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renderer-url="/magazine/_astro/client.ghbLx9WX.js" props="{"article":[0,{"id":[0,"2020/01/diamond-days"],"collection":[0,"articles"],"data":[0,{"issue":[0,{"slug":[0,"2020/01"],"collection":[0,"issues"]}],"title":[0,"Diamond Days"],"type":[0,"Heritage"],"pages":[1,[[1,[[0,199]]]]],"preview":[0,"https://cdn.centerfold.com/magazine/issues/202001/two-page/198-199-medium.jpg"],"view":[0,"https://ipb-reader.playboy.com/20191217/index.html#p=199"],"body":[1,[[0,"On February 29, 1960 the first Playboy Club opened its doors, and into pop culture bounded the Bunny. With her satin ears, sheer stockings, boned corset and white tail (the cuffs and collars came later), she has resided in our collective imagination ever since. Like the indelible Playboy Rabbit Head, the Bunny symbolizes the ideal of sophisticated pleasure. But unlike the inanimate logo, the Bunnies had the hard work of actually bringing that ideal to life."],[0,"It was a good job—if you could get it. Hundreds of Bunny hopefuls typically applied at each new club, some company-owned and others franchise-operated. Bunnies could be found working in 25 states and seven countries and, after Playboy’s private DC-9 airplane took off in the early 1970s, in the sky as well. From Jamaica to New Jersey, London to Lansing and Omaha to Osaka, the Playboy hotels, casinos and resorts offered endless amenities and activities—horseback riding, scuba diving, skeet shooting, skiing, roulette. The bushy-tailed Bunny was the ever-present standard bearer (and still is: Visit our Playboy Club in London)."],[0,"Bunny training was rigorous, and standards were high. The so-called Bunny Mothers were managers who enforced rules laid out in the intimidatingly thick Bunny Manual, but for the Bunnies, tips and other perks including tuition assistance and appearance fees made the difficult job worthwhile. In the early 1980s, for example, Bunnies hired to appear at events approved by Playboy earned $17.50 an hour—more than five times the minimum wage."],[0,"The clubs were showplaces for comedians, jazz musicians and other performers, but it was the Bunnies, with their practiced-to-perfection perch, stance and dip, who were the steady draw. For a short while in the mid-1980s, Rabbits—male servers who were Bunny counterparts—had their time in the New York hutch; more than 1,500 men applied for 25 positions."],[0,"It would be a mistake to look at the Bunny and see only a waitress; she was so much more. When the Bunny first arrived on the scene 60 years ago, the world was still adjusting to the idea of women who unapologetically owned their attractiveness or leveraged it as part of their job. Criticism came from various corners, including undercover Bunny Gloria Steinem’s two-part 1963 story in Show magazine. But where some saw sexism, most Bunnies saw opportunity. (As one told The New York Times in 1976, “We’re exploiting men; they’re not exploiting us. After all, those poor slobs just want to come in here and see us.”) Many former Bunnies credit their time working at the clubs as formative to the women they became."],[0,"“I really owe my Ph.D.—my first one—to Hugh Hefner and Playboy,” says Elisabeth Clark, a psychologist and psychoanalyst who was known in the original New York club as Bunny Dana. “Playboy paid for two college courses every semester. My graduate-level classes at New York University were in the daytime, and I could still work at night. It was perfect.”"],[0,"Then as now, it took guts and grit to be a Bunny."],[0,"On the occasion of the Bunny’s diamond anniversary, we reached out to 17 former Bunnies and one Rabbit—among their ranks a doctor, two rock singers, a film editor, an attorney and a social worker—and asked them about their time wearing the ears. Read on for their memories."],[0," BUILDING CHARACTER—AND BANK ACCOUNTS"],[0,"Offering excellent pay, flexible hours and tuition aid, working as a Bunny was often seen as the best gig in town"],[0,"Gloria Hendry, New York club, 1965–1972 (actor, singer, model, legal secretary): I became a Bunny because of the money. Sometimes I made up to $2,000 a week. I was dabbling in acting, and I could never have afforded classes if I hadn’t been a Bunny. Thanks to the hours, I was able to go out on auditions, and I got my first Screen Actors Guild movie role, in For Love of Ivy, with Sidney Poitier and Abbey Lincoln."],[0,"Sabrina Scharf Schiller, New York and Bahamas clubs, 1962–1963 (attorney): I thought if I worked very hard and saved diligently, it would give me the serious start I needed for my education. And that’s exactly what happened. I worked the first 60 days for the club without a day off, in three-inch heels, often doing double shifts. With tips, I was taking home the unheard-of amount of $100 per day. Mid-level career men weren’t earning that much then, let alone young women."],[0,"Marilyn Cole, London club, 1971–1974 (journalist, 1973 Playmate of the Year): Playboy made us financially independent, a rare thing for 21-year-old girls. We could travel, buy our own cocktails and the latest fashions—even have mortgages and build our own lives. That was powerful."],[0,"Kathryn Leigh Scott, New York club, 1963–1966 (actor, author—we’re partial to her 1998 book, The Bunny Years): I was a scholarship student at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, working at Bloomingdale’s part time, when I saw the ad: “Girls, step into the spotlight, become a Playboy Bunny!” It sounded like fun, glamor, good pay and perfect hours for my class schedule. Lauren Hutton and I met in the long line to audition, and Keith Hefner hired both of us."],[0,"Debbie Harry, New York club, 1968 (lead singer and songwriter for Blondie): It’s not a job or career choice for everyone; however, it was a good education for me, and the Playboy clubs always had a high regard for the women who worked there. Being a Bunny was the right decision for me, as I have always liked the naughty and nice sides of a story."],[0,"AT THE VANGUARD"],[0,"As the sexual revolution got under way in the 1960s, influenced in no small part by PLAYBOY, other social changes were transforming the cultural landscape"],[0,"Sabrina Scharf Schiller: Women’s lives were changing drastically. The advent of the pill brought about more control over our bodies and our choices. There was a total shift in social mores, and Bunnies were on the front lines of that change. We were the innocent representation of the concept that sex is fun. Only the appearance was naughty."],[0,"Angelyn Chester, Chicago club, 1972–1984 (journalist, 1974 International Bunny of the Year): The very first woman who won International Bunny of the Year, Gina Byrams, was a woman of color. You have to remember the times; race relations were strained. In 1974 I won my local Bunny competition, and some people said, “Just go to L.A. and have a good time. They’re not going to pick a woman of color after another woman of color.” I didn’t believe that. I thought I had just as good a chance as anybody. And I went on to win."],[0,"Jennifer Jackson, Chicago club, 1964 (social worker, March 1965 Playmate): The 1960s were an amazing period, you know? The Black Movement, Vietnam, the hippies, the Beatles, Motown. There hasn’t been a more exciting time since."],[0,"Francesca Emerson, New York and Los Angeles clubs, 1963–1968 (film editor): The Playboy Club was known for hiring minorities even in the early 1960s, when some places were still segregated. I was a black unmarried mother living in New York City, and Playboy gave me confidence, independence, financial security, adventure and opportunities that would never have come to me had I still been working the counters at Bloomingdale’s or serving coffee and donuts in some uptown takeout joint."],[0,"Gloria Hendry: The club was wonderful. If somebody grabbed my tail or said something derogatory to me, like “I don’t want that black Bunny waiting on me,” the room director would walk over and say, “May I have your Playboy key, please? Now get out and never come back.” What can I say? They protected us, they took care of us, and that’s my experience."],[0,"GETTING THE GIG"],[0,"Every Bunny—or Rabbit—forged their own path to the Playboy Club"],[0,"Gwen Wong Wayne, Los Angeles club and Big Bunny airplane, 1965–1975 (interior designer, April 1967 Playmate): My aunt was a Bunny in Miami and New York, and she had some great stories to tell; I think she was the catalyst for my career with Playboy. I showed some pictures to Keith Hefner, and he immediately asked if I could work at the Miami club. I couldn’t leave my two children, but Keith promised that when the L.A. club opened I would be one of the first to get a Bunny suit. When the club was interviewing hundreds of girls, I thought Keith had probably forgotten me. He had not. He was a man of his word, and I was in—yeah! Later I became a Jet Bunny on Playboy’s plane."],[0,"Connie Mason Kasten, Miami and Chicago clubs, 1961–1962 (actor, June 1963 Playmate): It was a much coveted job, like being chosen to be in the Miss America pageant. Tony Roma had suggested to my dad that I apply since the Bunnies made such good tips. During my Bunnyhopping years I gained tremendous self-confidence, and I was able to support my two little ones as a single mother."],[0,"Jeff Rector, New York Empire Club, 1985–1986 (actor, writer): When word went out that Playboy was looking for waiters, every Chippendale thought he would get the job. But Playboy didn’t want a bunch of beefcakes who just strolled around looking pretty. You had to do your job and do it well. It’s the only job I’ve ever had where I couldn’t wait to go to work."],[0,"Dale Bozzio, Boston club, 1973–1976 (musician, lead singer for Missing Persons): I was 18 years old when I became a Playboy Bunny in Boston. Out of 250 girls, they hired four, and I was one of them. Training lasted weeks. I learned how to use my beauty in a kind, precious manner. I became the best Bunny I possibly could."],[0,"BARRACUDAS AND TOUGH MOTHERS"],[0,"The Bunny gig came with some exacting standards (sometimes too exacting) and demanding tasks"],[0,"Angelyn Chester: It was not a hairnet type of job. We had weeks of grueling training. You had to learn how to high-carry a tray with two heavy telephone books and how to carry the tray at your waist. You had to be strong to high-carry, to walk in those heels, to serve. And you had to be fast. Once I got my tray, it was like a badge of honor. You got your tray, your flashlight and your name tag. It was like a flight attendant getting her wings."],[0,"Pat Lacey, Los Angeles and Jamaica clubs and Big Bunny, 1965–1978 (Playboy Promotions specialist, writer): We did a weigh-in every month; you had to stay within five pounds of your original weight. Being a Bunny was a workout: You developed strong arms from all the lifting and Bunny-dipping. The night manager called us experienced Bunnies barracudas because you had to be tough to make it. When I was a Bunny Mother and we needed five girls, we’d get 10 to start. Not all of them would make it. Girls would get demerits for lateness, for shoes that weren’t polished. But they were smart and knew how to get by my inspections."],[0,"Sabrina Scharf Schiller: I did not like the weekly weigh-in to ensure a trim Bunny figure was kept under control. Those costumes were tight, and we knew when we’d had one dessert too many."],[0,"IN THE WARREN"],[0,"Myriad positions were available at the clubs: Door Bunnies, Floor Bunnies, Pool Bunnies, Cabaret Bunnies and more"],[0,"Sharron Long, Kansas City and Jamaica clubs, 1966–1968 (businesswoman): I took over the pool table shortly after starting. It was perfect for me. I loved it, and it taught me a lot about being an entrepreneur, though I wasn’t aware of it at the time. I learned how to take chances, how to trust my judgment and, most important, how to step out of the mold that had been created for women at that time."],[0,"Joyce Nizzari, Chicago, Miami and New Orleans clubs, 1960 (Playboy Mansion executive assistant, December 1958 Playmate): I worked at the original Chicago club during the first week it opened as a Door Bunny, checking key numbers. I wore the Bunny costume with no collar or cuffs because they hadn’t been added to the uniform yet. The lines to get in were so long that the doors were almost never fully closed; I remember getting snow on my costume."],[0,"Gloria Hendry: I wound up starting as a Cigarette Bunny, saying, “Cigars, cigarettes, Tiparillos, Playboy lighters? One dollar and five cents.” I’ll never forget those lines. And men used to come by and give me a $100 or $50 tip."],[0,"Pat Lacey: After six weeks of training in Indiana in an enormous hangar, and in Florida for water-evacuation training, and in Wisconsin at the Lake Geneva club, where the Playboy chef taught us how to prepare gourmet meals, I became a Jet Bunny. Normally a flight would have just one preflight FAA inspector. But on the Big Bunny there were always multiple inspectors—they wanted to see Hef’s plane and the Jet Bunnies!"],[0,"Carol Cleveland, London club, 1966 (comedian, writer and Monty Python cast member): I started off in the Cabaret Room. Once I took people’s orders and the show started, I could watch the cabaret. Dave Allen was a well-known comedian here in England, and he was the star when I first started. I was a great fan and happy as could be watching him perform every night."],[0,"LIFE LESSONS FROM THE DRESSING ROOM"],[0,"Co-workers became friends who became family within the special society of Bunnydom"],[0,"Marilyn Cole: The Bunny room was the most liberating place—there was swearing, nudity, camaraderie and pluralism. I learned about politics, social justice and religious diversity. A Bunny roommate had been born in Aden as a Zoroastrian; she called it the oldest religion in the world. She would burn incense and pray every night, even wear a religious garment around her waist underneath her Bunny costume."],[0,"Kathryn Leigh Scott: I was a farm kid from the Midwest mixing with 110 other young women in every size and shape, from every religious, ethnic, cultural, economic and racial background, from all over the world. The Bunny dressing room circa 1963 was more diverse than a college campus even 20 years later. A single mother from a Harlem project donned the same jewel-colored costume as an heiress, an East German refugee who’d escaped the Berlin Wall, the daughter of a Chinese diplomat, a gap-toothed tomboy who became a supermodel; I interviewed them all for The Bunny Years."],[0,"Candace Collins Jordan, St. Louis and Chicago clubs, 1973–1977 (columnist, December 1979 Playmate): The Bunnies were the sisters I never had. It was a unique sorority and a joy for me."],[0,"Francesca Emerson: We bonded like glue. Playboy was like a gigantic family of different people of different backgrounds and different cultures, all working hard to improve themselves. When we weren’t working, we’d meet at each other’s houses and have lunches and dinners together, participate in each other’s kids’ birthday parties, even take vacations together. Half a century later, I still have close friendships from the New York and L.A. clubs."],[0,"MISCONCEPTIONS"],[0,"Donning the ears could come with some baggage"],[0,"Marilyn Cole: I am shocked that I still sometimes have to defend myself for having been a Bunny and a Playmate. It was a woman who interviewed me. It was a woman who trained me. It was a woman who did PR at the club. PLAYBOY magazine’s photo editor was a woman. The first woman gaming inspector in the U.K. casino industry had been a Playboy Croupier Bunny. I wish people knew that. Who would have thought we would have such an impact on social history? The Bunnies were pioneers. We stood for freedom."],[0,"Candace Collins Jordan: I wish people understood what a wonderful opportunity this was for women like me instead of thinking we were exploited. It was our choice to be Bunnies. We made great money and great friends and had wonderful opportunities that are now lasting memories. It was a priceless and life-changing experience for me and made me who I am today."],[0,"Jennifer Jackson: In the 1960s and 1970s, no one thought black people were pretty. And then people saw me as a black woman, and that black is beautiful, in all different shades. That was one of the things that we promoted."],[0,"Kathryn Leigh Scott: Former Bunnies include entrepreneurs, lawyers, judges, CEOs, professors, architects, restaurateurs, scientists and a few actors and writers—none of us turning in our satin ears to collect Social Security!"],[0,"Angelyn Chester: Hefner sent a memo to corporate explaining that if it were not for the women, the Playmates and the Bunnies in particular, that the company would not exist, so they are to be respected and not harassed. He was ahead of his time when it came to policies like that."],[0,"GOOD TIMES, GREAT MEMORIES"],[0,"From celebrity customers to softball stardom, the Bunnies and Rabbits led unforgettable lives"],[0,"Pat Lacey: In Jamaica they had goat racing on the beach for guests to watch. Guys would climb the trees and grab fresh coconuts right off the palms. During the day, before six P.M., we wore a two-piece bikini, ears and tail, with flip-flops, and in the evenings the standard Bunny costume. I overstayed my visa and got booted from the country!"],[0,"Elisabeth Clark, New York and Montreal clubs, 1965–1975 (psychologist and psychoanalyst): I was working the Playmate Bar one night, and this guy was at my station all by himself, wearing a hat and a raincoat. I took his order, scotch and water or something, and I served it to him. The bartender said, “Do you know who you’re waiting on?” I said, “No, why?” And he says, “That’s Paul Newman.” I said, “Who’s Paul Newman?”"],[0,"Jeff Rector: Wherever we went, people were like, “Oh my God, it’s the Bunnies and Rabbits from the Playboy Club.” We could get into any club, anytime. We could get reservations at any restaurant. We really were treated like celebrities."],[0,"Francesca Emerson: Playing on the Bunny softball team is one of my favorite memories. It started as a charity event in the Chicago club and was so successful it spread throughout the clubs. The New York club’s team was so competitive. Every Thursday at noon, the Dream Team, as we were known, played in Central Park; we wore black tights and orange sweaters with the Bunny logo on the front."],[0,"THE TAIL END"],[0,"A parting thought from a beloved Bunny"],[0,"Dale Bozzio: I’m the proudest Bunny. Everything I learned as a Playboy Bunny brought me to today. I’m 64 years old; I go on stage every month, maybe four times a month. I learned to be courageous and to be a proud woman and to know how beautiful I am. I learned to love myself. And that’s where I’m coming from; that’s how I write all my music. That’s how I live my life, and that’s how I’ve raised my sons."],[0,"Reporting by Tori Lynn Adams, Cat Auer, Andie Eisen and Michele Sleighel."],[0,"Our Strong Suit"],[0,"Recognized the world over, the Bunny costume may be the most famous uniform ever created"],[0,"Like many aspects of Playboy history, the Bunny suit owes much of its success to women—and not just those who wear it."],[0,"Founder Hugh Hefner originally wanted silky negligees as the club uniform but was talked out of the impractical idea by Victor Lownes, the promotions manager who was instrumental in the development of the clubs. Instead Lownes brought Hef a better idea—one Lownes got from his girlfriend, actress Ilsa Taurins (whose name is spelled variously as Ilze and Ilse). As former Bunny Kathryn Leigh Scott reports in The Bunny Years, Taurins suggested the costume be rabbit-based, a play on the magazine’s emblem. Although Hefner had already considered and spurned the idea as too masculine, Taurins created a one-piece design with an attached tail and separate ears, according to Scott. Taurins’s seamstress mother then assembled the prototype, which Lownes showed to Hef. The costume wasn’t quite daring enough for Hefner’s vision, but with minor alterations it formed the basis for the world-famous outfit that debuted at the Chicago Playboy Club in 1960."],[0,"Quality of craftsmanship in addition to the risk-taking fashion surely also helped the costume’s legacy. According to New York University director of costume studies Nancy Deihl, the clubs commissioned talented women to custom-build the suits, including Zelda Wynn Valdes, who fabricated them for the New York club that opened in December 1962."],[0,"“The Bunny costume has withstood the test of time because of its simplicity,” says Kristi Beck, a Playboy senior manager and part of a group responsible for overseeing Bunny selection and training."],[0,"Small changes to the hare-raising getup have been made over the decades: the addition of the tuxedo collar and cuffs and a name-tag rosette, a tweak to the high-cut leg, a slight redesign of the ears, more accommodating cup sizes—but the Bunny remains as recognizable as ever."],[0,"By the time the suit turned 20, various versions were in use alongside the solid-color satin classic: suits with psychedelic patterns inspired by Emilio Pucci, a VIP suit in velvet, a lacy (and short-lived) cabaret version and a fur-trimmed green or red Christmas look. And not all Bunnies wore the famous suit; season, location and responsibility also dictated their attire, with non-corset-based outfits for Ski Bunnies, Croupier Bunnies, Beach Bunnies and others."],[0,"Today Playboy Club servers wear suits that were updated in 2005 with accessories by designer Roberto Cavalli. In 2018 Bunnies at the Coachella music fest wore a new green-leaf-patterned suit, but the original 1960 silhouette remains intact."],[0,"Since its appearance six decades ago, the Bunny suit has woven its way into the fabric of American culture, donned by everyone from Dolly Parton to Flip Wilson to Kate Moss. It was the first service uniform ever registered with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, and a complete Bunny costume can be found in the collection of the Smithsonian. Like other cultural mainstays, how it’s seen often depends on who’s looking at it, including the Bunnies themselves."],[0,"“Bunnies like wearing it for different reasons,” says Beck, who sometimes fits new Bunnies into their suits. “Some see it as playful and nostalgic; others see it as badass empowerment. We don’t need to define it for them.”"]]]}]}],"className":[0,"mx-auto max-w-7xl p-4"],"issue":[0,{"id":[0,"2020/01.md"],"slug":[0,"2020/01"],"body":[0,""],"collection":[0,"issues"],"data":[0,{"year":[0,2020],"title":[0,"Winter"],"publishedAt":[3,"2020-01-01T00:00:00.000Z"],"cover":[0,"https://cdn.centerfold.com/magazine/covers/2020/01/medium.jpg"],"pagesRoot":[0,"pages/20200101"],"articles":[1,[[0,{"id":[0,"2020/01/a-letter-from-the-editors"],"collection":[0,"articles"]}],[0,{"id":[0,"2020/01/behind-the-lens"],"collection":[0,"articles"]}],[0,{"id":[0,"2020/01/fandomination"],"collection":[0,"articles"]}],[0,{"id":[0,"2020/01/between-the-lenses"],"collection":[0,"articles"]}],[0,{"id":[0,"2020/01/in-drugs-we-trust"],"collection":[0,"articles"]}],[0,{"id":[0,"2020/01/orville-peck"],"collection":[0,"articles"]}],[0,{"id":[0,"2020/01/the-good-witch-of-the-northwest"],"collection":[0,"articles"]}],[0,{"id":[0,"2020/01/the-playboy-advisor"],"collection":[0,"articles"]}],[0,{"id":[0,"2020/01/playboy-interview-christiane-amanpour"],"collection":[0,"articles"]}],[0,{"id":[0,"2020/01/uzupis-utopia"],"collection":[0,"articles"]}],[0,{"id":[0,"2020/01/eric-andre-for-president"],"collection":[0,"articles"]}],[0,{"id":[0,"2020/01/antifa-in-focus"],"collection":[0,"articles"]}],[0,{"id":[0,"2020/01/diane-guerrero"],"collection":[0,"articles"]}],[0,{"id":[0,"2020/01/new-year-s-resolution"],"collection":[0,"articles"]}],[0,{"id":[0,"2020/01/francophile"],"collection":[0,"articles"]}],[0,{"id":[0,"2020/01/the-art-of-attention"],"collection":[0,"articles"]}],[0,{"id":[0,"2020/01/force-of-nature"],"collection":[0,"articles"]}],[0,{"id":[0,"2020/01/portraits-for-the-people"],"collection":[0,"articles"]}],[0,{"id":[0,"2020/01/blockbuster"],"collection":[0,"articles"]}],[0,{"id":[0,"2020/01/a-very-milennial-scandal"],"collection":[0,"articles"]}],[0,{"id":[0,"2020/01/the-other-plan-b"],"collection":[0,"articles"]}],[0,{"id":[0,"2020/01/seizure-city"],"collection":[0,"articles"]}],[0,{"id":[0,"2020/01/sterling-for-all"],"collection":[0,"articles"]}],[0,{"id":[0,"2020/01/marigold-rush"],"collection":[0,"articles"]}],[0,{"id":[0,"2020/01/playboy-s-party-jokes"],"collection":[0,"articles"]}],[0,{"id":[0,"2020/01/on-sex-cinema-and-the-female-gaze"],"collection":[0,"articles"]}],[0,{"id":[0,"2020/01/once-a-playmate-always-a-playmate"],"collection":[0,"articles"]}],[0,{"id":[0,"2020/01/diamond-days"],"collection":[0,"articles"]}],[0,{"id":[0,"2020/01/depth-of-field"],"collection":[0,"articles"]}],[0,{"id":[0,"2020/01/playboy-s-rearview"],"collection":[0,"articles"]}],[0,{"id":[0,"2020/01/anne-marie-fox"],"collection":[0,"articles"]}]]],"volume":[0,67],"issue":[0,1]}],"render":[0,null]}],"prev":[0,{"id":[0,"2020/01/once-a-playmate-always-a-playmate"],"collection":[0,"articles"],"data":[0,{"issue":[0,{"slug":[0,"2020/01"],"collection":[0,"issues"]}],"title":[0,"Once a Playmate, Always a Playmate"],"type":[0,"Pictorial"],"pages":[1,[[1,[[0,186]]]]],"preview":[0,"https://cdn.centerfold.com/magazine/issues/202001/two-page/186-187-medium.jpg"],"view":[0,"https://ipb-reader.playboy.com/20191217/index.html#p=186"],"body":[1,[[0,"In 2020, the notion of sex positivity has found new enthusiasm among young women who believe true bodily autonomy means having the right to enjoy and participate in what was once written off as objectification. The present-day pinup is less concerned with how she appears before the male gaze than how she feels about herself. She no longer needs photographers and publications; she can direct her own shoots and post them on Instagram. Her modeling may be a rewarding hobby or a means of amassing an empire."],[0,"This raises a question: What does this mean for PLAYBOY and its most famous franchise?"],[0,"“Once a Playmate, always a Playmate” goes the motto of the nearly 800 women who have held the title. But what is a Playmate anyway? Who is she? And who has she been all along?"],[0,"Not to be confused with Playboy Bunnies (for more on the Playboy Club staffers, turn to page 209) or other women who’ve posed for the magazine, the honorific is short for Playmate of the Month, the designation bestowed on those who appear in the magazine’s preeminent pictorial. It debuted in"],[0,"PLAYBOY’s first issue—as “Sweetheart of the Month”—in 1953 and featured a 23-year-old Marilyn Monroe on red velvet, her perky breasts jutting out and her hips twisted to obscure her pubic area. Then came the Data Sheet, which in the past listed Playmates’ “turn-ons,” “turnoffs” and measurements—the last, I suppose, in case fans wanted to make them a fancy dress."],[0,"Depending on the eye of the beholder, these women were/are either unwitting agents of patriarchy, selling their bodies for fame and fortune (and the adoration of the men typically necessary for securing those things), or liberated trailblazers in ways some members of their gender could never imagine. Describing their origin, this magazine’s founder said, “The innovation of our Playmate pictorials was to humanize the pinup concept.”"],[0,"But why should pinups require humanizing in the first place? Is it because men, the intended market for these images, don’t typically see hot naked chicks as anything but a sum of measurements? Or was it a matter of removing women from pinup settings to make the fantasy more real?"],[0,"Playmate pictorials have exhibited everything from camp to romance to self-awareness, sometimes all together. The shoots found women romping in mansions or on beaches or draped on top of fancy cars. Playmates always seemed to be winking at the camera, literally and figuratively, and delighting in their nakedness. Can you really take issue with pretty pictures of happy girls having fun? Is it really objectification if the object in question appears so deeply satisfied? Even objectification must be viewed, well, objectively. Yes, many men have enjoyed reducing us women to sexual fantasies or subjecting us to brief, lusty glares, but those men can’t parlay fantasies and glares into fame and fortune, can they?"],[0,"Throughout history, Playmates have also come to represent a type of beauty. Personally, I took little interest in the superstar models of the 1990s, during my childhood. Their bodies were not the ones I thought of while staring at my pudgy 13-year-old body in the mirror before vomiting whatever I’d eaten last, and they were not top of mind when I started working out a decade later. I did love Anna Nicole Smith, though, and I’ve always found the relative autonomy Playmates enjoy to be enviable. Imagine having not just a physique so universally accepted you could bare it on the pages of this magazine but the courage to do so—and be paid to do so! There’s something fascinating about the gamble of a woman who could have accessed the relative protection and spoils of beauty elsewhere. It’s a gamble that might have catapulted her into her dreams or cost her everything—just for daring to be that kind of sexual."],[0,"Alas, sexy is more complicated than beautiful and historically causes division among feminists. Some still consider sex work, stripping and pinup modeling to be irredeemable and misogynistic, positing that the male gaze is inextricable from these institutions even if they are women-owned. Others feel the ability for us to exist in those spaces is essential—or, at the very least, a necessary option."],[0,"To be allowed a space to identify as beautiful without rebuttal from your community and popular culture is a civil right granted to only a small percentage of people in this country. So when it comes to beauty standards, we must do more to expand than destroy. Instead of dismissing the “girl next door” as antiquated, the most progressive of us must reshape norms to include all complexions, all ages, all sexual identities and all body types."],[0,"That’s why this shoot is so important. We see these Playmates under two scopes: as a response to the progressiveness that demands evolution but also as godmothers to the autonomous and diverse pinups of today. One could make the case that without women like Victoria Valentino (September 1963 Playmate), Candace Collins Jordan (December 1979 Playmate), Reneé Tenison (November 1989 Playmate and first African American Playmate of the Year, in 1990), Brande Roderick (April 2000 Playmate and 2001 PMOY) and Raquel Pomplun (April 2012 Playmate and the first Mexican American PMOY, in 2013) we might not have autonomous bodies—whether tattooed, stretch-marked, pierced and/or postpartum—filling Instagram feeds."],[0,"These Playmates remind us that all bodies are worthy of public reverence, but Valentino, at the age of 77, makes the point most compellingly. Valentino’s presence is powerful because in 2014 she came forward after more than 40 years of silence to allege sexual abuse against Bill Cosby. “Why did they wait so long?” is a constant challenge to the 60-plus Cosby accusers. Women who’ve put their sexuality on display struggle to be recognized as legitimate victims of sexual violence. But Valentino expresses gratitude for having been “given this platform so I might use my voice for social good.” She’s a different sort of beautiful, perhaps more alluring than the average pert 20-something could hope to be."],[0,"Once a Playmate, always a Playmate."],[0,"That motto could variously refer to these models’ sisterhood or their fans’ adoration, which continues long after newsstand dates. Inadvertently, it also brings to mind how a woman’s past is always considered, regardless of her present. Many Playmates have achieved mainstream success all the same. Valentino is a women’s rights activist, Jordan is a columnist, Tenison owns two clothing stores, Roderick is a Realtor and Pomplun is a comedian."],[0,"“I feel sexier in my 40s than I did in my 20s,” Roderick says, “and I worry about the young women who think they can’t be powerful if nudity is involved.” For Pomplun, that’s why this shoot represents “a rebellion in the face of criticism and judgment.” Adds Jordan, “I want to show women that beauty and sexuality have no limits.”"],[0,"Women publicly taking pleasure in their bodies and sexuality is still a radical act, and it becomes more radical as we age. By returning to the pages of PLAYBOY, these women do more than prove they’ve “still got it.” Perhaps here is where they truly “humanize” the pinup, reminding the world that our beauty doesn’t fade with the years; it simply changes shape. Our sexuality does not deplete with age; it evolves."],[0,"We’ve made it to a time when a richer experience of womanhood has found its place in a world once built on youth and the perceived absence of physical flaws. There may not be a consensus over what that means, but it certainly feels like progress."]]]}]}],"next":[0,{"id":[0,"2020/01/depth-of-field"],"collection":[0,"articles"],"data":[0,{"issue":[0,{"slug":[0,"2020/01"],"collection":[0,"issues"]}],"title":[0,"Depth of Field"],"type":[0,"Heritage"],"pages":[1,[[1,[[0,208]]]]],"preview":[0,"https://cdn.centerfold.com/magazine/issues/202001/two-page/208-209-medium.jpg"],"view":[0,"https://ipb-reader.playboy.com/20191217/index.html#p=208"],"body":[1,[[0,"Few jobs are as ready-made to inspire envy among lovers of women than that of PLAYBOY photo director. Yet little has been written about the magazine’s founding “picture editor,” Vincent T. Tajiri, who for 15 stratospheric years oversaw our photo department. During his tenure Tajiri watched the print run top 7 million, thanks in large part to the teeming photographer and stringer ecosystem he developed. Praised as a gentleman and a deep thinker by his former employees (and called a cocksucker by Hunter S. Thompson; more on that later), he remained an elusive figure among the many outsize personalities of PLAYBOY’s early years. So who was Vince Tajiri?"],[0,"Born in southern California in 1919, Tajiri was a teenager when his older brother Larry, who went on to be a distinguished journalist, brought home a 35-mm SLR camera from a reporting trip to Asia. Vince, who’d been priming himself to be a writer, fell in love with the medium. “I knew very little about photography then,” he told Popular Photography in 1968, “but I shot promiscuously and uninhibitedly.” At the same time he was developing his photography skills, he wrote prolifically for English-language papers that served the Japanese American community."],[0,"At the age of 18 he moved to San Francisco to work for one such daily, Nichibei Shinbun. The previous year he had created Rigmarole, an intermittent Nichibei column that variously covered the nisei (Americans who, like Tajiri, were born to immigrant parents from Japan), sports stats, movies and any other topic that caught Tajiri’s attention."],[0,"In February 1941 Tajiri was drafted into the Army. He was at Camp Bonneville in Washington state on December 7 of that year when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor. The next day the United States entered World War II, and less than three months later the government ordered nearly 120,000 Japanese Americans living on the West Coast—the vast majority of them U.S.-born citizens—out of their homes and into incarceration camps. Among them were Tajiri’s mother and younger siblings, who were sent to the camp in Poston, Arizona with only what they could carry. They lost everything else, including the home they owned in San Diego."],[0,"Tajiri was a sergeant in the 442nd Regimental Combat Team—the famed unit composed of nisei soldiers that became the military’s most decorated—when he married his girlfriend, Rose Hayashi, in Hattiesburg, Mississippi in August 1943, ahead of his expected deployment. Poor health ultimately kept Tajiri out of overseas duty. Three of his brothers volunteered to serve. One, who joined the Army out of Poston in 1943, was later awarded a Purple Heart."],[0,"The inequity between the Tajiris’ service and the government’s bigotry is almost too obvious to state, but Vince gave it eloquent expression in a September 1942 letter to the Fresno Bee: “Except for minor differences in pigment we are just like you.” Not only did the Army have Japanese American officers, he reminded readers, but “another 16,000 are serving in the ranks.… America’s battle is our battle, and America’s enemies are our enemies.”"],[0,"After the war, Vince and Rose moved to Chicago, where they started a family. Vince took on freelance photo assignments and soon enough was working concurrently as editorial director of three photo-based titles: Guns Magazine, Art Photography and Figure Quarterly, the first two of which were titles of Publishers’ Development Corp. While at PDC, Tajiri met Hugh Hefner, who worked in the circulation department by day and, later, in his kitchen on his nascent magazine by night. Both Art Photography and Figure Quarterly featured pinup and nude photography, and it’s likely Tajiri’s experience with such material helped Hefner see him as an attractive recruit."],[0,"In 1956 Tajiri signed on to be PLAYBOY’s first photo editor, making him Hefner’s “third important hire,” according to Hefner biographer Steven Watts—presumably after art director Art Paul, who designed the Rabbit Head, and A.C. Spectorsky, a key editor. Shel Silverstein, in his 1964 three-part history of PLAYBOY, wryly imagined Hef’s hiring process: “Here’s how it will be…Spec is the associate publisher, so he gets $700 a week... Vic is promotion director, so he gets $500 a week...John is production manager, so he gets $400 a week...and Tajiri, you’ll be photographing the girls, so you pay us $100 a week!”"],[0,"“When I arrived, the photo department was me, one file cabinet, a secretary and two desks,” Tajiri once said. A decade later, he was managing a staff of dozens and a countrywide network of stringers. The photo facilities he developed at 919 North Michigan Avenue in Chicago included studio spaces, processing labs, a library and a full kitchen, where film was kept in the freezers. By 1968 the in-house lab was developing about 5,000 rolls of film on-site annually, with thousands more sent elsewhere."],[0,"In addition to producing images for the magazine, Tajiri oversaw the photo needs of the clubs, which numbered more than a dozen by 1965, and supervised the photography in VIP, the club magazine. Playboy’s many other departments often required original shoots, including for advertising and mail-order products, the Playboy Press and Playboy’s modeling agency. Eventually Tajiri was responsible for Playboy’s three full-time studios in Chicago, New York and Los Angeles."],[0,"Naturally Tajiri’s influence went beyond the images: In 1959, Hefner wanted to run a black-and-white photo taken at a nude-dancing establishment. “There’s pubic hair evident in the picture. It’s more than a shadow,” Tajiri told Rolling Stone in 1973. But Hefner didn’t want to retouch it, instead printing it very small. Tajiri was nervous about running afoul of obscenity laws—this was four years before the city of Chicago took Hefner to court for publishing photos of a nude Jayne Mansfield—and so, in Tajiri’s words, he “shaped up the triangle where it was a little ragged. Made it look like a G-string.” Tajiri even created a fake contact sheet. When the FBI came to investigate, they closely inspected the doctored duplicates but found nothing amiss."],[0,"His role at the magazine afforded him proximity to celebrities, including Peter Sellers, with whom he played poker at Playboy’s London casino, and John Cassavetes, who became a good friend, according to Tajiri’s daughter, Rea Tajiri, a filmmaker. But not all high-profile interactions were so warm. In 1969 Hunter S. Thompson was working on a PLAYBOY story about French ski champ Jean-Claude Killy and his promotional tour for Chevrolet. Thompson and a member of the Chevy PR team were out drinking in Chicago when Tajiri swung by to ask the flak to bring Killy to the Mansion that evening for a photo shoot. The invite did not extend to Thompson. “The cocksucker told me to get lost,” Thompson groused after the magazine killed his article."],[0,"By the early 1970s, Tajiri had begun to doubt the direction the magazine was headed. Penthouse, a raunchy imitator, was gaining popularity and pushing PLAYBOY into new territory. Hefner decided to print a photo revealing a peek of Playmate pubic hair in the January 1971 issue."],[0,"“I was very, very unhappy about it. I felt we were chasing an upstart,” Tajiri later told British writer Russell Miller. Hefner eventually agreed, saying the magazine had temporarily “lost [its] compass,” but by then Tajiri had left the company. Back on the West Coast, he contributed technical discussions and commentary sections to books by photographic heavyweights including Annie Leibovitz, Mary Ellen Mark, Will McBride and Bert Stern. In 1977 he wrote a thorough and entertaining biography of silent-screen star Rudolph Valentino for Bantam Books."],[0,"Life in Los Angeles helped Tajiri reconnect with his roots. “It was kind of like a homecoming for him,” says Rea Tajiri. “He started working more in the Japanese American community.” Among other collaborative projects, Vince edited the 1990 publication Through Innocent Eyes, a compilation of art, poetry and essays created by children incarcerated at the Poston camp."],[0,"Despite running the photography department of a magazine renowned for its imagery, Tajiri’s name is not as well known as Hefner’s or Paul’s. Some of his former employees attribute that relative obscurity to his quiet nature and indifference to the spotlight. His grandson Vince Schleitwiler, a professor of ethnic studies at the University of Washington, sees cultural factors at play."],[0,"“The fact that he was kind of invisible but really influential is very much like a lot of other high-achieving Japanese Americans after the war—people who did really significant things in design and architecture, in the sciences and other professional fields,” says Schleitwiler. “But they were not inclined to call attention to themselves, having experienced what having attention called to you was like.”"],[0,"Granddaughter Midori Tajiri, who lived in the Tajiri family house in L.A. in the late 1980s and early 1990s and is today a New Orleans artist, remembers how supportive Vince was of family and community. “He loved watching In Living Color because there was a Japanese hip-hop dancer. Every time they would come on, he would point her out,” Midori says. “It was a big deal, because Japanese didn’t always have a role in media and society when he was growing up.”"],[0,"Of course, it all comes back to the pictures. Tajiri died in 1993, but you can still glimpse his quiet brilliance on thousands of PLAYBOY pages—and in a remark he made to Popular Photography in 1968. “The most important thing in a photograph of a woman is her eyes,” he said. “If a woman’s eyes are not sharp, if they don’t say anything, the picture doesn’t run in PLAYBOY.”"],[0,"In the same interview, he also said, “Without photography, there would be no PLAYBOY.” To which we might add—without Vince Tajiri, one can only wonder what PLAYBOY would have been."]]]}]}]}" ssr="" client="load" opts="{"name":"ArticlePreview","value":true}" await-children=""><div class="mx-auto max-w-7xl p-4"><nav class="font-harriet"><a href="/magazine/issues/2020/01" class="text-black/50">Winter, 2020</a> / Diamond Days</nav><figure class="flex flex-col items-center" data-pagefind-body="true" data-pagefind-meta="image:https://cdn.centerfold.com/magazine/covers/2020/01/medium.jpg"><span data-pagefind-meta="publishedDate:2020-01-01T00:00:00.000Z"></span><button class="my-6 w-full transition-opacity hover:opacity-80 max-w-xl"><div class="relative flex-shrink-0"><div class="absolute z-20 h-full w-full"><div class="flex h-full w-full items-center justify-center"><div class="magazine-sheen-left h-full w-full max-w-48"></div><div class="magazine-sheen-right h-full w-full max-w-48"></div></div></div><div class="animate-fade aspect-[250/175] object-cover shadow-lg"></div><div class="magazine-shadow absolute left-0 top-0 z-0 h-full w-full"></div></div></button><figcaption data-pagefind-meta="title" class="mb-2 font-headline text-3xl">Diamond Days</figcaption></figure><nav><ol class="my-3 flex items-center justify-between"><li class="sm:w-1/3 sm:flex-none"><a href="/magazine/articles/2020/01/once-a-playmate-always-a-playmate" class="flex items-center sm:py-1.5 hover:underline gap-1.5 justify-start" aria-label="Previous article: "Once a Playmate, Always a Playmate""><svg class="remixicon-icon inline-block w-8 h-8 sm:w-6 sm:h-6" width="24" height="24" fill="currentColor" viewBox="0 0 24 24"><path d="M7.828 11H20v2H7.828l5.364 5.364-1.414 1.414L4 12l7.778-7.778 1.414 1.414z"></path></svg><span class="hidden truncate sm:block">Once a Playmate, Always a Playmate</span></a></li><li class="sm:w-1/3 sm:flex-none text-center"><button class="rounded-md border border-black px-3 py-1.5">View Article Pages</button></li><li class="sm:w-1/3 sm:flex-none"><a href="/magazine/articles/2020/01/depth-of-field" class="flex items-center sm:py-1.5 hover:underline gap-1.5 justify-end" aria-label="Next article: "Depth of Field""><span class="hidden truncate sm:block">Depth of Field</span><svg class="remixicon-icon inline-block w-8 h-8 sm:w-6 sm:h-6" width="24" height="24" fill="currentColor" viewBox="0 0 24 24"><path d="M16.172 11l-5.364-5.364 1.414-1.414L20 12l-7.778 7.778-1.414-1.414L16.172 13H4v-2z"></path></svg></a></li></ol></nav></div></astro-island> </header> <section class="mx-auto max-w-3xl px-4 py-12"> <hgroup class="my-6"> <h1 class="mb-2 font-headline text-3xl">Diamond Days</h1> <p class="font-harriet text-[rgb(14,10,9)]/60"> Winter, 2020 </p> </hgroup> <div class="font-sans text-lg font-light leading-relaxed text-[rgba(14,10,9,1)]/60 sm:text-xl [&_p]:my-6"> <astro-island uid="Z3emkk" prefix="r5" component-url="/magazine/_astro/Paywall.tkY3VCOO.js" component-export="Paywall" renderer-url="/magazine/_astro/client.ghbLx9WX.js" props="{}" ssr="" client="load" opts="{"name":"Paywall","value":true}" await-children=""><section class="paid-content"><astro-slot><p>On February 29, 1960 the first Playboy Club opened its doors, and into pop culture bounded the Bunny. With her satin ears, sheer stockings, boned corset and white tail (the cuffs and collars came later), she has resided in our collective imagination ever since. Like the indelible Playboy Rabbit Head, the Bunny symbolizes the ideal of sophisticated pleasure. But unlike the inanimate logo, the Bunnies had the hard work of actually bringing that ideal to life.</p><p>It was a good job—if you could get it. Hundreds of Bunny hopefuls typically applied at each new club, some company-owned and others franchise-operated. Bunnies could be found working in 25 states and seven countries and, after Playboy’s private DC-9 airplane took off in the early 1970s, in the sky as well. From Jamaica to New Jersey, London to Lansing and Omaha to Osaka, the Playboy hotels, casinos and resorts offered endless amenities and activities—horseback riding, scuba diving, skeet shooting, skiing, roulette. The bushy-tailed Bunny was the ever-present standard bearer (and still is: Visit our Playboy Club in London).</p><p>Bunny training was rigorous, and standards were high. The so-called Bunny Mothers were managers who enforced rules laid out in the intimidatingly thick Bunny Manual, but for the Bunnies, tips and other perks including tuition assistance and appearance fees made the difficult job worthwhile. In the early 1980s, for example, Bunnies hired to appear at events approved by Playboy earned $17.50 an hour—more than five times the minimum wage.</p><p>The clubs were showplaces for comedians, jazz musicians and other performers, but it was the Bunnies, with their practiced-to-perfection perch, stance and dip, who were the steady draw. For a short while in the mid-1980s, Rabbits—male servers who were Bunny counterparts—had their time in the New York hutch; more than 1,500 men applied for 25 positions.</p><p>It would be a mistake to look at the Bunny and see only a waitress; she was so much more. When the Bunny first arrived on the scene 60 years ago, the world was still adjusting to the idea of women who unapologetically owned their attractiveness or leveraged it as part of their job. Criticism came from various corners, including undercover Bunny Gloria Steinem’s two-part 1963 story in Show magazine. But where some saw sexism, most Bunnies saw opportunity. (As one told The New York Times in 1976, “We’re exploiting men; they’re not exploiting us. After all, those poor slobs just want to come in here and see us.”) Many former Bunnies credit their time working at the clubs as formative to the women they became.</p><p>“I really owe my Ph.D.—my first one—to Hugh Hefner and Playboy,” says Elisabeth Clark, a psychologist and psychoanalyst who was known in the original New York club as Bunny Dana. “Playboy paid for two college courses every semester. My graduate-level classes at New York University were in the daytime, and I could still work at night. It was perfect.”</p><p>Then as now, it took guts and grit to be a Bunny.</p><p>On the occasion of the Bunny’s diamond anniversary, we reached out to 17 former Bunnies and one Rabbit—among their ranks a doctor, two rock singers, a film editor, an attorney and a social worker—and asked them about their time wearing the ears. Read on for their memories.</p><p> BUILDING CHARACTER—AND BANK ACCOUNTS</p><p>Offering excellent pay, flexible hours and tuition aid, working as a Bunny was often seen as the best gig in town</p><p>Gloria Hendry, New York club, 1965–1972 (actor, singer, model, legal secretary): I became a Bunny because of the money. Sometimes I made up to $2,000 a week. I was dabbling in acting, and I could never have afforded classes if I hadn’t been a Bunny. Thanks to the hours, I was able to go out on auditions, and I got my first Screen Actors Guild movie role, in For Love of Ivy, with Sidney Poitier and Abbey Lincoln.</p><p>Sabrina Scharf Schiller, New York and Bahamas clubs, 1962–1963 (attorney): I thought if I worked very hard and saved diligently, it would give me the serious start I needed for my education. And that’s exactly what happened. I worked the first 60 days for the club without a day off, in three-inch heels, often doing double shifts. With tips, I was taking home the unheard-of amount of $100 per day. Mid-level career men weren’t earning that much then, let alone young women.</p><p>Marilyn Cole, London club, 1971–1974 (journalist, 1973 Playmate of the Year): Playboy made us financially independent, a rare thing for 21-year-old girls. We could travel, buy our own cocktails and the latest fashions—even have mortgages and build our own lives. That was powerful.</p><p>Kathryn Leigh Scott, New York club, 1963–1966 (actor, author—we’re partial to her 1998 book, The Bunny Years): I was a scholarship student at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, working at Bloomingdale’s part time, when I saw the ad: “Girls, step into the spotlight, become a Playboy Bunny!” It sounded like fun, glamor, good pay and perfect hours for my class schedule. Lauren Hutton and I met in the long line to audition, and Keith Hefner hired both of us.</p><p>Debbie Harry, New York club, 1968 (lead singer and songwriter for Blondie): It’s not a job or career choice for everyone; however, it was a good education for me, and the Playboy clubs always had a high regard for the women who worked there. Being a Bunny was the right decision for me, as I have always liked the naughty and nice sides of a story.</p><p>AT THE VANGUARD</p><p>As the sexual revolution got under way in the 1960s, influenced in no small part by PLAYBOY, other social changes were transforming the cultural landscape</p><p>Sabrina Scharf Schiller: Women’s lives were changing drastically. The advent of the pill brought about more control over our bodies and our choices. There was a total shift in social mores, and Bunnies were on the front lines of that change. We were the innocent representation of the concept that sex is fun. Only the appearance was naughty.</p><p>Angelyn Chester, Chicago club, 1972–1984 (journalist, 1974 International Bunny of the Year): The very first woman who won International Bunny of the Year, Gina Byrams, was a woman of color. You have to remember the times; race relations were strained. In 1974 I won my local Bunny competition, and some people said, “Just go to L.A. and have a good time. They’re not going to pick a woman of color after another woman of color.” I didn’t believe that. I thought I had just as good a chance as anybody. And I went on to win.</p><p>Jennifer Jackson, Chicago club, 1964 (social worker, March 1965 Playmate): The 1960s were an amazing period, you know? The Black Movement, Vietnam, the hippies, the Beatles, Motown. There hasn’t been a more exciting time since.</p><p>Francesca Emerson, New York and Los Angeles clubs, 1963–1968 (film editor): The Playboy Club was known for hiring minorities even in the early 1960s, when some places were still segregated. I was a black unmarried mother living in New York City, and Playboy gave me confidence, independence, financial security, adventure and opportunities that would never have come to me had I still been working the counters at Bloomingdale’s or serving coffee and donuts in some uptown takeout joint.</p><p>Gloria Hendry: The club was wonderful. If somebody grabbed my tail or said something derogatory to me, like “I don’t want that black Bunny waiting on me,” the room director would walk over and say, “May I have your Playboy key, please? Now get out and never come back.” What can I say? They protected us, they took care of us, and that’s my experience.</p><p>GETTING THE GIG</p><p>Every Bunny—or Rabbit—forged their own path to the Playboy Club</p><p>Gwen Wong Wayne, Los Angeles club and Big Bunny airplane, 1965–1975 (interior designer, April 1967 Playmate): My aunt was a Bunny in Miami and New York, and she had some great stories to tell; I think she was the catalyst for my career with Playboy. I showed some pictures to Keith Hefner, and he immediately asked if I could work at the Miami club. I couldn’t leave my two children, but Keith promised that when the L.A. club opened I would be one of the first to get a Bunny suit. When the club was interviewing hundreds of girls, I thought Keith had probably forgotten me. He had not. He was a man of his word, and I was in—yeah! Later I became a Jet Bunny on Playboy’s plane.</p><p>Connie Mason Kasten, Miami and Chicago clubs, 1961–1962 (actor, June 1963 Playmate): It was a much coveted job, like being chosen to be in the Miss America pageant. Tony Roma had suggested to my dad that I apply since the Bunnies made such good tips. During my Bunnyhopping years I gained tremendous self-confidence, and I was able to support my two little ones as a single mother.</p><p>Jeff Rector, New York Empire Club, 1985–1986 (actor, writer): When word went out that Playboy was looking for waiters, every Chippendale thought he would get the job. But Playboy didn’t want a bunch of beefcakes who just strolled around looking pretty. You had to do your job and do it well. It’s the only job I’ve ever had where I couldn’t wait to go to work.</p><p>Dale Bozzio, Boston club, 1973–1976 (musician, lead singer for Missing Persons): I was 18 years old when I became a Playboy Bunny in Boston. Out of 250 girls, they hired four, and I was one of them. Training lasted weeks. I learned how to use my beauty in a kind, precious manner. I became the best Bunny I possibly could.</p><p>BARRACUDAS AND TOUGH MOTHERS</p><p>The Bunny gig came with some exacting standards (sometimes too exacting) and demanding tasks</p><p>Angelyn Chester: It was not a hairnet type of job. We had weeks of grueling training. You had to learn how to high-carry a tray with two heavy telephone books and how to carry the tray at your waist. You had to be strong to high-carry, to walk in those heels, to serve. And you had to be fast. Once I got my tray, it was like a badge of honor. You got your tray, your flashlight and your name tag. It was like a flight attendant getting her wings.</p><p>Pat Lacey, Los Angeles and Jamaica clubs and Big Bunny, 1965–1978 (Playboy Promotions specialist, writer): We did a weigh-in every month; you had to stay within five pounds of your original weight. Being a Bunny was a workout: You developed strong arms from all the lifting and Bunny-dipping. The night manager called us experienced Bunnies barracudas because you had to be tough to make it. When I was a Bunny Mother and we needed five girls, we’d get 10 to start. Not all of them would make it. Girls would get demerits for lateness, for shoes that weren’t polished. But they were smart and knew how to get by my inspections.</p><p>Sabrina Scharf Schiller: I did not like the weekly weigh-in to ensure a trim Bunny figure was kept under control. Those costumes were tight, and we knew when we’d had one dessert too many.</p><p>IN THE WARREN</p><p>Myriad positions were available at the clubs: Door Bunnies, Floor Bunnies, Pool Bunnies, Cabaret Bunnies and more</p><p>Sharron Long, Kansas City and Jamaica clubs, 1966–1968 (businesswoman): I took over the pool table shortly after starting. It was perfect for me. I loved it, and it taught me a lot about being an entrepreneur, though I wasn’t aware of it at the time. I learned how to take chances, how to trust my judgment and, most important, how to step out of the mold that had been created for women at that time.</p><p>Joyce Nizzari, Chicago, Miami and New Orleans clubs, 1960 (Playboy Mansion executive assistant, December 1958 Playmate): I worked at the original Chicago club during the first week it opened as a Door Bunny, checking key numbers. I wore the Bunny costume with no collar or cuffs because they hadn’t been added to the uniform yet. The lines to get in were so long that the doors were almost never fully closed; I remember getting snow on my costume.</p><p>Gloria Hendry: I wound up starting as a Cigarette Bunny, saying, “Cigars, cigarettes, Tiparillos, Playboy lighters? One dollar and five cents.” I’ll never forget those lines. And men used to come by and give me a $100 or $50 tip.</p><p>Pat Lacey: After six weeks of training in Indiana in an enormous hangar, and in Florida for water-evacuation training, and in Wisconsin at the Lake Geneva club, where the Playboy chef taught us how to prepare gourmet meals, I became a Jet Bunny. Normally a flight would have just one preflight FAA inspector. But on the Big Bunny there were always multiple inspectors—they wanted to see Hef’s plane and the Jet Bunnies!</p><p>Carol Cleveland, London club, 1966 (comedian, writer and Monty Python cast member): I started off in the Cabaret Room. Once I took people’s orders and the show started, I could watch the cabaret. Dave Allen was a well-known comedian here in England, and he was the star when I first started. I was a great fan and happy as could be watching him perform every night.</p><p>LIFE LESSONS FROM THE DRESSING ROOM</p><p>Co-workers became friends who became family within the special society of Bunnydom</p><p>Marilyn Cole: The Bunny room was the most liberating place—there was swearing, nudity, camaraderie and pluralism. I learned about politics, social justice and religious diversity. A Bunny roommate had been born in Aden as a Zoroastrian; she called it the oldest religion in the world. She would burn incense and pray every night, even wear a religious garment around her waist underneath her Bunny costume.</p><p>Kathryn Leigh Scott: I was a farm kid from the Midwest mixing with 110 other young women in every size and shape, from every religious, ethnic, cultural, economic and racial background, from all over the world. The Bunny dressing room circa 1963 was more diverse than a college campus even 20 years later. A single mother from a Harlem project donned the same jewel-colored costume as an heiress, an East German refugee who’d escaped the Berlin Wall, the daughter of a Chinese diplomat, a gap-toothed tomboy who became a supermodel; I interviewed them all for The Bunny Years.</p><p>Candace Collins Jordan, St. Louis and Chicago clubs, 1973–1977 (columnist, December 1979 Playmate): The Bunnies were the sisters I never had. It was a unique sorority and a joy for me.</p><p>Francesca Emerson: We bonded like glue. Playboy was like a gigantic family of different people of different backgrounds and different cultures, all working hard to improve themselves. When we weren’t working, we’d meet at each other’s houses and have lunches and dinners together, participate in each other’s kids’ birthday parties, even take vacations together. Half a century later, I still have close friendships from the New York and L.A. clubs.</p><p>MISCONCEPTIONS</p><p>Donning the ears could come with some baggage</p><p>Marilyn Cole: I am shocked that I still sometimes have to defend myself for having been a Bunny and a Playmate. It was a woman who interviewed me. It was a woman who trained me. It was a woman who did PR at the club. PLAYBOY magazine’s photo editor was a woman. The first woman gaming inspector in the U.K. casino industry had been a Playboy Croupier Bunny. I wish people knew that. Who would have thought we would have such an impact on social history? The Bunnies were pioneers. We stood for freedom.</p><p>Candace Collins Jordan: I wish people understood what a wonderful opportunity this was for women like me instead of thinking we were exploited. It was our choice to be Bunnies. We made great money and great friends and had wonderful opportunities that are now lasting memories. It was a priceless and life-changing experience for me and made me who I am today.</p><p>Jennifer Jackson: In the 1960s and 1970s, no one thought black people were pretty. And then people saw me as a black woman, and that black is beautiful, in all different shades. That was one of the things that we promoted.</p><p>Kathryn Leigh Scott: Former Bunnies include entrepreneurs, lawyers, judges, CEOs, professors, architects, restaurateurs, scientists and a few actors and writers—none of us turning in our satin ears to collect Social Security!</p><p>Angelyn Chester: Hefner sent a memo to corporate explaining that if it were not for the women, the Playmates and the Bunnies in particular, that the company would not exist, so they are to be respected and not harassed. He was ahead of his time when it came to policies like that.</p><p>GOOD TIMES, GREAT MEMORIES</p><p>From celebrity customers to softball stardom, the Bunnies and Rabbits led unforgettable lives</p><p>Pat Lacey: In Jamaica they had goat racing on the beach for guests to watch. Guys would climb the trees and grab fresh coconuts right off the palms. During the day, before six P.M., we wore a two-piece bikini, ears and tail, with flip-flops, and in the evenings the standard Bunny costume. I overstayed my visa and got booted from the country!</p><p>Elisabeth Clark, New York and Montreal clubs, 1965–1975 (psychologist and psychoanalyst): I was working the Playmate Bar one night, and this guy was at my station all by himself, wearing a hat and a raincoat. I took his order, scotch and water or something, and I served it to him. The bartender said, “Do you know who you’re waiting on?” I said, “No, why?” And he says, “That’s Paul Newman.” I said, “Who’s Paul Newman?”</p><p>Jeff Rector: Wherever we went, people were like, “Oh my God, it’s the Bunnies and Rabbits from the Playboy Club.” We could get into any club, anytime. We could get reservations at any restaurant. We really were treated like celebrities.</p><p>Francesca Emerson: Playing on the Bunny softball team is one of my favorite memories. It started as a charity event in the Chicago club and was so successful it spread throughout the clubs. The New York club’s team was so competitive. Every Thursday at noon, the Dream Team, as we were known, played in Central Park; we wore black tights and orange sweaters with the Bunny logo on the front.</p><p>THE TAIL END</p><p>A parting thought from a beloved Bunny</p><p>Dale Bozzio: I’m the proudest Bunny. Everything I learned as a Playboy Bunny brought me to today. I’m 64 years old; I go on stage every month, maybe four times a month. I learned to be courageous and to be a proud woman and to know how beautiful I am. I learned to love myself. And that’s where I’m coming from; that’s how I write all my music. That’s how I live my life, and that’s how I’ve raised my sons.</p><p>Reporting by Tori Lynn Adams, Cat Auer, Andie Eisen and Michele Sleighel.</p><p>Our Strong Suit</p><p>Recognized the world over, the Bunny costume may be the most famous uniform ever created</p><p>Like many aspects of Playboy history, the Bunny suit owes much of its success to women—and not just those who wear it.</p><p>Founder Hugh Hefner originally wanted silky negligees as the club uniform but was talked out of the impractical idea by Victor Lownes, the promotions manager who was instrumental in the development of the clubs. Instead Lownes brought Hef a better idea—one Lownes got from his girlfriend, actress Ilsa Taurins (whose name is spelled variously as Ilze and Ilse). As former Bunny Kathryn Leigh Scott reports in The Bunny Years, Taurins suggested the costume be rabbit-based, a play on the magazine’s emblem. Although Hefner had already considered and spurned the idea as too masculine, Taurins created a one-piece design with an attached tail and separate ears, according to Scott. Taurins’s seamstress mother then assembled the prototype, which Lownes showed to Hef. The costume wasn’t quite daring enough for Hefner’s vision, but with minor alterations it formed the basis for the world-famous outfit that debuted at the Chicago Playboy Club in 1960.</p><p>Quality of craftsmanship in addition to the risk-taking fashion surely also helped the costume’s legacy. According to New York University director of costume studies Nancy Deihl, the clubs commissioned talented women to custom-build the suits, including Zelda Wynn Valdes, who fabricated them for the New York club that opened in December 1962.</p><p>“The Bunny costume has withstood the test of time because of its simplicity,” says Kristi Beck, a Playboy senior manager and part of a group responsible for overseeing Bunny selection and training.</p><p>Small changes to the hare-raising getup have been made over the decades: the addition of the tuxedo collar and cuffs and a name-tag rosette, a tweak to the high-cut leg, a slight redesign of the ears, more accommodating cup sizes—but the Bunny remains as recognizable as ever.</p><p>By the time the suit turned 20, various versions were in use alongside the solid-color satin classic: suits with psychedelic patterns inspired by Emilio Pucci, a VIP suit in velvet, a lacy (and short-lived) cabaret version and a fur-trimmed green or red Christmas look. And not all Bunnies wore the famous suit; season, location and responsibility also dictated their attire, with non-corset-based outfits for Ski Bunnies, Croupier Bunnies, Beach Bunnies and others.</p><p>Today Playboy Club servers wear suits that were updated in 2005 with accessories by designer Roberto Cavalli. In 2018 Bunnies at the Coachella music fest wore a new green-leaf-patterned suit, but the original 1960 silhouette remains intact.</p><p>Since its appearance six decades ago, the Bunny suit has woven its way into the fabric of American culture, donned by everyone from Dolly Parton to Flip Wilson to Kate Moss. It was the first service uniform ever registered with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, and a complete Bunny costume can be found in the collection of the Smithsonian. Like other cultural mainstays, how it’s seen often depends on who’s looking at it, including the Bunnies themselves.</p><p>“Bunnies like wearing it for different reasons,” says Beck, who sometimes fits new Bunnies into their suits. “Some see it as playful and nostalgic; others see it as badass empowerment. We don’t need to define it for them.”</p></astro-slot></section></astro-island> </div> </section> <astro-island uid="Cn1eQ" prefix="r1" component-url="/magazine/_astro/PaywallMembershipUpsell.PXVXlNqO.js" component-export="PaywallMembershipUpsell" renderer-url="/magazine/_astro/client.ghbLx9WX.js" props="{"articleId":[0,"2020/01/diamond-days"],"issueId":[0,"2020/01"],"redirectUrl":[0,"https://www.playboy.com/magazine/articles/2020/01/diamond-days/"]}" ssr="" client="load" opts="{"name":"PaywallMembershipUpsell","value":true}" await-children=""><div class="relative"><div class="pointer-events-none absolute -top-40 left-0 right-0 h-40 bg-gradient-to-b from-transparent to-beige-200 to-60%"></div><div class="flex w-full flex-col justify-center gap-y-6 bg-beige-200 p-4 pb-20 md:mx-auto md:flex-row lg:gap-x-16"><div class="flex flex-col items-center gap-y-6 md:max-w-lg"><h2 class="text-center text-3xl font-bold">Like what you see? 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