Mr. Playboy: Hugh Hefner tells how he created an identity in order to fulfill his dreams

I'm a kid who totally reinvented himself. I'm a direct 10th-generation descendant of William Bradford, who came over on the Mayflower and was one of our Puritan fathers. My folks were Puritans. There was a great deal of repression in their lives and the way they were raised and, in turn, the way I was raised. I escaped early on into dreams and fantasies fueled by music and movies.

When I was in my junior year of high school in Chicago, I had a crush on a girl named Betty Conklin. I learned to jitterbug with her. When she invited another...