The Bunny Years (49 page)

“The only problem was I had to wait nearly a month until my 18th birthday before I could start work as a Bunny.

Jacklyn Zeman of General Hospital.

“The Bunny thing was so easy. You showed up, did it, left. A no-brainer work-wise, and a perfect job if you were going to school. And it was a lot of fun. It was all the rage to wear lots of makeup and tons of hair, which we'd slap on very quickly. Even though I had naturally long hair, I'd slick it back and then attach a long fall upside down so layers of hair would cascade even fuller over my shoulders. We really ‘glammed' out.

“Most of us were just kids going to school, having a good time together. Some had boyfriends, a few were married. We picked up extra money modeling, doing trade shows, filming television commercials, whatever came along. If a girl was offered a job she didn't have time to do, she'd pass it on to someone else in the dressing room. We were family. I never felt bad vibes or competitiveness among the girls. We'd all come in early, taking turns bringing in doughnuts, and spend time together talking until the Club opened. It was exciting to live in New York then, and it was a surprisingly innocent time.

“I think a lot of people mixed up Bunnies and Playmates. My father, who subscribed to Playboy, was fine about my working as a Bunny, but he was concerned that I might pose for the centerfold. ‘Promise me you won't do that,' he said, ‘because you are so young and it could have ramifications on the rest of your life.' I told him OK, ‘I can make that promise.' But years later, after I became a soap opera actress, Mario Casilli photographed me for Playboy in a lime green scarf I wrapped around myself. To this day, men mail me copies of that picture to autograph.

Bunny Baseball Team: Johnnie Gordon, Mary Chipman, Libby Wickes, Leigh Jefferson, Marcia Donen, Tia Mazza, Lynn Passenger, Judy Bruno, Jackie Zeman, Geri Haywood and unidentified Bunny.

“During those years I worked as a Bunny, I wasn't sure what direction my life would take. I was single and free. I could go anywhere, do anything. At one point, I considered transferring to the London Club to train as a blackjack dealer. But I decided against going after I met Murray Kaufman, the disc jockey who was known as the ‘fifth Beatle.' I was still working as a Bunny when I was hired to be one of the “K-Girl” dancers in his nightclub revue. We hit it off and eventually married.

“I played third base on the Bunny softball team, and we made about $2,000 a game for various charities. Jadee, the Bunny Mother, also gave me an opportunity to do various Playboy promotions, for which I was paid a day rate. We wore white pleated miniskirts, high heels and a black sweater with the Rabbit logo on those occasions instead of the Bunny costume. I began to enjoy doing the talk shows and personal appearances more than working at the Club.

“One of the most glamorous events I attended was a celebrity-packed, black-tie opening of the Playboy movie theatre in New York. Hugh Hefner was dating Barbi Benton at the time, but he arrived in a limo escorting a gorgeous Playmate. Most of the women were dressed in skintight, low-cut dresses, but I was wearing the miniskirt-and-sweater outfit. It was all very exciting, with cameras flashing everywhere. I was selected to pose next to Hefner, offering him a bag of popcorn. Seconds after his arrival, another limo pulled up and Barbi appeared. Hefner, the perfect gentleman, raced over to help her out of the car. Flashbulbs popped. The centerfold and I regrouped. Hefner smiled at me and I took that as a cue to thrust the bag at him and say, ‘You want the popcorn?'

“I watched A Bunny's Tale on television and saw it strictly as one person's point of view. It certainly wasn't mine. I really enjoyed working at the Club. The philosophy behind the Playboy Club, on a human level, was about making people feel welcome and giving them a good time. The customers felt important because they were members of an elegant, sophisticated Club, and the Bunnies felt good about themselves because management was protective and kept up standards. I can't think of anything comparable to it today. People weren't doing drugs, getting drunk, tearing the place apart. The Bunnies were all so close that if someone was taking drugs, drinking, going out with customers—we knew.

“I took a lot of pride in being able to support myself. I came from a comfortable, middle-class background, so accumulating ‘stuff' wasn't as important to me as the fact that I earned the means to live the way I wanted to. I was independent. The money was so good that it really was hard to leave Playboy, but eventually it was time to move on.

“After two years at NYU, I dropped out of premed. I wasn't dedicated enough to become a doctor. I remember sitting with Murray in a Bagel Nosh in New York wondering what I should do next and saying, ‘You know what? I love soap operas and I want to be on one.' From the time I was a little girl when I'd come home from school for lunch, my mother and I would eat sandwiches off trays and watch soaps together.

“I auditioned for one soap and was just devastated when I didn't get the job. Then I auditioned for a role on One Life to Live and was hired in 1975. In 1977, Murray was a consultant on the Broadway show Beatlemania, which was going to open in Los Angeles. At about the same time Murray left for California, I got a call from Fred Silverman and Jackie Smith at ABC offering me a role on General Hospital. ‘You don't have to test,' they told me. ‘If you want the role, it's yours.' I flew out the next day to get fitted for wardrobe and start shooting. In January 1997, I celebrated 20 years on General Hospital.

“I've been married to my second husband, a businessman, for 10 years. I'm at a point in my life now when being a good mom is the most important thing to me. Everyone tells me what's coming—‘Mommmm, are you really going to wear that!'—but right now, at 5 and 7 years old, my daughters want me around to hold their hands and
take them places. There are some long days when I can't be home for dinner (we shoot 90—100 pages a day, and we don't go home until the show is finished), but then I have days off when I can spend lots of time with them.

“But 25 years after I left Playboy, two of my closest friends, Cheryl Glickman and Lynn Passenger, are women I met as Bunnies. Now we compare notes as moms.”

M
ARY
C
HIPMAN

M
y experience at Playboy forced me to examine personal issues in a way that a normal job never would have. My generation was right on the cusp of the changing world: raised with traditional ‘50s values, but first on the scene for the so-called ‘Sexual Revolution.' I was swept along by the tides.

“I was a rebellious teenager. At 17, I was already discouraged with my career as a ballet dancer and felt like a total failure. I took up with a much older man and lived with him in Beverly Hills for two years. He was one of those Hollywood ‘hangers-on' who liked the lifestyle of the rich hippies, and we hung out at the Candy Store disco every night. Then Jay Sebring, the famous hairdresser who was part of our circle, was killed with Sharon Tate by the Manson gang. After the murders, the nights were full of shadows for me, and I wanted desperately to get out of Los Angeles.

“A friend wrote a show that was opening on Broadway, and I leapt at the chance to dance in it. The show closed after one night, and that's how I ended up in New York in 1971 with $6 to my name. I had no clear idea of what I wanted to do with my life, and I was woefully unprepared to go out and get a job. But, if you had looks and charm and could fit into that absurd outfit, you could get a job as a Playboy Bunny.

“The Bunny dressing room was the most interesting place in the Club and, of course, where all the great dramas were played out, from insufficient weight-loss confrontations with the wardrobe ladies to screeching hysterics over boyfriends. I saw girls fight so hard to hold on to their Bunny jobs, and I could never understand it. I thought, ‘Get a grip and move on.' There was terrific stratification among the Bunnies, with the younger girls despising the older girls with seniority who got to work the Showrooms, where you could make the best money. I was one of the jealous junior girls, eyeing all the prime Saturday night spots that the older Bunnies were hogging. The Bunny dressing room was also the place where you had to get yourself psyched up to go out on the floor, always a trauma for me.