What if Esquire Had Given Hugh Hefner That $5 Raise in 1952?

I learned of Playboy founder Hugh Hefner's death at the age of 91 a short time ago. When I read his Wikipedia page I saw that he founded the magazine after Esquire refused to give him a $5 raise at his copywriter job at the beginning of 1952. That would be about $45 in today's money. Hef left Esquire and by the end of 1953 had published the inaugural issue of Playboy with Marilyn Monroe in all her naked glory.

What if Esquire had given Hefner the raise?

Would there be no Playboy?

Would there be no sexual revolution? Or would it have been delayed by decades?

Would Bob Guccione or Larry Flynt got there first?

Whatever one thinks of Playboy because Esquire didn't give Hugh Hefner a raise, America's sexual and cultural landscape underwent a revolution. Hugh Hefner left an imprint on America and the world over with the help of a few thousand beautiful women as well as a few good writers and cartoonists along the way. R.I.P.