Joni and Hef on the set of Playboy's Penthouse,1960

For nearly four decades, until her untimely death in 1999, another sweetheart of the period, November 1960 Playmate Joni Mattis, was frequently at Hef's side. "Our romantic relationship didn't last very long," Hef says, "but the friendship did." Joni was a talent coordinator for his first TV show, Playboy's Penthouse, an early Playboy Club Bunny, Hef's West Coast Secretary and, finally, Social Secretary at Mansion West. With her dark hair and luminous eyes, Joni looked like a porcelain doll, but she had spunk. On one occasion, she not-so-accidentally nudged a potential rival for Hef's affections, fully clothed in a crepe cocktail dress, into the Chicago Mansion's swimming pool. The dress immediately shrank.