Saginor, Jennifer: Playground: A Childhood Lost inside the Playboy Mansion

Harper © 2005, 277 pages [amazon]

The blurb on the back of the book is misleading. A Salon.com review claims that Jennifer Saginor's memoir Playground is "Bizarre...hilarious, disturbing." Bizarre and disturbing it certainly is, but there's nothing whatever hilarious here. Saginor's father, "Dr. Feel Good," was (he has since lost his license, after the events described in the book) a doctor with a thriving Beverly Hills practice, famous for dispensing pills to models and Hollywood starlets. He was also Hugh Hefner's personal physician and Hef's right-hand man for more than thirty years, a fixture at the Playboy Mansion. Saginor's parents were divorced when she and her sister Savannah, two and a half years her junior, were very young. Saginor's father had custody of the girls on Thursdays and alternate weekends: he started bringing them to the Playboy Mansion when Jennifer was six.

He left his girls to roam the Mansion grounds alone, at the ages of six and four, while he played with Hef and the bunnies poolside.It is one thing to introduce one's little girls at so young an age to the Playboy brand of in-your-face hedonism: topless girls rubbing against Hef and their father, the atmosphere dripping with easy sex, ready drugs and the glorification of instant gratification. Incredibly, though, that Saginor's father regularly brought his daughters to the Mansion was the lesser of his offenses. Far more heinous was his complete abdication of all parental responsibility. He left his girls to roam the Mansion grounds alone, at the ages of six and four, while he played with Hef and the bunnies poolside. Let loose without parental guidance in the Hefner playground, the girls did and saw and ate what they pleased, room service and the occasional centerfold catering to their needs. Their father made no attempt to conceal his sexual promiscuity from the girls, and indeed engaged in his crass flirtations right in front of them.

Because their mother did not approve of the girls spending time at the Mansion, their father induced them to lie to her: this was one manner in which he attempted to poison the relationship between his daughters, Jennifer in particular, and their mother. Eventually this split the family further apart: Savannah rejected her father and his lifestyle for the most part, while Jennifer was swallowed by her devotion to him. Neglected in childhood, Jennifer wallowed in decadence during adolescence--sex, drugs, and endless clubbing. Money came easy. School was an afterthought. Homework was something you paid someone else to do for you.

Saginor became her father's accomplice in debauchery during these years, fully cognizant of his action, scoping out the girls with him. She allegedly had the following conversation with her father when she was fifteen, during one of their innumerable nights out at one of the innumerable hot spots that counted them as A-listers:

"Dad and I are then distracted by two stunning girls locked in a heated French kiss. Their boyfriends lurk beside them on standby.

'It's called intergroup dating,' I inform him.

'Friends of yours?' Dad questions.

'Interested?' I ask as Dad reviews his choices.

By now, checking out girls with my father is too familiar to seem scandalous. I wave to Hef  and the circle of young beauties by his side. I nudge my dad.

'What are you waiting around for, sloppy seconds?'

'Very funny.' He grimaces, but we both know it's true."

Later Saginor's relationship with her father, always complicated, would worsen as he spiraled into drug-induced paranoia. One bright spot in her life, an affair with Hugh Hefner's current girlfriend--was doomed by their need to keep it quiet: apparently sexual license has its limits even at Hef's Mansion.

So there's nothing funny about Saginor's life story, the neglected child morphing into irresponsible adolescent; relationships destroyed, overdoses, the sheer volume of time wasted on meaningless pursuits. As for Saginor's book itself, it certainly has an interesting story to tell, but it falls short of gripping prose: the constant recitation of designer names in the author's descriptions become tiresome, as do the playmates' conversations as Saginor records them--presumably capturing their spirit if not their precise content. The repeated descriptions of further acts of decadence--more nights out, more drugs--also become monotonous after a time. But perhaps that's part of the point: the reader tires of Saginor's lifestyle even as she comes to despise it and to realize that changes are necessary. Would that she had decided as much sooner.

Tags: books, book reviews, Hugh Hefner, Jennifer Saginor, memoirs, Playboy, Playboy bunnies, Playground

Comments

[jennifer saginor]

1.

thank you for reviewing my book

jennifer

[Debra Hamel]

2.

Thanks for visiting, Jennifer!

[Jennifer Saginor]

3.

Category: Fearless

You think George Bush has no clue? How about Hugh Hefner, who built the PLAYBOY empire, based on the FIRST AMENDMENT and FREEDOM OF SPEECH--having his secretary leave a THREATENING voicemail on HEFNER'S behalf telling me to STOP PUBLICITY on PLAYGROUND or else...Or else what? I wont receive invites to your D-list parties filled with hookers on a payroll? I am so sick of your threats for the past 3 years(Before, during, after I wrote memoir) Due to your intimidation tactics, I portrayed you as someone I admired. There is no slander! I deleted 200 pages on request. You asked me to say you knew nothing of my underage affair with your girlfriend, Kendall, (who outed herself in the NY Post) Meanwhile, we both know what REALLY HAPPENED - how you did in fact know about my 3-year teenage affair along with other sick, twisted experiences involving YOU that I chose not to write about! You cast aside my father, your best friend and doctor for 35 years, who saved your life and gave up his family and career for YOU! Yet, you continue to use your power and money to THREATEN MY FREDOM OF SPEECH? How HYPOCRITICAL are you? PLAYGROUND is a MEMOIR ABOUT PARENTAL NEGLECT, my experiences and lessons learned.

Anyone who actually believes "GIRLS NEXT DOOR" is not a total FACADE is either extremely bored or has no concept what really happens behind closed doors!

I am no longer scared, but FEARLESS!

SUE ME! BUT YOU CANT BECAUSE TRUTH IS MY DEFENSE AND TRUTH ALWAYS PREVAIL IN THE END

[Jennifer Saginor]

4.

Category: Fearless

You think George Bush has no clue? How about Hugh Hefner, who built the PLAYBOY empire, based on the FIRST AMENDMENT and FREEDOM OF SPEECH--having his secretary leave a THREATENING voicemail on HEFNER'S behalf telling me to STOP PUBLICITY on PLAYGROUND or else...Or else what? I wont receive invites to your D-list parties filled with hookers on a payroll? I am so sick of your threats for the past 3 years(Before, during, after I wrote memoir) Due to your intimidation tactics, I portrayed you as someone I admired. There is no slander! I deleted 200 pages on request. You asked me to say you knew nothing of my underage affair with your girlfriend, Kendall, (who outed herself in the NY Post) Meanwhile, we both know what REALLY HAPPENED - how you did in fact know about my 3-year teenage affair along with other sick, twisted experiences involving YOU that I chose not to write about! You cast aside my father, your best friend and doctor for 35 years, who saved your life and gave up his family and career for YOU! Yet, you continue to use your power and money to THREATEN MY FREDOM OF SPEECH? How HYPOCRITICAL are you? PLAYGROUND is a MEMOIR ABOUT PARENTAL NEGLECT, my experiences and lessons learned.

Anyone who actually believes "GIRLS NEXT DOOR" is not a total FACADE is either extremely bored or has no concept what really happens behind closed doors!

I am no longer scared, but FEARLESS!

SUE ME! BUT YOU CANT BECAUSE TRUTH IS MY DEFENSE AND TRUTH ALWAYS PREVAIL IN THE END

[iodifeTet]

5.

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