The Bunny Years (54 page)

O
ver a thousand women applied for Bunny jobs at the new Los Angeles Club in November 1964. The newspaper ad had said auditions would be held in the evenings from 6 to 8, but the interviews went on until 2 a.m. I had left my children with a baby-sitter, and when I saw the mob of applicants standing in line, I knew I was in trouble. I called the baby-sitter and she said, ‘Oh, don't worry, your daughters can spend the night with me.'

“I was working in a savings and loan as a secretary and when I heard about the Playboy Club opening in Los Angeles, I thought, What do I have to lose? I was separated from my husband and living in California with my two little girls, working hard to make ends meet.

“Keith Hefner and three Bunnies from other Clubs were handling the interviews. I filled out a long application, had a Polaroid picture taken and was given a number. While I stood in the hallway waiting, a man came up to me asked what number I had. I said, ‘139.' He said, ‘Fine. You've got time to have dinner with me.' It was getting late and I was starving, so I went with him to a coffee shop across the street for a sandwich. After a while, he made phone call and said, ‘Well, your number is coming up, so I'd better get you back.' He was tall, dressed in black, and I never saw him again. By the time my number was called, it was 11 p.m.

“The interview was like a scene from A Chorus Line. I stood against the wall in a group of 10 girls, all of us dressed in street clothes. Three of us in my group were sent to a dressing room to put on our leotards or bathing suits, and the rest were sent home. After we changed, we paraded through the room, and a few of us were discreetly asked to stay behind for an interview with Keith. Within two weeks, I was training to be a Bunny.

“Shortly before the Club opened on Sunset Boulevard, my husband arrived from Chicago hoping to mend the problems in our marriage. I decided to move back with him and asked for a transfer to the Chicago Club. Of course, I told nobody that I was married with children. The Bunny image of a beautiful, desirable, ‘available' young woman didn't fit with the idea of a housewife raising two kids. I lived in two different worlds, coming
home from this glamorous job in a nightclub to face the dishes in the sink at home. My marriage lasted another 15 years, but it was always difficult.

“After I had worked at Playboy about six months, I was caught in one of their ‘house-cleanings' and fired along with a quite a number of other women. We were told we no longer projected the Bunny Image. I was 21 years old. At the time, I was devastated that they let me go. I was earning such good money. The job didn't interfere with my home life, and it was exciting, glamorous and fulfilling. I went through a very bad time afterward. Normal, everyday life without that job was a miserable existence. I loved being a Bunny. It had been an escape, a release, for me.

“It took me a while to get my life back together. I became a model for three years, sometimes working as a spokesperson at trade shows. That was just as tough to do while raising children. If I had to leave early for a location or fly off to New York for a job, I always seemed to be cooking at night and leaving instructions about food in the freezer. After a time, I came to realize how much strength and initiative being a Playboy Bunny had given me. Nothing is forever, and there's a time when you have to move on. One can't be a model forever, either.

Travel agent, Patti Murphy.

“I found a job, starting at the bottom, with a film production company that made television commercials. I worked my way up and after 10 years, left for a job with a recording studio. I then worked with a film editor on feature films.

“A few years ago, mutual friends introduced me to a musician. After we started dating, we discovered we had been working at Playboy at the same time. He had been their musical director for years and wanted to organize a reunion in Chicago. I helped him pull the event together in October 1995. One of the Bunnies I'd lost touch with and hoped to see was Terri Kimball, who was a Bunny of the Year and a Playmate. When she and I dressed for work in the morning, we'd take turns changing in the ladies' room, both of us too shy to take our clothes off in the dressing room!”

1965

Front Row, Left to Right
Audrey Boutee
Pat Molitor
Sharon Moorman
Marianna Case
Judy Hopkins
Robbin Stein
Joan Nemer

Second Row
Nancy Viller
Kathryn Harrow
Vicki Valentino
(September 1963
Playmate)
Cindy Ogus
Bi Egnell
Lori Fontaine
Alfreda Masters
Nikki Dau (behind
Alfreda)
Lois Kramer
Gwen Lipscomb
Tina Gamwell
Gayle Spencer
Anna Marie Mills
Susie Scott

Third Row
Susan Stevenson
Arlene Cody
Arlyne Venditto
Joan Daniels
Bobbi Benson
Julie Zweig (in Bunny costume)
Teddy Parks
Rita Perez
Jackie Frevert
Heidi Becker (June 1961 Playmate)
Elisabetha Kinkel
Tonia Van Deters

Fourth Row
Denise Frank
Barbro Graflind
Judy Carleton
Sherrie Kuzin
Doris Karloff (in Bunny costume)
Sharon Rogers

(January 1964 Playmate in Bunny costume)
Donna Lesh

(in Bunny costume)

Terry Kaufman
Mitzi Scott
Sunny Nelson
Linda Feller
Barbara Wait
Nancy Muller
Patti Murphy

Top Row
Ann Knippel
Dianne Fontell
Linda Kelly (face hidden)
Kay Sampson
Pat Rose (partially hidden)
Jeri Devereaux
Carla Sigerseth
Carol Coggin
Irene Drake
Susan Wright
Eva Spangberg

(partially hidden)
Danielle Eden
(partially hidden)
Marianne Stiteler

M
ARIA
R
OACH

I
think I was the only Bunny in the Los Angeles Club who lived at home with her parents,” says Maria Roach, daughter of legendary motion-picture pioneer Hal Roach. The elder Roach, renowned creator of the Our Gang series and producer of Laurel and Hardy films, among many early comedy classics, lived to the age of 101. “My father spent a lifetime espousing clean, decent family entertainment in movies and television. My parents were strict, but neither had a problem with me working as a Bunny. In fact, it was my mother who suggested I apply for a job at Playboy.

“In 1968 I was 21 years old, a full-time student in UCLA's film school and working part-time as a dental assistant, making very little money. A friend took a job as a cocktail waitress at a Hollywood strip club called the Pink Pussycat, and I was going to apply for a job there myself. My mother saw an ad for Bunnies in the newspapers, and said, ‘Why not try Playboy first—you'll be better protected and make more money.'

“I was shocked that I was hired, especially after Maude, the wardrobe woman, gave me a Bunny costume belonging to Playmate Gwen Wong Wayne to try on. I'm tall, Gwen is petite—and I had nowhere near her voluptuous figure.

“I would have to describe myself at that time as a serious person—reserved, studious, motivated and responsible. Someone who'd had ‘etiquette' lessons, wore a rosary around her neck and attended Marymount, a Catholic all-girls high school in West Los Angeles. There are certain life experiences that make you who you are: Growing up as the daughter of Hal Roach with my two sisters, living next door to Mia Farrow's family in Beverly Hills and attending Marymount were all life-defining experiences.

“So, too, was working as a Bunny. In its most positive sense, it fed a part of me that had never been nourished before. I developed confidence, poise and learned how to talk to people. In high school I always knew I had a brain, but I never knew I was attractive. My mother did a good job trying to negate that aspect of my personality, so being accepted by the Playboy Club gave me a new level of self-esteem. The whole experience surprised me; it was so different, so exciting and so unlike me. I bought a red wig, then a short curly one, and had a ball role playing. I could be anyone I wanted to be. My life revolved around classes at UCLA during the day and working as a Bunny at night. I kept my school books in the gift shop so I could study when it was quiet at the Club. I turned down an opportunity to be a Jet Bunny because it would have interfered with classes.