How Hugh Hefner’s inner circle ran their own ‘shadow mansions’

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While countless abuses were allegedly occurring at the Playboy Mansion, members of Hugh Hefner’s inner circle were setting up their own ‘shadow mansions’ for the models who didn’t make it — and according to women who were there, the ‘predatory’ men who owned these homes staged fake photoshoots, promised made-up modeling contacts, and treated women like ‘cattle’ that were ‘on the menu.’

The latest episode of A&E’s series Secrets of Playboy takes a look back at these ‘shadow mansions,’ which became especially popular after Hefner married Kimberley Conrad in 1989 and hosted fewer orgy parties — so his friends filled in the gaps. 

Jennifer Saginor, the daughter of Hefner’s personal physician and best friend Dr. Mark Saginor, recalled how her father turned his house into a Playboy Mansion ‘clone,’ and how she was ‘horrified’ by what she saw there.

Now 51, Saginor said many of the women were drugged and videotaped — which could be used as blackmail — and not even stars like Anna Nicole Smith were safe from being targeted.

‘My father and the inner circle from Playboy created clones of the Playboy Mansion on a smaller scale to sort of lure these young girls in,’ Saginor said in Monday’s episode.

‘It was very predatory. These young girls have no idea what’s gonna hit them next.

‘The competition is so stiff to be a Playmate, so [only a] handful makes it, [and] the rest slip through the cracks and get preyed on.’

While the women whom the men considered to be ‘nines or tens’ made it to the Playboy Mansion, the ‘sevens’ and eights’ went to the shadow mansions.

‘It became this predatory movement where the girls that didn’t make the cut at Playboy were really shuffled off into this underground system,’ she explained.

‘By shadow mansion, I mean that these men in Hef’s inner circle would try to emulate what he created in his own empire at the Playboy Mansion.

‘And they would have smaller versions of the Playboy Mansions, which I would refer to as mini mansions. They would house these young girls who would come to Los Angeles looking for opportunities to become actresses or models.

‘These scouts would invite these girls to these mini-mansions for these “modeling agency” parties and offer them a place to live and offer them modeling contracts,’ she recalled.

She said there were even ‘fake photoshoots’ where women ‘were posing without their clothes on’ — and she suspects they weren’t all able to consent.

‘I just remember walking in on them and being, like, horrified. These girls were clearly drugged and not coherent,’ she said. 

‘Maybe they would also have somebody videotaping them, and then that videotape could be used as blackmail so they wouldn’t tell anyone or so that they’d sort of fall into this underground system of being available.  

‘Basically, any powerful, wealthy man in Los Angeles who was on the guest list to attend the mini-mansion parties was given an opportunity to spend time with particular girls. “Spending time with her” is code for “having sex with her,”‘ she added. 

‘I think many of the girls stayed in the mini-mansion system because they were scared of being blackmailed with videotapes.’ 

Her dad, nicknamed Dr. Feelgood because he was known to dish out prescription pills, turned his own home into one of these shadow mansions.

‘There were so many different young models living at my father’s house,’ she said. ‘[Hefner’s friends] would stop by my father’s house to sort of check out the cattle.’

In fact, according to Mansion West regular Jackie Hatten, even Anna Nichole Smith — 1993’s Playmate of the Year — was considered to be ‘on the menu’ for the men who showed up to one particular party. 

‘I got the feeling when we were at the party that she was up for grabs for whoever,’ she said. 

‘That’s how it works, even for someone like Anna Nicole Smith,’ Saginor added. ‘They’re used for a certain period of time, they are then easily disposable.’

Saginor eventually moved into her father’s mansion, where she would witness horrifying things and discover that even she wasn’t safe from the predatory behavior.

‘Once I moved into my father’s house, he had these different pictures of women on all fours, naked with a leash around the girl’s neck,’ Saginor said.

‘When I would try to say something to him, he was like, “Well they actually like to be submissive. They want to be dominated.”‘ 

‘He was on drugs at the time and offering drugs to these young girls,’ she went on. 

‘I remember walking into his bedroom and seeing these young girls really incoherent, and he would be injecting them with something. I grew up watching these girls come in looking one way and slowly becoming somebody that they probably don’t even recognize.’

While the Playboy Mansion parties were legendary, it was no secret that these shadow mansions existed.

‘I would see the same guys at the mini mansions that I would see at the Playboy Mansion,’ Rachel Myers, a Playboy Mansion West regular said. ‘So I think there was definitely a learned behavior from the Mansion to the mini mansions. These men got some ideas on how to manipulate women.’

She recalled that to get into one party, she allowed an older man to photograph her bare breasts, which she thought was ‘normal’ at the time because ‘there were photos on the table of multiple women.’

‘The experience I had at the mini-mansion parties is immediately walking in, having all the men glom on to you offering you, you know, lines of coke or a bowl of, you know, ecstasy. If you refuse those, they’re trying to shove champagne in your face — who knows what’s in the champagne, if they’ve dropped anything in there,’ added Playboy Mansion West regular Jackie Hatten. 

In addition to Dr. Mark Saginor, businessman Bernie Cornfeld also allegedly owned one of these shadow mansions, called Grayhall, which he’d lure women into by pretending to run a modeling agency. 

‘Bernie, he would go prowling at night,’ said photographer Sharmagne Leland-St.John. ‘He’d go prowling up in the dormitory and be having sex with the girls up there. I realized that the modeling agency apparently fronted for Bernie’s sexual appetite. So, if you moved into the house, you became prey. You became one of his next conquests.’ 

The predatory atmosphere meant that even Saginor wasn’t protected.

‘As a teenager, I turned to one of my father’s friends for advice and showed up at his house. He ended up offering me a drink and putting something in my drink,’ she recalled. 

‘Before I knew it, I was, you know, out of body and came to with him trying to have sex with me. Telling me I had to take my, like, clothes off, and I was in his bed, and the whole thing was so horrific. 

‘For me, growing up in that setting, I was the only female that’s welcomed into this boys’ club. You know, I felt good about myself. I felt special and different. And really at the end of the day, I’m not.’ 

She also admitted to feeling ‘devastating’ guilt that she didn’t help the other women.