Victor Lownes

Who is Victor Lownes?

Victor Aubrey Lownes III was an executive for HMH Publishing Company Inc. from 1955 through the early 1980s. After meeting Hugh Hefner in 1954 soon after Hefner had started of Playboy Magazine, Lownes eventually joined his publishing company, serving in various capacities with the title of vice president.

Lownes was a close confidant of Hefner, whose hedonistic lifestyle he matched. Lownes developed a reputation as serial philanderer and was known to date Playboy Playmates. Lownes headed Playboy Europe and the UK Playboy Clubs from the mid-sixties until his dismissal in the early eighties. He oversaw the most successful part of Hefner's attempt to diversify out of publishing and into motion pictures, hotels and casino gambling. During his time as head of Playboy Europe, he was Britain's highest paid executive, drawing a large salary and eventually becoming Playboy Enterprises's second biggest shareholder. Credited with creating Playboy Clubs in the United States, Lownes oversaw Playboy Enterprises's move into casino gambling in the UK in the 1960s, which became Playboy's most successful business other than its publishing until the advent of cable television. Eventually, he had to return to the United States in 1975 to help oversee the company.