The Bunny Years (14 page)

B.J. at the New York Club, 1963.

B.J. and Digby, 1998.
These days, B.J. runs marathons, attends Mass every morning at a neighborhood church and continues her longtime schedule of hospital volunteer and animal shelter work.

“I worked at the New York Club for about seven months. Gloria Steinem worked with me as a Door Bunny for a while. Although I'm now a fan of hers, at the time I thought the article she wrote about the Playboy Club was a terrible put-down. I'm not college educated, and I'm not someone who wanted a career. When she asked me how I liked working at the Club, I told her that when I worked at Standard Oil in Chicago, I made very little money. At Playboy I earned $45 a night, plus tips, working as a Door Bunny—that was a lot of dough in those days! And Playboy changed my life. Later, when neither of us worked for Playboy and I would run into Gloria at parties, I'm not even sure she remembered who I was.

“In the summer of 1963, I left Playboy. I wanted to see the world and try everything. After a few romances, I fell in love with a wonderful man, and we've been together for 35 years. I still have so many friends from my days at Playboy—even Victor. I adore his wife, Marilyn Cole, and I've stayed with them in Aspen.”

N
ANCY
D
OWNEY
C
ADDICK

O
ne night, Hef took me to a spot on Walton Street and showed me where he wanted to open a Playboy Club. He told me what he had in mind, but I just couldn't envision it.

“At the time I was dancing in the Chez Paree Adorables chorus line. The nightclub was just around the corner from the original
Playboy
offices, and Hef would come in after work to see the show and have a drink. I'd also been a guest on his television show,
Playboy After Dark
.

“When the Chez Paree closed in 1960, I headed for New York to try out for the Copacabana dance line. I was still a naive kid and I didn't last long in New York. As soon as I got back to Chicago, I called Hef to see if there was a job for me at the Playboy Club, which I knew had opened a few months earlier. I was hired as a Photo Bunny, and later worked as a Bumper Pool Bunny and Door Bunny. I often worked both the lunch and night shift, going home at 3 or 4 in the morning. I lived at home the entire time I worked at Playboy. I was one of seven children, and my father died when we were all quite young. A lot of my Bunny earnings went to my mother, who earned considerably less than I did even though she had worked for one company over many years. It was an extraordinary opportunity for me.

“I may have been somewhat naive, but I was not easily dazzled. The glamorous nightclub atmosphere could go to your head, and some women were more impressionable than others. While some Bunnies wanted to party, others were raising their kids, going to school themselves or supporting husbands through school. For me, it was a juncture, a way station while I figured out what I should do next.

“In 1961, I left Playboy to try my luck in Hollywood and was accepted into an actor's program at Columbia Studios. I played small roles in
77 Sunset Strip, Route 66
, a beach movie with Tommy Sands and a few other things, including a commercial for Lestoil with Zsa Zsa Gabor. She was very funny. After we finished filming, she offered me a job as her secretary! I declined. I remained in California for a year, but missed my family so much I decided to return to Chicago. Again, I wasn't sophisticated or shrewd enough to deal with the real world of Hollywood.

“I returned to the Chicago Playboy Club, where I eventually met my first husband. We weren't supposed to date customers, of course, but I made an exception in his case, and left Playboy to marry him in 1963. At that time in my life, marriage and a family were what I wanted.

Dr. Nancy Caddick, a clinical social worker with the AIDS-HIV hospice at Chicago's Northwestern Memorial Hospital.

“Many years after I'd worked at Playboy, and the youngest of my three sons started school, I applied for a job at Chicago's Northwestern Memorial Hospital. I sent in my application, waited and heard nothing. Finally, I went to the hospital and personally handed in my résumé on which I had included my work as a Bunny. The secretary who looked over my application was amused—working at the Playboy Club seemed such an unexpected thing for someone in my line of work to have done. She set up an appointment for an interview, and I got the job as an office manager for their respiratory therapy department. That job enabled me to go back to college and complete my bachelor's and master's degrees in social work. I was then able to change jobs within Northwestern from the business to the medical side, and began working with terminally ill patients in the hospice program. A few doctors who know I once worked as a Playboy Bunny still tease me about it. Well, I
loved
the job. Dancing, acting and working as a Bunny were great life experiences that really add a dimension to who I am today and my understanding of people.

“In 1985, I began working with my first AIDS/HIV patients, and 10 years later got my doctorate in clinical social work. Now I'm looking ahead to teaching and doing some writing.”

D
ELILAH
H
ENRY

I
was the first girl to be invited to live in Hef's Mansion in Chicago. It was one of the magical things that happened to me as a result of posing for the
Playboy
centerfold in 1960. That summer, shortly after my Playmate photographs appeared in the July issue, I moved into the Mansion and started working as a Bunny in the Chicago Playboy Club. When it was discovered that I was only 17 years old, too young to work legally in the Club, I became Hef's receptionist at
Playboy
and traveled the country doing Playmate promotions. A few years later, after working as a Bunny in Chicago and New Orleans, I got a job in
Playboy
's photo department.