The Bunny Years (23 page)

A BUNNY HOP TO MIAMI

Bonnie Jo on the Miami-bound Champagne Flight, 1961.

T
he truth was, the huge and immediate success of the Chicago Club caught Hugh Hefner by surprise. The mounting circulation numbers of
Playboy
magazine proved that Hef's philosophy of Post-50s Male as Sophisticate was certainly not limited by state boundaries; so, too, there was no reason to believe his Playboy Club would not be equally successful throughout the country—perhaps, one day, throughout the world.

But Hefner was not prepared to bankroll a national chain of clubs. Plans were already on the drawing board for a New York Club, which would cost millions to open. Instead, Hefner opted to franchise the idea, a kind of sexy, upscale twist on Ray Kroc's new
McDonald's venture that suddenly was exploding across the country, all based on the original fast-food burger counter in California. Hefner franchised six Playboy Clubs in 1961; among them were the Miami and New Orleans clubs, which would be the second and third Playboy clubs to build on the Chicago success.

On Friday, May 19, 1961, Bonnie Jo Halpin and five other Bunnies flew out of Chicago's Midway Airport at 6:30 aboard the Bunny Hop Champagne Flight to open the new Miami Playboy Club the next day. Halpin and a contingent of veteran Chicago Club Bunnies, including Kelly Collins and Alice Nichols, were responsible for training the new Bunnies and ensuring that Playboy's strict quality and rules of behavior were observed at the new franchises. The women would spend three months in Miami and then New Orleans training the Bunnies.

S
IENNA
W
ONG
I
NMAN

I
n 1961, I was in my senior year at a Catholic women's college when one of my favorite Miami restaurants, the China Doll, closed. The space was covered by a tarp while construction was going on—all very mysterious—but I heard that Playboy had taken it over to build a club. One day when I walked by, I saw that interviews were being held for Bunny jobs. I thought it would be fun to see what it was all about. I filled out an application, spoke with a woman named Kitty and was hired then and there. For a while, I kept my job a secret from everyone except my family. I also kept secret that I wanted to pursue an acting
career. Working as a Bunny was not what the nuns expected of an English and philosophy major.

“The Miami Playboy Club immediately became the elite place to go. Even though it opened in May, in the ‘off-season,' 2,000 people jammed Biscayne Boulevard trying to get into the Club.

“Even though I had five brothers, I got quite a different image of males while working at Playboy. You would see men you recognized as ‘pillars of the community' coming on to the Bunnies. Of course, it was an onstage performance for the Bunnies, and the better you played your role, the more money you made. The exposure to that nightclub scene and knowing I could handle it gave me confidence to pursue my dreams of being an actress.

“When I heard a New York Club would be opening, I jumped at the chance to transfer. I'd wanted to go to New York anyway, and having a good-paying job waiting there was certainly the way to go. The calibre of Bunnies working in the New York Club was impressive, including a variety of foreign women and an array of models and actresses. Kitty Kavany, a tall, sophisticated model from Chicago, was dating English actor Peter Cook, who used to stop by to visit.

“On one of my first nights in the Penthouse, Warren Beatty came in with William Holden and Delores Hawkins, who was a top model at the time. Warren asked me out. I told him, ‘No, I'm sorry, a Bunny can't date the customers.' But he was pretty insistent. He started following me around the Penthouse, insisting I go out with him, but I refused. Years went by and I thought, ‘Boy, I was really stupid!' At the time, I thought obeying the rules of the Club was more important.

Private dock at the Miami Club.

“David Susskind came in one night with a beautiful blonde wearing a royal blue dress and a matching turban. The two of them sat under a spotlight at a table next to the stage and were the perfect picture of Manhattan nightlife. There was a sense that everyone in the Club was part of a big party. The Club was tastefully decorated, the lighting
glamorous, and it was a place where people could have a good time and feel safe to let their hair down. It worked. The steak was a dollar fifty and the drinks were straight—you couldn't beat it.

Sienna Inman, a proud grandmother, works a few days a week as executive assistant to the chairman of the board of mutual funds at Paine Webber, and is also the East Coast sales director for
Pacifica
, the inflight magazine for Continental-Micronesia airlines.

“There were always parties. You could go to them after work, but there were many of us who were smart enough to know what kind of guys hang out after 2 or 3 o'clock in the morning. After working in high heels all night, you want to home and rest up for the next day. Besides, I had a steady boyfriend and a career to pursue.

“I found a theatrical agent in New York and started to go on auditions while working at the Club. I did several TV spots, including the Arthur Godfrey show as a spokeswoman for La Choy Chow Mein. I worked quite a lot as an actress, then got married and started having babies—six altogether—beginning in 1964. It was hard to continue a career and, of course, each time I got pregnant it seemed I was flooded with offers of acting jobs. My husband, a producer-director, and I formed a production company in 1978. We sold department stores on the idea of using in-store video screens with interviews of authors as a selling tool for new book releases. I've done so many things over the years, one career after another involving film production, real estate, advertising. I even became the managing editor of a wine magazine called
Wine Now
.”

J
UDITH
C
URRY
A
LLISON