Hefner in The Early A.M. Hours

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The time was in the 1970’s, the place was the Playboy Mansion in L.A. and the occasion was the annual John Tracy Tennis Tournament.

The annual tournament was a charity event to benefit the John Tracy Clinic which had been established by Spencer Tracy’s widow.

During the preceding weeks, many of the Beverly Hills private tennis courts had been used to whittle down mixed doubles players with the finalists competing on the stadium court on the Mansion’s grounds.

Highlight of the full day of activities was the evening’s operation of a casino-type arrangement around the outdoor swimming pool. It proved to be the main source of fund-raising for the charity. Players would buy scrip to be used for betting and the person with the most scrip at the end of the evening would be awarded the top prize from a large board of some two dozen prizes. I noticed on the three occasions when I was at the event, several people would combine their scrip with a big winner so that he would be assured of winning the top prize.

Since I had met the host committee, I was able to critique the casino set-up and aid them in securing the number one prize for two of the three years. For the first year, I had a week’s stay for a couple at a palatial villa in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. It was called “Casa de la Aventura” and was owned by my good friend and tennis partner, Gary Flanders from the Bay Area. I had prevailed upon Flanders by offering to take him with me to the Mansion activities.

For the second year, a friend of mine at Lake Tahoe Racquet Club was interested in contributing to the charity. He made an offer of a week-long cruise on his private yacht which was based in Hawaii. The cruise would include accommodations for three couples. It would also come with a captain to navigate the vessel and a full stock of food and libations.

As the donor of the top prizes, I would have to wait for the closing bell of the evening so that I could make arrangements with the winners.

After the yacht award, which occurred just past 2 a.m., I found myself waiting in the courtyard for the final shuttle bus to the parking garage at UCLA. As I stood there, a figure approached. It was a pipe-smoking individual, clad in pajamas and robe. He thanked me for obtaining such a great prize and introduced himself as the Lord of the Manor.

He said his name was Hugh Hefner and we proceeded to chat about magazine publication. He talked about his early days pasting up the original issues of his magazine and I mentioned I was also doing the same thing about the same time when I published Reno This Week, a local entertainment guide.

I’ve had occasion to visit many large and impressive residences in my time but the king of them all was the Playboy Mansion.

Harry Spencer is a long-time northern Nevada resident.