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Season 1 Episode 04 | Members Only: The Playboy Club
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00:00I am today announcing my candidacy for the Presidency of the United States.
00:11The year was 1960.
00:16You don't know, baby, what I got on my mind.
00:21You can't quit me, there's no need to try.
00:24America was locked in a Cold War.
00:27In North Carolina, four African-American students staged a sit-in at a whites-only lunch counter.
00:37And the FDA had just approved a new form of birth control.
00:43That would soon be known simply as the pill.
00:49It seemed like the dawn of a new era.
00:56And for me, life was definitely changing.
01:01I was newly divorced for the brand-new mansion in Chicago.
01:06And for the first time, I was publicly embracing the Playboy lifestyle.
01:19With all the distraction at my new home, I was starting to fall behind on my work.
01:25So I brought on a personal assistant.
01:29Her name was Bobbi Arnstein.
01:34Rise and shine.
01:38I'll let you sleep till three. You need a taxi, honey? I'll call you one.
01:42Come on.
01:44You got editorial meeting in an hour.
01:46Speck and Russell are waiting.
01:48Wake me in 45.
01:54Bobbi Arnstein started as a secretary for the company right out of high school.
01:59She was incredibly bright.
02:02She had a marvelous sense of humor.
02:06Hefner looked to her for personal advice and even business advice at some time.
02:12And she did not hesitate to give it.
02:15Do yourself a favor and take a shower. You need one.
02:19She had a sensitivity and a humor and an intellect that I have never found probably any other woman in my life.
02:29She was a pal. She was a confidant.
02:34And she was my right-hand arm.
02:38Bobbi was an instant fit in the Playboy family,
02:41handling my life and responsibilities within the magazine with ease.
02:47People were not used to really bright women.
02:50It was okay for a woman to try to succeed.
02:53It wasn't okay for a woman to be faster than you are, smarter than you are.
02:57And Bobbi was.
03:01With Bobbi managing my life, I rarely had to leave the mansion.
03:05I brought the staff in for meetings.
03:08And the line between work and play began to blur.
03:12It's got to be mellow.
03:22It's got to be mellow.
03:27The parties were growing.
03:30Cause my baby loves me.
03:32And between the dance floor.
03:33And I'm her only fella.
03:35The pool.
03:36The cocktails.
03:38And the women.
03:40The mansion quickly became the place to be.
03:47On any given night, the guest list included stars like Tony Curtis, Frank Sinatra, Woody Allen, Joe DiMaggio, Phyllis Diller, and Sammy Davis Jr.
03:58Everything I had heard about the place was true.
04:01It was exotic.
04:02Many young women excite anyone's amorous propensities.
04:06People were lining up outside the mansion, just hoping to get a glimpse inside.
04:14With everyone wanting in, I realized there might be a way to let the public experience my world.
04:21And in that moment, I came up with what would become our most ambitious undertaking yet.
04:33Every little movement, every little thing you do, is its light of hand that commands my heart to love you.
04:51Every little movement, every little movement.
05:09Monday's so good.
05:12In the spring of 1960, I started dating a girl named Cynthia Maddox.
05:22Hi, I'm Cynthia Maddox, and I work for the magazine.
05:25So you check it while you find it.
05:29Cynthia and I met at the Playboy offices.
05:32She'd recently been promoted to assistant cartoon editor after working her way up from receptionist.
05:39Hey, Cynthia.
05:41Cynthia was brought in by Barbie Arnstein.
05:44They were friends in high school.
05:47She was bright and charming and beautiful and demonstrated editorial intelligence.
05:55It's ready.
05:56It's ready.
05:57Oh, excellent.
05:58And this is ready to...
05:59Yes.
06:00With her new position, Cynthia and I began spending more time together.
06:08Cynthia Maddox was a great girl, you know, very outgoing.
06:13And she became Hef's girlfriend, a live-in girlfriend.
06:18And she traveled a lot with him.
06:21Friday, you'll beg her.
06:24She would be seen in public with Hef at all major events.
06:33It was my first real relationship since my divorce.
06:38But as happy as I was with Cynthia, I wasn't quite ready to give up the bachelor lifestyle.
06:47It ain't nothing but love.
06:50It ain't nothing but love.
06:53Can you feel your heart to skip a little beat?
06:56I vowed after my divorce never to marry again.
07:01It ain't nothing but love when she holds your hand.
07:05Hef was always very upfront with his girlfriends that he was not interested in a monogamous relationship at all, even though they were living together.
07:15Feel your head spinning all around.
07:18No matter how involved I became in a primary romantic relationship, there were still other secondary affairs.
07:27I guess I wanted, as a young man, to have somehow the best of both worlds.
07:32It ain't nothing but love.
07:34It ain't nothing but love.
07:35It ain't nothing but love.
07:36It ain't nothing but love.
07:37We're probably gonna have a couple of hundred people here throughout the night.
07:42It's a party of this kind usually begins for us around one o'clock and goes till dawn.
07:47Beautiful.
07:48Beautiful.
07:49Beautiful.
07:50Beautiful.
07:51In that brown eye.
07:52Oh, I said beautiful.
07:53Beautiful.
07:54In that brown eye.
07:55The truth was, I was having the time of my life.
07:58Our mansion parties had become legendary.
08:00Now, I wanted to give my readers a chance to experience them firsthand.
08:19And I'd finally come up with a way to do it.
08:23The inspiration came from a feature we'd run years earlier.
08:38A November 1956 article profiling a new private night spot in Chicago.
08:45The Gaslight Club.
08:48Modeled after a turn of the century speakeasy with its exclusive membership policy and scantily
08:54clad waitresses, it quickly caught the attention of our readers.
09:00It was a private club and the girls were uniformed in a sort of 18th century outfit.
09:08And we had over 1,200 letters from readers asking how they could join the Gaslight Club.
09:18I knew we could do the concept of the Gaslight Club, but make it bigger, better, and more accessible.
09:27And that's when I decided to open the Playboy Club.
09:35The pages of the magazine come to life.
09:37Victor Lowndes and I immediately got to work, formulating a plan.
09:42The Bunny logo, right there.
09:46Connecting to Playboy, coming to a Playboy party, was the ultimate goal of so many people.
09:55And the clubs were meant to bring to life the lifestyle of the magazine.
10:02There's a market for this.
10:04The vision that my dad had for the clubs were to act as a sort of opportunity for readers of the magazine or watchers of the show.
10:14To be able to go and live out whatever they were reading or watching.
10:20If we were going to do this right, we knew we needed a partner.
10:35There ain't nothing I can do.
10:38How are you?
10:39Back then, our favorite club in Chicago was the Walton Walk, owned by Arnold Morton.
10:45Arnie.
10:46How are you going?
10:47Good to see you.
10:48Victor, always a pleasure.
10:49Arnie.
10:50I had a friend, Arnie Morton, and we knew that he knew something about the business end of it,
10:55because we knew nothing about running a restaurant or nightclub.
10:59Can I get you guys a round of drinks?
11:01Arnie Morton was well known as a restaurateur even in those days.
11:06Of course, he became gigantic as the years went on with his own Morton's operations in half the cities in America.
11:13Good to see you again.
11:14Good to see you, John.
11:15All right.
11:16I knew the only way to bring our vision to life was to make Arnie part of the team.
11:25Well, first of all, we need a location.
11:29We teamed up with it.
11:31We each took a piece of it.
11:32Hefner had a piece, the magazine had a piece, Arnie had a piece, and I had a piece.
11:36There were four owners.
11:38I know of a premises that isn't being used down there at the moment, and I think I can make a couple of calls.
11:43Our first order of business was to secure the perfect location.
11:47Gentlemen.
11:51To the Playboy Club.
11:52To the Playboy Club.
11:53And Arnie said there was only one place our club could be.
11:57Chicago's Gold Coast District.
12:12Once known for its mob-controlled speakeasies and casinos, it was now home to the hottest clubs and restaurants Chicago had to offer.
12:20Nightclubs were a new glamour for manhood.
12:32Everybody had a nightclub.
12:34There were local nightclubs.
12:36There were black nightclubs.
12:37There were Jewish nightclubs, Italian nightclubs, in the neighborhood.
12:41But the big hit was to come downtown.
12:44And Arnie knew of a place that was available.
12:49116 East Walton.
12:53The former home of the Cameo Club.
12:56Five stories high and right in the heart of the action.
13:01We planned to transform the Cameo Club into a fantasy bachelor pack.
13:06With rooms designed to look like a living room and a library, as well as a disco and a theater.
13:13With construction underway, we began focusing on the club's most important feature.
13:28So, Hef, we need to deal with the issue of the waitresses.
13:31Right, right, the playmates.
13:33What's your preference?
13:35Hefner wanted to call the waitresses playmates.
13:39And he wanted to dress them in shorty nightgowns.
13:42And somehow that was going to be very sexy.
13:45But we kept seeing that there were going to be a lot of problems in overexposure, et cetera,
13:52if we dressed the girls in nightgowns.
13:54I would like to suggest going in a different direction.
13:56Rather than the playmate, what do you think about bunnies?
14:02Bunnies.
14:03Mm.
14:04We tried to persuade him to use the playboy rabbit, which was always a male rabbit in a
14:14little dinner jacket.
14:15But we tried to persuade him that this could be applied to the girls.
14:19And he was sold.
14:21Victor spent weeks working on the costume.
14:25And after many iterations, he finally revealed the prototype on our television show, Playboy's
14:34Penthouse, using the perfect model, my girlfriend, Cynthia Maddox.
14:40Hey, Hef.
14:42Hef.
14:43Um, I hate to interrupt you with business at this time of the night.
14:46But I've got something I want you to see.
14:49The, uh, little bunny outfit for the girls at the Playboy club.
14:52On the outfit.
14:53Yeah.
14:54That's what we hooked up.
14:56Well, I like that very much.
14:58Uh, including the, the outfit, too.
15:00Oh, yeah.
15:01That'll work out.
15:02Mm-hmm.
15:03Uh, maybe we'll like that.
15:05I think the members will like that.
15:06Maybe I ought to explain that, uh, Playboy is, is, uh, going in the key cop business.
15:12Starting as of the first of the year, there will be keys very much like this in the hands
15:17of members throughout the country.
15:20Our viewers gave the costume rave reviews.
15:24But I still felt something was missing.
15:28The bunny costume wasn't quite the way Hefner envisioned it.
15:33So he added some important elements to the costume.
15:37We don't want this to be too drastic.
15:39If we cut this collar, just a clean cut, and the cuffs as well.
15:44Hefner can be difficult because he's a perfectionist.
15:49Whether it's on the page or whether it is a costume.
15:54I'd like to introduce you to Cynthia Maddox.
16:01Your first Playboy bunny.
16:13Hefner was really instrumental in the changes in the bunny costume.
16:18I just raised the cut to accentuate her legs, lowered it a little on the bust.
16:22He was the one who insisted on the cuffs with the Playboy cuff link and the bow tie.
16:34Would you mind doing a spin for us, Cynthia?
16:36I think the costumes are adorable.
16:38We fix the tail.
16:39Sets nicely there.
16:40There's just something, the dichotomy of an innocent bunny, and then it's, you know, sexy.
16:46But it's still, again, I think very classy.
16:49Hefner has a tremendous visual eye.
16:52And as a result of that, our costume is in the Smithsonian Institute and is the first costume that ever received a copyright.
17:03Perfect.
17:06Now came the hard part.
17:09Finding 30 girls who could fill that costume like Cynthia.
17:12So we put ads about our upcoming auditions in newspapers around the country.
17:20I was in college, part-time job, worked at a pharmacy.
17:28And the pharmacist got something in the mail that said that they were having a bunny hunt.
17:35Don't you know, don't you know I love the thorn?
17:41Tell me why did you leave me?
17:45They said you'd make a good salary and you'd have fun.
17:48And you got to wear this bunny outfit.
17:51And it was the 1960s.
17:53It was perfectly acceptable to tell these girls to bring a bathing suit to audition in.
18:00Nowadays, they'd be up on all kinds of charges.
18:03But back then, it was perfectly acceptable.
18:09Maybe I could go and be a receptionist, work in a department store, and move my way up.
18:16But this was an opportunity for me to make a very good living.
18:25So I went.
18:32The day of the first bunny auditions was one of the coldest days I can remember.
18:36We weren't even sure if anyone was going to show up.
18:42So do we know what kind of questions we're going to be asking these girls?
18:45Well, I think I'll keep it simple.
18:47I already started on a few here.
18:49I put Bobby in charge of running the auditions.
18:51Finally.
18:53You try wrangling 400 girls without running behind.
18:58400.
19:00You ready?
19:02Absolutely.
19:06Quite ready.
19:09Hello.
19:10Hello.
19:11Please take your mark.
19:12Anyway.
19:13Thanks, Haley.
19:14And where are you from?
19:15Kalamazoo, Michigan.
19:16Hello.
19:17Women came from all across the country.
19:18Where are you from?
19:19Seattle, Washington.
19:20Massachusetts.
19:21Milwaukee.
19:22And from every walk of life.
19:23I'm a teller at First Chicago.
19:24I'm a nurse.
19:25I'm a real estate agent.
19:26I'm a sophomore from DePaul.
19:27Great school.
19:28Looking for excitement, adventure, and a taste of the Playboy lifestyle.
19:33It was about youth.
19:47The advert said be a Playboy bunny, and you had to be between 18 and 22 years of age.
19:55And so, naturally, it was about young people, the spirit, and whatever went with that.
20:04All right.
20:05Thank you very much.
20:06Bye.
20:07Goodbye.
20:09Okay, so, that's it.
20:12That's the last one.
20:13That's it?
20:14Yeah.
20:15What are you doing?
20:16I'm an assistant to you assholes.
20:19Uh, ma'am, where's your swimsuit?
20:22Go fuck yourself, okay?
20:23You're hired.
20:29Ah.
20:30Carol.
20:32No.
20:33No, not Carol.
20:34Carol's in my top five.
20:35We spent hours deliberating over the candidates.
20:39Of course, the bunnies had to be skilled waitresses, but they also had to be much more.
20:44They were performers, bringing to life the pages of the magazine.
20:55How's it going?
20:56Hmm.
20:57Not well.
20:58We only have 17.
20:59How about using some Playmates?
21:03No.
21:04Why not?
21:06Well, they're not gonna wanna serve drinks for eight hours.
21:08I was just talking to Joyce, and she said she thought about auditioning, but she was sick.
21:12Joyce Nazari.
21:13Joyce would look amazing in one of those outfits.
21:15Uh-huh.
21:16Do you think any of the other girls might consider it?
21:19I'll make some calls.
21:22Okay.
21:23Thanks, Bobby.
21:24Anytime.
21:30Bobby was able to get five of our Playmates to sign on, including Joyce Nazari, December 1958's Playmate of the Month.
21:38To our loyal readers, our Playmates were as famous as any celebrity, and the chance to meet them would be a dream come true.
21:49When the club opened in Chicago, it was a knockout when you opened the door, and the door bunny was one of the original Playmates.
21:55That's the stuff of Fantasyland.
21:59Finally, we had our bunnies.
22:02All right, let's give it a try.
22:03Go along this way, okay?
22:04Way we go.
22:05Low carry at the moment.
22:06Low carry.
22:07But if these bunnies were going to represent our clubs, we needed to make sure nothing was left to chance.
22:13So I asked my brother Keith to join the team.
22:16Faster, faster, faster.
22:17Hi, Kerry.
22:21Reverse.
22:23Keith had studied at the Lee Strasberg Studio, trying to make it as an actor.
22:28But when his career failed to take off, he jumped at the opportunity to help.
22:33I had a background in teaching, I had a background in show business, and I tried to bring both of those things to bear in the clubs.
22:40So the first people that I trained were the bunnies.
22:41So the first people that I trained were the bunnies.
22:44Good evening, I'm your bunny, Izzy.
22:46You notice that she smiles and gives eye contact with all four of us.
22:49We imagine that there's another gentleman sitting there.
22:50Bing, bong, bing, bing, bong, bong, bing.
22:58Along with Victor Lowndes, Keith created what would come to be known as the Bunny Manual.
23:03This is a bunny manual that we give to all the girls when they start working.
23:11That gives you all the rules and regulations that pertain to being a bunny in the playboy club.
23:17You will find that we are very, very strict.
23:21In order to maintain the right image for the club, we needed our bunnies to follow very specific rules.
23:27We wanted them to be glamorous, but also highly professional.
23:33Bunnies were only allowed to use their first names.
23:36They could not be seen drinking any beverage or wearing any jewelry during their shift.
23:41And each bunny had to make sure her grooming was impeccable.
23:46They knew the ingredients of 125 different drinks and always had their service trays arranged in a precise order.
23:53Our bunnies went through rigorous training, led by the Bunny Mothers, who made sure each bunny met the manual's requirements.
24:06Mary, why do you have this costume on today, dear?
24:08Um, I have the costumes in the cleaners.
24:10Mm-hmm.
24:11You'll have to go downstairs and find something else.
24:13Your shoes are soiled, too. I'd like to have you change those.
24:16Your ears are always bent a little too much, Terry. Why?
24:19I didn't know any particular way to fix them.
24:23You have training.
24:24About four hours a day for six weeks.
24:28You started off with the tray.
24:31You spread your fingertips, and therefore you have full balance.
24:35Okay, now who's gonna try a real high carry?
24:37Okay?
24:38Oh, there we go.
24:39Whoa!
24:41It was intense.
24:43You notice that she is doing what we call a bunny dip.
24:45To enforce the polished image of our bunnies, there were specific movements each girl had to execute, with the utmost precision while serving our patrons.
24:56There was the bunny stance, how a bunny should stand.
24:59No.
25:00The leg should be against that table.
25:01Straight.
25:02All right?
25:03The bunny perch.
25:04How a bunny should sit.
25:05Now dip.
25:06And most famously, the bunny dip.
25:08There you notice that she is bending at the waist.
25:09That's incorrect.
25:10Another way that it could be incorrect is if she were to go down in a sitting position.
25:12No.
25:13When you're doing your dip, bend.
25:14This line should never be broken.
25:15Let's see the bunny dip done, just so.
25:17That's absolutely correct.
25:18With the bunnies in training, the rest of the staff was working overtime.
25:21The other one was to do the bunny dip.
25:23The bunny dip.
25:24There you notice that she is bending at the waist.
25:25That's incorrect.
25:26Another way that it could be incorrect is if she were to go down in a sitting position.
25:27Now, when you're doing your dip, bend.
25:28This line should never be broken.
25:29Let's see the bunny dip done just so.
25:32That's absolutely correct.
25:34That's absolutely correct.
25:40With the bunnies in training, the rest of the staff was working overtime to get the club open by the end of February.
25:50While Arnie was supervising renovations,
25:56Victor was working hard to sell memberships to the most affluent and most important men around the country.
26:03The buzz around the club had been building for months.
26:06But for all the people excited about our opening, there were just as many who hoped we would fail.
26:14Everything about the extravagant Playboy Empire accents youth, glamour, money, and pleasure.
26:21Is Hugh Hefner's empire a 20th century Garden of Eden, or is it a modern-day Sodom and Gomorrah?
26:33Many still saw Playboy as just another smutty magazine.
26:38And our famous parties as just another example of the kind of debauchery people could expect at our clubs.
26:48Hef always had the eyes of the Catholic Church and the city government looking for any excuse to close them down.
26:56Because every city thought it would destroy the neighborhood.
27:01But I was determined to prove them wrong.
27:16When opening night finally arrived, all of our hard work was put to the test.
27:20The club looked great.
27:27The bunnies looked even better.
27:30And we were ready to share our vision with the world.
27:34All right, ladies.
27:36Let's hit the floor.
27:38Open the doors.
27:39Open the doors.
27:39The opening of the Chicago Club was something truly exceptional.
28:01There was a line around the block.
28:03You had to be a keyholder in order to get into the club.
28:12As you entered the club, there was a board with the nameplates of all the club members.
28:21So that when they checked in, their name went up.
28:25And you could see who was in the club that night.
28:27Every detail of the club had been carefully thought out, with something exciting and new in every room.
28:37Across from the lobby was our full-service bar and pool room, where you could go one-on-one with our bumper pool bunny.
28:46The bar was called the Playmate Bar, and we had transparencies of all the Playmates on display.
28:53Upstairs in the living room was the piano bar, where we served up our world-class buffet, all set to live music.
29:05And on the top floor, we called that the library, our marquee performance venue.
29:11Now you can walk into this experience, and for most people, it was a fantasy.
29:23You know, you weren't going to get this at your neighborhood diner.
29:27You weren't going to get that any place but at the Playboy Club.
29:37But the stars of the evening were the bunnies.
29:41We had desk bunnies to greet guests at the door, as well as coat check bunnies, cigarette bunnies, roaming camera bunnies to capture every special evening,
30:05gift shop bunnies selling Playboy merchandise,
30:07and our floor bunnies, serving up drinks from the Playmate Bar.
30:12guitar solo
30:18guitar solo
30:19I was born
30:41In a dump
30:43My mama died
30:46And my daddy got drunk
30:48He left me here
30:51To die, grow
30:54In the middle of tobacco road
31:00Cause it's my home
31:04Yes, it isn't the only life
31:09Victor?
31:12F
31:12Good to see him
31:14Welcome to the Playboy Club
31:15Photograph?
31:16Yeah, of course
31:17Hello gentlemen
31:27When Cynthia and I showed up
31:30The party was in full swing
31:32I'll get some dynamite
31:37With every detail in place
31:39And bunnies looking fantastic
31:41All that was left to do
31:45Was enjoy the show
31:46Just seven years
31:51After launching Playboy
31:53From my kitchen table
31:54There I was
31:55Hosting what felt like
31:57The biggest party on the planet
31:59I love you because you are my home
32:01But you're dirty through the
32:05Tobacco road
32:07On tobacco road
32:11I said I love you because you are my home
32:16But you're dirty through the
32:19Tobacco road
32:22To back the road
32:25Road
32:26The opening in Chicago was one of the best moments of my life
32:38The American male has found a new place of relaxation
32:47It's the key club
32:49The most famous example of such a type club is the Playboy
32:53Over the next few weeks
33:02The crowds only grew
33:03And the bunnies weren't the only attraction
33:10Ladies and gentlemen
33:18I'm really pleased to introduce our next act
33:22So please give a warm Playboy club welcome
33:25To an incredible talent
33:27From just up the road in Detroit, Michigan
33:29Miss Aretha Franklin
33:31With our TV show
33:42We'd fought against segregation
33:44Inviting the best American entertainers
33:47Regardless of race
33:48It was a formula I wanted to replicate in our club
33:56Hef decides Aretha Franklin is talented
34:01When no one knew who Aretha Franklin was
34:03Today she'll say that the first time she performed for a white audience
34:07And didn't have to enter through the kitchen was a Playboy club
34:10And that was just how Hef thought
34:13I don't care what the rest of the world thinks
34:16I think this is good
34:17And therefore it's worthy of exploring and exposing our audience to
34:21That was it
34:22Along with Aretha Franklin
34:29Our club featured many musicians on the rise
34:32Like Ray Charles
34:35Sam Cooke
34:36And Bette Midler
34:38The best of entertainment
34:41Black and white went to the Playboy club
34:43And it really became a social landmark
34:46It was a place to be seen
34:49Our penthouse stage featured top comedians
34:52Like Milton Berle
34:53Edgy up-and-comers like Steve Martin
34:56George Carlin
34:58And an unknown young comedian named Dick Gregory
35:01Who we discovered at one of the city's black nightclubs
35:04Because everybody I meet in the nightclub after they get drunk
35:07They all tell me the same thing
35:08Greg, some of my best friends are colored
35:10And Mike, you know and I know
35:13There's not that many of us to go around
35:15At that time, black comics had not been permitted to stand flat-footed
35:21In a white nightclub and talk
35:23Hefner brought me in
35:26From there to Time Magazine
35:29To the Jaguar show
35:31When you look and see the role that black comics play
35:37And the influence that the Richard Pryors have had on white comics
35:41All that started because of Hefner
35:44Thirty years from this year, Negro can become president
35:47So treat me right, I'll get Nan Ray's taxes on you
35:51With the entertainment
35:56We were finally giving our readers
36:01The full Playboy experience
36:04Food was good
36:09And the drink was stiff
36:11And the entertainment was nice
36:13That's what made people keep coming back
36:15And the bunnies was part of the show
36:18He's mine
36:24The bunnies were an undeniable hit
36:30And though we knew they would earn big money in tips
36:33Our customers' generosity
36:35Exceeded our wildest expectations
36:37Many of the customers are aware that the girls
36:40Are oftentimes making more money than they are
36:43That's interesting
36:44More money than the fellas who can afford the $50 for the key
36:47Oh yeah
36:47Even Mike Wallace had to admit
36:49That the opportunity we were giving our bunnies
36:52Was something special
36:54What we did was
37:01We stuffed our costumes
37:02And at the end of the night
37:03When you unzipped it
37:04And you dropped it to the floor
37:05All the money was there
37:06So you wouldn't lose it or forget it
37:09When he pets me
37:12He's sweet and gentle
37:16Do the girls date the club members?
37:22Definitely not
37:23You cannot date members of the club
37:25Our bunnies were our most valued employees
37:29And we made protecting them a top priority
37:32From the beginning
37:35The personnel head of every Playboy club was a woman
37:40That was the bunny mother
37:41And there was a very, very strong and strict culture
37:45Around protecting and respecting the women
37:48So at a time in which it was very common
37:51For women to get hit on
37:53Because they were waitresses
37:54Or working in a bar
37:56Or for that matter working in an office
37:58Let's think of mad men
37:59This was an environment in which women felt safe
38:02Any hint of impropriety between members and bunnies
38:07Would give ammunition to our critics
38:09So I made sure that the no dating rule
38:14Was strictly enforced
38:15At least for most of my guests
38:23We did make exceptions for a select group
38:28A few friends and trusted VIPs
38:30Well, what can I say?
39:00I say, sometimes being the owner has its perks.
39:04Can you shut the door, Vic?
39:13By the end of the club's first year,
39:15we had over 100,000 key holders.
39:22And we were pulling in the modern equivalent of $33 million.
39:26Doing higher volume in food and drink
39:31than any other night spot in the city.
39:42There was something about a Playboy Club
39:44that put it in a class by itself.
39:49The bunnies were the stars of the club.
39:53And we treated them that way.
39:54And they loved it.
39:56And many of them were bunnies for many, many years.
39:59It was just a special place.
40:02The instant success of our club made our next move obvious.
40:07We needed to go national.
40:10And there was no better place to start
40:14than New York.
40:18Every little movement, every motion of your hips,
40:25I feel the compulsion, the buoyant to my sweet lips.
40:27I feel the compulsion, the buoyant to my sweet lips.
40:32Is it a black magic spell you put me under?
40:34Is it a black magic spell you put me under?
40:38This miracle moment, never let it end.
40:50Every little movement is beyond improvement.
40:57Every little movement, you are the magician, I've been wishing for forever.
41:07Every little movement, every little movement.
Recommended
40:22
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