Brian Jeffrey
Barbara Walters, higher often known as Bobbie the Bunny, is proven in the photograph above (second from the left) fully in her component. At the age of 22, she informed herself that she wished to change into a Playboy bunny the minute she noticed one on the cowl of Playboy journal as she was strolling out of a espresso store. The subsequent day, she started working at the members-only Playboy Club in New York City, the place she stayed for a yr earlier than being a bunny at the Miami Plaza Club for 4 and a half extra years. Now 69, the still-striking brunette reminisces about what she claims as “the best time of my life.”
“There was no favorite part, I loved every single thing about it,” Bobbie informed us. “From the minute I walked into the membership, your life modifications; you permit who you might be outdoors and also you change into Playboy, you change into a bunny.”
With an all new Playboy Club reopening in Midtown Manhattan this September, I received to talk with Bobbie about its heyday in the early ’70s and what it took to be a bunny. Spoiler: it wasn’t straightforward. According to the Ageless creator, the unique golf equipment had been every little thing you’d think about; stuffed with glamour, celebrities, and beautiful women everywhere. There had been many guidelines and expectations that got here with the job, together with a strict no-dating-customers coverage (though Bobbie did meet her first husband at the Club . . . however we’ll get to that later). See eight issues about being a Playboy bunny that can shock you.
1. There’s a “bunny mother” and it’s important to undergo her first.
The day after Bobbie determined she wished to be a Playboy bunny, she walked straight into the New York City Club and, by destiny, they occurred to be on the lookout for bunnies. “They must’ve been interviewing that day, I didn’t know, I just went,” Bobbie stated. “There must have been 200 girls.” Of these 200 women, solely about 30 to 40 had been chosen – together with Bobbie.
Looks had been every little thing, in fact. According to Bobbie, you needed to be fairly with a pleasant determine. It is Playboy, in any case. “That will get you through the door, but you’re not gonna stick in the door long if you don’t have all the other attributes to go with it,” she stated. Once your look and character impressed the bunny mom, the head of all bunnies, you then proceeded to see the Club’s supervisor, who authorised whether or not or not you’ll be able to placed on the iconic costume. “You tried on the costume to see how it looked, then you went in a big room with a bunch of other girls,” Bobbie stated. “The bunny mother came in and said ‘yes,’ ‘no,’ ‘yes,’ ‘no.’ I got a yes, that’s all I know.”
2. Large breasts weren’t a requirement.
Despite what you may assume, having an enormous chest was not a prerequisite to getting employed. Nice legs, sure, due to how excessive the go well with minimize, however top nor boobs mattered – they’d a trick for that. “You do not need to have big boobs because there were secrets that we learned to make them appear bigger.” According to Bobbie, the costume was made with small cups below the bra part that could possibly be full of no matter you wished. You positioned your breasts on high of the padding, which may look as large or as delicate as you wished.
3. Training included studying the “bunny dip.”
Their week-long coaching concerned studying the actual order of liquor to make orders as environment friendly as attainable for the bartender. “It wasn’t random; first was scotch, then came whiskey and bourbon, gin, vodka, rum – see, I still remember it,” she stated. “And we had blended drinks and cream drinks, then we had beer. So, we get our drinks and go so it all flowed.” The women additionally needed to learn to correctly carry a tray carrying five-inch heels, generally with 20 drinks without delay. Then got here the bunny dip. “We had to serve drinks backwards because we couldn’t bend down or else [customers] could see down your costume.”
4. You had been inspected by the bunny mom every night time earlier than going onto the ground.
The bunnies weren’t trusted to be floor-ready with out getting approval from the bunny mom. She made positive nobody was carrying ridiculous make-up or hair or any jewellery. The costumes had been additionally inspected nightly. “We had to make sure our costume was always kept clean and we handed it to the seamstress at night,” Bobbie stated. “We had to make sure the costume was in shape and we had to make sure we looked perfect every night that we went on the floor.”
5. Other bunnies would attempt to sabotage you.
Although most of the bunnies received alongside properly, there have been just a few that might attempt to get forward at your expense. If one did not such as you or was jealous of you, you may even discover your costume messed with, which had occurred to Bobbie as soon as. But total, it wasn’t a cutthroat atmosphere in anyway.
6. There was a strict no-dating-customers coverage.
To be certain that none of the bunnies had been courting the company, Playboy would even ship in undercover patrons to attempt to attract them. If a bunny obliged to somebody’s go, their numbers could be tagged and reported for firing. “They had to keep a certain pretense,” Bobbie stated. “If men could just come into the Playboy Club with all these beautiful girls and just date them randomly, that would be bad. They had to keep it classy.”
Bobbie ended up assembly her first husband, Jules (pictured above), who was 40 years her senior, at the Club. “He’d been coming into the Club all the time to see me and, you know, I couldn’t give him my number,” she stated. “And one night he just waited for me after I’d got done with work and we got together that way.” To keep away from getting her in bother, Jules did not return to the Club after that and the two received married a pair years later. They loved a wedding of 33 years till he handed.
7. Celebrities got here and went all the time.
“My first night on the job I met Johnny Carson and he was my first customer,” she stated. “And he immediately asked me to go for a ride with him in his limousine.” Bobbie revered the Club’s guidelines and politely let him know that it was her first day on the job. She additionally recalled stars like Henry Davis Jr. and Elton John, whom she launched to the stage herself.
8. Clients at all times wished to the touch their tails.
“They would play with the Playboy bunny tail and they would think you wouldn’t feel it,” Bobbie stated. “I could tell when someone was pulling at it and I’d turn around and give them a look and I’d be like, ‘You’re not supposed to do that!’ But they loved to do that.” With alcohol concerned and drunk males, Bobbie did expertise her fair proportion of vulgar and inappropriate purchasers. But other than that, she would not dislike one factor about the job even to today.
“I worked there a long time and I treated the job with respect and class, and I just had the best time,” she stated. “I look back and don’t see one bad thing. In fact, I dream of it at that I’m back there serving drinks. I loved it. I will always be a bunny.”
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