Playboy to end Chicago era, join Larry Flynt in Beverly Hills

Playboy Enterprises, founded in Chicago by Hugh Hefner in 1953, has been slowly moving west. Now the company says it will close shop in Chicago on April 30 and move the remaining staff to the Los Angeles area. There has always been a Playboy editorial presence out here — the magazine's local editors just moved back to Beverly Hills after stints in Glassell Park and Santa Monica — and since Hefner reacquired the company last year the CEO and most magazine functions have been here. If the headquarters relocates with the magazine offices in the old Hilton hotels HQ on Maple Drive, Playboy will officially share Beverly Hills with Larry Flynt Publications, the adult-oriented publishing empire that began with Hustler magazine. The Playboy Mansion is located just outside the Beverly Hills city limits, in LA.'s Holmby Hills.

"Playboy's executives have made the difficult decision to close the company's Chicago office and move its headquarters to Los Angeles,” a spokeswoman told The Wrap and Crain's Chicago Business on Friday. “The company's roots began in Chicago and the city will always be connected to the brand's beginning.”

None of this is a surprise, by the way.