The Bunny Years (20 page)

“The bottom fell out when Playboy fired me. Seventeen Bunnies were let go in one swoop. It was a big story in Chicago, but I couldn't talk to the press. I was sick. I kept thinking, I can't lose this. Even though I was saving my money and preparing for the day when I would leave and open my own place, I didn't want that cord to be cut. Hollywood may not be your dream, but there's a time in your life when anything's possible, stardom or whatever you've set your heart on, and that's what I felt as a Playboy Bunny. I was a star in my own little corner of the world. It gave me a sense of importance, that I counted for something and could really make it in life. Nothing compares to that youthful moment when the world is yours.

Chicago Bunnies doing the Twist.

“I was an outsider all through parochial school, a kid from the wrong side of the tracks. I was raised by my grandmother. My mother was a professional tap dancer; my dad was a Las Vegas character. I was no beauty, but Playboy hired me anyway. All I had was my personality and resilience. I always considered myself the ‘black swan' among all the white swans, but I just put myself out there. Jesus, I sold cases of those damn Playboy souvenir mugs—I'd serve martinis in them! When the bartenders saw that I was on the schedule, they'd haul in cases of mugs from the storeroom.

Dana Montana at her nightclub, The Sugar Shack.

“I tried to re-create everything I loved about Playboy in my own club. The Sugar Shack was literally a derelict shack when I bought it over 30 years ago. I made a down payment with my Playboy savings and parlayed that investment into a huge success when I came up with the idea of hiring the first male strippers. We had buses pulling up with women from all over the world who just
had
to see these male dancers.

“I can't imagine what would have become of me if I hadn't worked at Playboy. It opened my eyes to a style of life and an aura of beauty and sophistication that I wanted around me the rest of my life. To this day, I use the Playboy Bunny Manual as my training guide. I'm a fanatic about ‘capping' ashtrays and calling out a drink order properly at the bar. The Bunny Dip is still the best way to serve a drink because if you tip your tray, everything dumps on the floor, not the customer.

“I'm a grandmother, but I'm still referred to as the ‘former Playboy Bunny who . . .' whenever there's a newspaper article about me and The Sugar Shack or my Arabian horse farm. And that's fine with me. “

M
ARILYN
M
ILLER

I
n 1960, I was captain of the chorus line at the Chez Paree in Chicago when the Playboy guys came in and hired all my girls. One night, I got a note backstage that Victor Lownes III wanted to meet me between shows. I said, ‘Who's Victor Lownes III?' Someone said he looked like the ‘Before' in the Wildroot hair cream ad. I went out to meet him and, sure enough, here's this guy with a big head of hair. He was seeing a Bunny named Sue Gin at the time. Victor said, ‘Why don't you come to Playboy, too—you'll make a lot of money.'

Dance master “Killer Joe” Piro and Skitch Henderson with New York Bunnies (left to right): Patti Burns, Pam Marty, Marilyn Miller and Judy Cortner doing the Mouse for the
Tonight Show
.

“So off I went. Playboy was such a family thing in the beginning, just a little Club off Rush Street for Hef's friends. Sandy Keto, a dancer who had been on tour with me in Brazil, came along. We were only going to stay for two weeks, but we couldn't believe the money we were making. You know what it's like being a dancer: living out of a suitcase, making only enough to get by. We ended up staying—and staying. I was with Playboy seven years. Sandy worked as a Bunny for 14 years.

“People always confused Bunnies with Playmates, but few of the girls ever posed for the centerfold. Pompeo Posar, who photographed a lot of the Playmates, called me at home one day and asked if I could meet him at the Playboy Mansion. He was checking out the lighting around the swimming pool and needed a model. I said ‘sure.' So I stood here and there while he snapped pictures. When he asked me to drop a strap, I did. While he was telling me he loved the color of my hair, he had me reach up for something and the entire top of my bathing suit dropped. I got home and reported to my roommate, Sandy Keto, that I'd posed for Posar without my top on.

“ ‘No!' she said. ‘You didn't!'

“I told her, ‘You don't understand. The way he works, my top just came off.'

“ ‘
Well
,' she said, ‘he'd never get me to do that.'

“Two weeks later, Pompeo wondered if Sandy could help him out, and she did. In no time at all she was stark naked. Several of the photographs appeared in
VIP
magazine. I
was too embarrassed to let them print the pictures of me, even though nothing showed because my arm was across my chest.

“It was an innocent, fun time. I get defensive even now if someone puts down Playboy Bunnies. I loved being a Bunny. We could work as hard as we wanted, save up some money, go off to travel and do whatever we wanted. That was the lure.

“I'd moved to New York to become a singer by the time Playboy opened the Manhattan Club. In July 1963, after a season spent as a magician's assistant being sawed in half at the World's Fair, I went back to being a Bunny.

“In 1967, I had a severe case of pneumonia and when I got out of hospital, I just wasn't strong enough to work as a Bunny. I became a room director, a job usually held by men wearing tuxes. I told Playboy I couldn't wear a Bunny costume as a room director—I'd get no respect from the girls!—so I was allowed to wear a skirt and blazer.

“One day I saw a customer getting fresh with a Bunny, and I went over to take care of it. Another customer watched me handle the incident and afterward introduced himself as an executive with Clairol. He said he liked the way I'd dealt with the situation and wondered if I would be interested in a job with the company in Arizona. I jumped at the chance. My doctor had been urging me to get out of New York and recuperate in a better climate. The day after I arrived in Arizona, I met the man I later married. We had two sons together.

Marilyn Miller, pastry chef and author of Cookie Time (Abrams, 1992), is a consultant for New York's Ferrara's Bakery (established in 1892 and still family-owned). Marilyn will soon launch a bed-and-breakfast in the Brittany region of France.

“Years later, when I was getting a divorce and needed a job, Tony Roma, who had been general manager of the New York Playboy Club, hired me to work in his rib place on 57th Street in New York. We had to wear these little costumes with ruffles on our panties and the other waitresses, all much younger than me, thought this was awful. In 1981, Women's Lib was a big thing, and it was considered so exploitative to wear a uniform like that. Worse, we had to be inspected by Tony,
and if two ruffles weren't showing below the hem of the skirt, he'd reach out and mark your skirt where it had to be shortened. You should have heard the other women—‘Disgusting! Panties showing!' I wondered what all these feminists would have thought if they'd seen me in my Bunny costume. So when my turn came to be inspected by Tony Roma, I did a dance step and swung my ruffles right into his face. The girls all burst out laughing.