 5/9/11, 11:56 PM
rcocean said...: "Maybe it is because I am not of a certain age. But I have never found Bardot attractive. She just has bad features. She a decent body but nothing like Barbara Eaden or Sofia Loren had."

Well, I'd take Barbara Eden or Loren over Bardot too. BUT...

You're looking at Bardot like she's a still photo. She was sexy in the way she talked and the way she moved and in every other way -
and having that French accent didn't hurt.

Jane Fonda looked sexy, but thats it. And when she opened her mouth, Judas Priest! And then when she talked politics....; 5/10/11, 12:00 AM
rcocean said...: Judas Priest, I'm having to defend Bardot being sexy.

I thought Althouse commentators were smart. Maybe some of them play for the other team.

NTTAWWT.; 5/10/11, 12:02 AM
reader_iam said...: Maybe it is because I am not of a certain age. But I have never found Bardot attractive. She just has bad features. She a decent body but nothing like Barbara Eaden or Sofia Loren had. She isn't even in Jane Fonda's (circa Barbarella) league let alone someone like Anita Eckberg or Loren. I just don't get why she was such a big deal. Catherine Deneuve? For sure. But Bardot I just don't get.

I find it interesting which women's names you misspelled and which women's names you didn't mispell. I'm pretty close to as far from a spelling/typo fascist as one can get specifically in commenting context, and nor am I an acceptable feminist in any acceptable Feminist context for ye these many years. Yet, I still find that interesting.; 5/10/11, 1:23 AM
reader_iam said...: Don't you love how I misspelled "misspell" as "mispell" and especially after correctly spelling "misspelled" just half the very same sentence before? I do. Which is very bad of me, I know. VERY bad.; 5/10/11, 1:32 AM
John said...: rceon,

Bardot was and is just as big of a leftwing nitwit as Fonda. They all were. And I have seen her movies and she doesn't do a blessed thing for me. Deneuve had just as sexy or more of a sexy French accent.

Part of her appeal I think had to do with the time and place. Since I wasn't alive in the early 1960s, so I don't get the appeal. Her whole look now, almost fifty years on, comes across as cheap. And cheap has never worked for me.; 5/10/11, 2:40 AM
John said...: "I thought Althouse commentators were smart. Maybe some of them play for the other team."

She looks like a cheap hooker. Being straight or gay has nothing to do with it. I am plenty straight. Would I kick a twenty year old Bardot out of bed? No. But that is not a very high bar.; 5/10/11, 2:43 AM
Revenant said...: We are supposed to be in awe of this man? Really? Seeing his whole life story it seems exactly the kind of life I wouldn't want to live.

Yeah, I wouldn't want to be married to the same woman for 42 years either.; 5/10/11, 2:47 AM
Jose_K said...: William has a point , but its not antiamericanism but anti authority traits that born from that. Chavez was raised by his grandmother, his mother was busy with her others childen. Most left winger here were born out of the wedlock; 5/10/11, 5:38 AM
John said...: Interesting readeriam how it is that you have nothing interesting to say.; 5/10/11, 6:13 AM
Robert Cook said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 5/10/11, 6:52 AM
Robert Cook said...: "I thought Althouse commentators were smart."

????!!!!

WEGYTI?; 5/10/11, 6:54 AM
AllenS said...: Well, I'm also a playboy. Unfortunately, at almost 65 years of age the only women that I can find, end up being someone's grandmother. Plus I don't have much money. Other than those two facts, yeah...

WV: buosp

That's eerie. It's the first word that I use when meeting my next quest.; 5/10/11, 6:57 AM
erictrimmer said...: Twelve playboys in the world were not enough to support the tourist industry of Tahiti.; 5/10/11, 7:42 AM
Mark O said...: Odd. I never tired of living in a suite in the Huntingtom Hotel.; 5/10/11, 9:27 AM
dbp said...: "Why would you go with a girl to Tahiti? That's like carrying coals to Newcastle, to use an obsolete idiom."

He only married Nordic looking women. I guess he only liked a certain type.

He lived a long time, accomplished very little and in the end took the coward's way out.

I have mixed feelings about his mode of suicide. Sleeping pills are what a wimp would use, a shotgun is far more macho--but it is inconsiderate in that it will make a gross mess that someone will have to clean-up.; 5/10/11, 10:41 AM
mariner said...: rcocean,
I thought Althouse commentators were smart. Maybe some of them play for the other team.

Maybe?

Maybe you haven't been paying attention.; 5/10/11, 6:12 PM