The Bunny Years (58 page)

“I look back now on that time during the Vietnam war when I used to get thousands of letters from soldiers on the front lines and send a note with a picture to as many of them as I could. After all, it was 1967 and my centerfold in Playboy made me a wartime pinup girl. I'm glad I saved so many of their letters because they are even more touching to read all these years later. I didn't realize at the time how much of their true emotion about the war and going into combat they expressed in their letters to me. Those soldiers were so young and if they needed a ‘sweetheart' to pour out their feelings to, I'm glad it was sometimes me.

“I never felt demeaned or diminished because I was a Bunny or a Playmate. It was my choice. Today, so many people talk about being a victim and look for someone to blame, not taking responsibility for their own lives. When I did promotions, I knew I was representing myself as well as other women who were Bunnies and Playmates, so I always tried to convey that I had an intellect, that my personal life didn't revolve exclusively around Playboy.

Gwen Wong Wayne in her art studio with one of her original body sculptures.

“Soon after I did the centerfold, Hef bought the stretch DC-9 and I was asked to become one of the Jet Bunnies. It was a great experience. In the beginning we mostly flew the Los Angeles-Chicago route, with a few visits to Jamaica. Then I heard about the three-month tour of Europe and Africa that Hef was planning and I really wanted to go. It was probably the longest time Hef had been away from his home base at one time. Six Jet Bunnies, three each from Chicago and Los Angeles, were assigned—and I was one of them.

“We had FAA training in Miami through Continental Airlines. The Big Bunny would not have been allowed to leave the airfield if we hadn't been fully qualified flight attendants. Hef couldn't swim and he used to joke, ‘Whichever one of you saves me will be taken care of for life!'

“We did all of the work stewardesses normally do and we also prepared gourmet meals. Chateaubriand, roast duckling, lobster, peanut butter-and-jelly sandwiches—whatever anyone on board wanted, we would provide. There were always lots of Twinkies and Pepsi on board for Hef, and our ‘house' wine was a Lafitte Rothschild Bordeaux. Deep-frying chicken for Hef was scary and I prayed we wouldn't hit an air pocket. The head stewardess, Avis Miller, who was also a former Playmate, and Hef's valet, Jodie, were always on board to see that things were done properly.

“We were well-paid and, of course, limousines were always waiting for us upon arrival—along with the local photographers and press. The Jet Bunnies did a great deal of promotional work wherever they went.

“The Bunny Mother notified us of flights. Between them I worked as a Bunny in the Club. I was also doing Playmate promotions around the country and attending college. I knew I wouldn't be a Bunny forever and that I needed to prepare myself for a career.

“It was a hectic life. I would work nights at the Club, come home and get to bed by 2:30 a.m., rise four hours later and make it to class by 7:20—wondering if I'd ever make it through day after day. By taking courses year-round, I completed the four-year program in three years. As soon as I graduated in 1975 I left Playboy and went to work in an architectural firm as an interior designer. I sat at a drawing board all day working nine-to-five on my first job. I was then in my early 30s. The change in my lifestyle was literally from night to day.

“In 1977, I became an apprentice in set design at CBS for a year and then left to open my own design firm. I was wild about food and took culinary courses with all the fine chefs, eventually becoming an assistant pastry chef at Trump's. On my first day, I told Chef Michael Roberts that I was willing to do anything. He took me at my word and I was put to work removing the stems from forty boxes of strawberries. I loved it.

“These days I'm married, the mother of two grown children—and a grandmother. I work as an artist doing body casting and sculptural portraiture in my Los Angeles-based studio. I think of myself as a ‘plaster surgeon.' When I first conceived the idea, I got in touch with the curator of the Hollywood Wax Museum to show me the fundamentals and then I experimented. Over the years, I've gained knowledge from many people who have shared their techniques. I do both traditional bronzes and contemporary faux bronzes that I paint.”

BUNNIES FOR BRITAIN

Queen Elizabeth II meets Bunny Louise Palmer at Ascot, 1966.

O
n Saturday, June 25, 1966, 32 Bunnies greeted Hugh Hefner's arrival aboard the Big Bunny at London's Heathrow Airport for the opening later that week of the first European Playboy Club. “Swinging London,” the apt term coined by
Time
magazine that captured the essence of the trendy English youth culture, was in full swing.

The London Club, 18th in the chain, occupied a new seven-story Walter Gropius-designed building in Park Lane overlooking Hyde Park. Located between the Dorchester and Hilton Hotels, Playboy had all the familiar rooms (Penthouse, Playroom, VIP
Room, Playmate Bar, Living Room and Cartoon Corner) but also sported a discotheque and, more importantly, casinos with 27 gaming tables (roulette, blackjack and punto banco) throughout the Club. The Bunny Croupier had entered the Playboy lexicon.

Following a now well-established pattern, when Playboy applied for a liquor license, the guardians of public morality voiced objections to the scantily clad waitresses—and this in a town awash with leggy young women wearing micro-minis. (With the later passage of the new Gaming Law in 1970, the Gaming Board required Bunny Croupiers to wear “modesty bibs” to conform to the requirement that casinos not offer any “inducement to gamble.”)

Fifteen hundred guests attended the black-tie charity opening of the London Playboy Club on June 28, including Ringo Starr, Rex Harrison, Ursula Andress and
Time
magazine's Henry Luce III. Twenty-thousand Keyholders had paid a pre-opening membership fee of £5 for the privilege of visiting the Club any time of their choosing 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Six British Bunnies, personally selected by Victor Lownes and Tony Roma, were sent to Chicago for training. Their airline bags proclaimed “Bunnies From Britain.” The first Bunny from Britain was Dolly Read.

D
OLLY
R
EAD
M
ARTIN

I
n 1963 I'd come to London from Bristol, England, to find work as an actress. I was 17. What I found were the beginnings of what became known around the world as ‘Swinging London.' I dated pop singer Adam Faith and did a Hammer movie, Kiss of the Vampire. I was on-screen for five minutes and got eaten by bats.

“In 1965, Playboy was looking for six British Bunnies to train in America for six months before returning to open the London Club. My friend Valerie and I had been sent by my acting agent to audition for Victor Lownes. He decided I was too plump. He said, ‘You're my idea of a Bunny, but not Hugh Hefner's.' But he liked me because I had a funny take on life and made him laugh.

“At the time, I was staying with Valerie in her London flat. Victor called her for a Saturday night date. She had plans, but I didn't, so he invited me to a lavish dinner at
the Dorchester Hotel hosted by the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia. During dinner, Victor told me he was leaving for Chicago the following Monday and asked if I would like to join him. It was my dream to visit America, and I said Yes! I knew only the ‘movie' America—gangsters and cowboys—and I longed to go. But I had no visa, only my British passport. Victor told me to be at his flat Monday morning, packed and ready to leave, and he would take care of everything.

“I showed up on his doorstep with a suitcase at 9 a.m. Victor was in bed dictating letters to his secretary. My immediate thought was that he'd only been bluffing, but off we went to the American Embassy, where Victor claimed I was his fiancée and he wanted to take me to America to meet his son.