London Playboy Bunnies. 7,577 likes 14 talking about this. A Tribute page to the London Playboy Bunny. Check out our bunny club selection for the very best in unique or custom, handmade pieces from our small animal toys shops. Golfing Rabbit by HAM is the newest addition to their collection! Available from Print Club London's online gallery now and FREE UK SHIPPING. Find this Pin and more on Logo by Kirin. Rabbit Silhouette.

1. Bunny Club London Reviews
2. Bunny Club London England
3. Bunny Club London United Kingdom
4. Bunny Club London Uk

The London Playboy Club located at 45 Park Lane, will open officially on June 30th. Before becoming a Playboy Bunny, Helga (measurement 34'x25'x35') worked in Hamburg and English, French and German. At the London Playboy Club, Helga will join 85 British Bunnies at the Bunny Training School.

A photo taken at the opening of the very first Playboy Club in Chicago in 1960.
The first Playboy magazine hit the shelves in 1953 and in 1960, the late Hugh Hefner opened what would be the very first Playboy Club in Chicago. Other clubs would quickly emerge in more than twenty locations including Boston, Wisconsin, and Los Angeles, as well as more elaborate Playboy Club Resorts which you could visit in Jamaica and Manila. Entrance into the various clubs would run a member $25 a year for which they would receive a special key that when presented to a designated “Door Bunny” would get them inside. The clubs were designed to emulate the “Playboy lifestyle” projected by Hefner, though that’s not what initially ignited the vast existence of Playboy Clubs. The actual inspiration for the clubs began with an article in Playboy published in 1959 that detailed the goings-on at the historic Gaslight Club in Chicago’s River North area. The club was the brainchild of Burton Browne who modeled the club around the “Gay 90s” (aka the “Naughty Nineties” or the decade beginning in 1890) a debaucherous period where creativity and libidos ran wild.

Like Hefner’s future Playboy Clubs, entrance to the Gaslight required a key. Naturally, Hef was already a member of the Gaslight Club as it featured his favorite thing—half-naked women with large breasts everywhere you looked. According to Victor Lownes III, the executive of HMH Publishing Company (which would later become Playboy Enterprises in 1955) he recalled that the article received over 3,000 letters from readers of Playboy inquiring as to how they too could join this exclusive club. This set the wheels in motion for Hefner who knew how to recognize an opportunity, though at the time his vision for his Playboy-themed clubs didn’t include expansion beyond Chicago. When the doors to the fledgling club opened, it employed approximately 30 girls between the ages of 18-23 who were said to be “single, beautiful, charming, and refined.” It also somehow qualifies the old saying that people really did read Playboy articles. At least they read one in 1957. And that’s a fact.

As you may have already assumed, and much like Hefner’s storied, celebrity-studded events at the Playboy Mansion, Playboy Clubs were frequented by Hollywood’s elite, such as Frank Sinatra. The Playboy Resorts featured entertainment from acts like Sonny & Cher, Melba Moore, and Sinatra’s pal and Playboy Club regular, Sammy Davis Jr. The first Detroit club which was located right across from a church attracted prominent members of that city’s vibrant jazz scene. Even Detroit’s mayor at the time Coleman Young (who held the position for twenty years starting in 1974), was an honorary member of the Playboy Club.

The St. Louis location regularly hosted comedy acts like George Carlin, Flip Wilson, Joan Rivers and Steve Martin. One of the more creative locations was opened on Lake Geneva in Wisconson that featured a ski slope, chairlift and according to former Bunny Pam Ellis, a DJ booth known as the “Bunny Hutch” where Bunnies would spin records while a bubble machine and disco ball set the mood. Most if not all of the girls at Lake Geneva lived in the “Bunny Dorm” which Ellis says was surrounded by a chain-link fence topped with barbed wire. If a girl didn’t live in the dorms, a car would be sent for them to their home to bring them to work where they could also eat for free. Ellis looks back on her time at Lake Geneva’s Playboy Club with fondness—especially the fact that she met her husband while she was DJ’ing in the Bunny Hutch.
Frank Sinatra hanging out at the Playboy Club in Las Vegas back in the day.
I had been working on this post for a while and had just started to get some words committed to “paper” when Hefner passed away on September 27th at the age of 91. Given that somewhat unexpected event, I held off on finishing it until today as I wasn’t crazy about having DM readers think that capitalizing on the death of someone as well-known and controversial as Hugh Hefner is something we aspire to. However, I do, like so many people, look back with fondness to a time where girls in bunny tails and ears were as glamorous as the movie stars that cavorted around the same clubs with them. Below I’ve posted a huge collection of photos taken inside and on the grounds of various Playboy Clubs including some rarely seen images from the Lake Geneva location that were kindly provided to me by Adam Levin with the help of Christina Ward of Feral House.
Bunnies on top of a locally made tractor at the Lake Geneva Playboy Club in Wisconsin. Photo courtesy of Adam Levin.
Bunnies having fun at Dunn River Falls in Ochos Rios, Jamaica in 1972.
New York 1960s.
Atlanta.
New Orleans.
Detroit, 1963.
Cheryl, a Bunny at the Chicago Playboy Club, 1972.
John Lennon leaving the London Playboy Club.
Twin Bunnies Jennifer and Janis Jackson at the Chicago Playboy Club, 1965.
Cincinatti.
Bunnies at the Lake Geneva location. Image courtesy Adam Levin.
The blonde duo and real identical twin brothers Jerry and Jay Hopkins aka, Twinn Connection at the New York Playboy Club.
A shot inside the Playboy Club in Lake Geneva. Photo courtesy of Adam Levin.
SAMMY!
New Jersey.
Bunnies outside the London Playboy Club in 1969.
Chicago 1973.
A couple of Bunnies looking out over the Lake Geneva location.
Former Detroit mayor Coleman Young flanked by two Playboy Bunnies back in the mid-70s.
A poolside shot of the Playboy Resort in Jamacia, 1972.
Lake Geneva. Photo courtesy of Adam Levin.
London 1964.
Chicago 1964.
A photo of Rick James at the Los Angeles Playboy Club in 1974. Photo by James Fortune.
An ad for the coveted Playboy Club key and membership featuring Sammy Davis Jr.

Previously on Dangerous Minds:
The Grateful Dead on Hugh Hefner’s ‘Playboy After Dark,’ 1969
Playboy Playmates recreate their iconic covers 30 years on
Salvador Dali’s bizarre but sexy photoshoot for Playboy, 1973
Woody Allen gets into a pillow fight with a six-foot brunette in the pages of Playboy, 1969
Climb aboard ‘Hare-Force One,’ Hugh Hefner’s $5 million DC-9 jet with its own discothèque
‘The penis is evil!’: Sean Connery & Charlotte Rampling in ‘Zardoz,’ the Playboy spread (NSFW)

The Playboy Club was initially a chain of nightclubs and resorts owned and operated by Playboy Enterprises. The first Playboy Club opened in Chicago in 1960. Each club generally featured a Living Room, a Playmate Bar, a Dining Room, and a Club Room. Members and their guests were served food and drinks by Playboy Bunnies, some of whom were featured in Playboy magazine. The clubs offered name entertainers and comedians in the Club Rooms, and local musicians and the occasional close-up magician in the Living Rooms. Starting with the London and Jamaica club locations, the Playboy Club became international in scope.

In 1991, the club chain became defunct. Thereafter, on October 6, 2006, a Playboy Club was opened in Las Vegas at the Palms Casino Resort,^[1] and in 2010 clubs were opened as well in Macau^[2] and Cancun.^[3] In time the Las Vegas club closed on June 4, 2012,^[4] the Macao club closed in 2013^[5][6] and the Cancun club closed in 2014.^[7][8] In May 2014 the Commerce Casino in Los Angeles opened a Playboy-themed lounge consisting of gaming tables and Playboy Bunny cocktail waitresses.^[9] In September 2018 a Playboy Club opened in Midtown Manhattan but permanently closed in November 2019 after just over one year in operation.^[10]

History[edit]

The first club opened at 116 E. Walton Street in downtown Chicago, Illinois, United States, on February 29, 1960. It relocated to Clark and Armitage in Lincoln Park in 1980 and closed in June 1986.^[11] Later there were clubs in Miami (May 1961 – 1985), New Orleans (October 1961 – 1974), St. Louis (Oct. 16, 1962 – Sept. 25, 1975), New York (December 1962 – June 1986^[11]), Phoenix (December 1962 – June 1983), Detroit (Dec. 28, 1963 – 1972; 1974–1978), Baltimore (1964–1977), Cincinnati (1964–1983), Kansas City (June 13, 1964 – ~1972), Los Angeles (Dec. 31, 1964 – June 1986^[11]), Atlanta (March 1965 – 1975), San Francisco (Nov. 13, 1965 – July 10, 1976), Boston (February 1966 – 1977), Denver (Dec. 9, 1967 – 1977), Lake Geneva, WI (May 6, 1968 – 1981), Buffalo (March 1975 – ?; April 24, 1981 – 1985), Dallas (1977–1982), St. Petersburg, FL (1980–1983), San Diego (December 1981 – July 1982), Columbus (1982–1985), Lansing (Sept. 17, 1982 – July 1988) Omaha (May 18, 1984 – 1988) and Des Moines (Dec. 3, 1984 – April 1988).

There was also a Playboy Club in Montreal Canada. Playboy Clubs operated in Japan, under a franchise arrangement, in Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya, and Sapporo. There were Playboy Club resorts in Ocho Rios, Jamaica, Great Gorge at McAfee, New Jersey, and at Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, as well as Club-Hotels such as the Playboy Plaza in Miami Beach, Florida and Playboy Towers in Chicago. The last American location before Playboy Club Las Vegas opened was Lansing, Michigan, located in the Hilton Hotel, which closed in July 1988.

International Clubs existed until the 1991 closing of the Manila, Philippines Club located in the Silahis International Hotel. In 2010 International Clubs were opened in Macao and Cancun but in time the Macao Club closed in 2013 and the Cancun Club closed in 2014. Manila was the only Club ever to be featured in Architectural Digest.

During the last three months of 1961, more than 132,000 people visited the Chicago club, making it the busiest night club in the world. Playboy Club membership became a status symbol. Only 21% of all key holders ever went to a club. At $25.00 per year per membership, Playboy grossed $25 million for every 1,000,000 members.

The Rabbit-headed metal Playboy key (supplanted by a metal key-card in 1966)^[12] was required for admission to a club.^[13] They were presented to the Door Bunny.

In 1965, Hugh Hefner sent Victor Lownes to London to open Playboy's British casinos, following legalization of gambling in the United Kingdom. In 1981, the casino at 45 Park Lane (now a luxury hotel, 45 Park Lane) was the most profitable casino in the world,^[14] and the British casinos contributed $32 million to the corporation. Later, Playboy also operated British casinos in Manchester and Portsmouth. In 1981, Playboy opened a hotel and casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey. However, the New Jersey gaming regulators denied Playboy a permanent gaming license, and Playboy sold its interest in the unit to Elsinore Corporation, its partner in the venture, in 1984, at which time the hotel and casino were renamed The Atlantis.

The Playboy Club in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin featured architecture inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright,^[15] operated from May 6, 1968, until 1981, had a ski slope, and was one of the first to install a chair lift.^[16] The facility is now operated as the Grand Geneva Resort & Spa.^[17] The 32-piece house orchestra was headed by Chicago pianist, Sam Distefano, who also conducted for such artists as Peggy Lee, Mel Tormé, Liza Minnelli, Sonny & Cher, Sammy Davis Jr., Dionne Warwick, Wayne Newton, Vic Damone, Diahann Carroll, Anthony Newley, Tony Bennett, and Ann-Margret. Distefano went on to serve as Playboy's Vice President of entertainment for all Playboy Clubs and Hotels worldwide until he left Playboy Club after 25 years.^[18]

Bunny Club London Reviews

On October 6, 2006, Playboy opened a new Playboy Club in Las Vegas, Nevada. The new club at The Palms, with its prominent neon bunny head, had casinos, bars, and a restroom with pictures of Playmates on the walls.^[19] The club closed in June 2012.^[20]

Australian women were invited to Sydney to audition for the iconic Playboy Bunny role and for positions as singers and dancers at the Playboy Club. A minimum of five women were chosen to travel to Macao for a six-month contract as a Playboy Bunny. The Macao Playboy Club opened on November 24, 2010.^[21]

In October 2010, it was announced that a new Playboy Club in London was to be opened on the site of the old Rendezvous Mayfair Casino 14 Old Park Lane. It was opened on June 4, 2011.^[22][23] The 17,000 sq ft property, spread over two floors, was designed by London-based architects Jestico + Whiles.^[24] The club features a casino, cigar terrace, gentleman's tonic, sports bar ('The Player's Lounge'), night club ('The Tale Bar'), cocktail bar under the direction of Salvatore Calabrase, and a fine dining restaurant under the reins of Iron ChefJudy Joo. Along the stair-walls, a row of lenticular portraits are hung winking and smiling at guests as they walk by.^[25]

In November 2012, spokesman Sanjay Gupta announced that PB Lifestyle, the company in India with rights to the brand, would be opening its first club in India at Candolim, Goa in December 2012. It was planned as a 22,000 square feet (2,000 m²) beach location.^[26] In April 2013, Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar refused the application on 'technical grounds'.^[27] Parrikar said only individuals, not corporations, were eligible to operate a beach shack style club. The law did not preclude opening a night club.^[28] After the Goa club, PB Lifestyle planned to open clubs in Hyderabad and Mumbai.^[29] India's obscenity laws ban material deemed 'lascivious or appealing to prurient interests'.^[30]Adult magazines such as Playboy are banned in India. Designer Mohini Tadikonda has altered the original Playboy Bunnies uniform to satisfy India's obscenity laws.^[31] In 2nd half of 20th century, Spain, a local Hostess Bar businessman in the Valencia community registered the name: 'Club Playboy' and the rabbit icon. Several of this kind exist under the name.

On September 12, 2018, a Playboy Club was opened in New York City at 512 West 42nd Street in Midtown Manhattan.^[32][33] Many questioned the wisdom of opening a Playboy Club in the #MeToo era.^[34][35] On November 14, 2019, after just over one year in operation, the owners of the new Playboy Club in New York City announced the club had closed and the space would be re-branded as a steak house and other entertainment venue.^[36][37]

Bunny Club London England

In popular culture[edit]

• In the James Bond film Diamonds Are Forever (1971), Bond replaces his wallet with that of the recently killed diamond smuggler Peter Franks to confuse his contact, Tiffany Case. When she opens the wallet she finds Bond's Playboy Club Member Card, which she uses to identify the man on the floor.
• A 1976 episode of the TV show Charlies Angels entitled Lady Killer sends the angels to work undercover at the Feline Club, an obvious spoof of then still open Playboy Clubs.
• In a 1982 episode of the TV show Laverne & Shirley entitled 'The Playboy Show', guest-starring Carrie Fisher, Laverne takes a job as a Playboy Bunny at The Playboy Club despite her father's wishes.^[38]
• The 1985 TV movie A Bunny's Tale, starring Kirstie Alley, was based on writer and future feminist leader Gloria Steinem's 1963 article for Huntington Hartford's Show magazine, a critical account of her time working as a Playboy Bunny at the New York Playboy Club.
• The TV movie Hefner: Unauthorized (1999) includes leotard-wearing women being trained as hostesses in a Playboy Club.^[39]
• The 2000 TV movie, A Tale of Two Bunnies (aka Price of Beauty) starring Marina Black and Julie Condra, tells the story of two girls working as Playboy Bunnies in 1961.
• In season one, episode two of the TV show Swingtown, first aired in 2008, the characters visit the Playboy Club.
• In a 2010 episode of the TV show Mad Men (season 4, episode 10 'Hands and Knees'), Lane Pryce (who is a member) takes his father and Don Draper to dinner at the Playboy Club in New York City and introduces them to his 'chocolate bunny' girlfriend, Toni.
• September 2011 saw the premiere of NBC'sThe Playboy Club, a television series focusing on the employees and patrons of the first Playboy Club, located in Chicago. The series was cancelled after airing three episodes.^[40]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

1. ^'Playboy Club Las Vegas'. destination360.com. Retrieved 29 December 2015.
2. ^'Playboy Bunnies Land in Macau'. The Wall Street Journal. November 22, 2010.
3. ^'Playboy Club Cancun Brings Exciting Nightlife and Gaming to One of the World's Most Popular Travel Destinations' (Press release). Chicago. PR Newswire. 2 December 2010. Retrieved 10 March 2016.
4. ^'Most Popular E-mail Newsletter'. USA Today. June 4, 2012.
5. ^Wilson Ng (2 October 2013). 'Playboy Club Sands Macao has closed down'. Places and Foods. Retrieved 29 December 2015.
6. ^http://www.hkclubbing.com/directory/nightclubs/playboy-club-sands-macao.htmland^{[permanent dead link]}
7. ^Phil (30 April 2014). 'Mexican Ministry closes six casinos including Playboy Cancun'. G3 Newswire. Retrieved 29 December 2015.
8. ^'Cancun Casino - Review of Playboy Casino Cancun, Cancun, Mexico - TripAdvisor'. Retrieved 27 October 2016.
9. ^'Lucky Rabbit Party Pit Playboy Poker Room'. The Commerce Casino. Archived from the original on 24 July 2015. Retrieved 23 July 2015.
10. ^'NYC Playboy Club bunnies to hang up tails and ears after just one year'. 14 November 2019.
11. ^ ^abc'Last three Playboy Clubs close'. UPI Archives. 30 June 1986.
12. ^'IMG_8534'. Playboy Online Museum. 15 December 2015.
13. ^'Playboy Club 40th Anniversary Celebration'. Explayboybunnies.com. 1960-02-29. Retrieved 2012-11-07.
14. ^'Luxury Hotels Mayfair, 45 Park Lane, Hotels Hyde Park London'. 45parklane.com. Retrieved 2012-11-07.
15. ^'Hugh Hefner connection to Wisconsin: Lake Geneva Playboy Club Hotel'. FOX6Now.com. 2017-09-28. Retrieved 2019-10-02.
16. ^jrozell@kenoshanews.com, JILL TATGE-ROZELL. ''A different time:' Hundreds attend Lake Geneva Playboy Club 50th anniversary celebration'. Kenosha News. Retrieved 2019-10-02.
17. ^'A History of Grand Geneva Resort & Spa'. Experience Wisconsin. 2016-09-01. Retrieved 2019-10-02.
18. ^'Sam Distefano, Talent Exec for Hugh Hefner and Meshulam Riklis, Dies at 88'. The Hollywood Reporter. 15 April 2015. Retrieved 2019-10-02.
19. ^'Playboy is back in the nightclub business'. NBC News. The Associated Press. 1 October 2006.
20. ^'Playboy Club at Las Vegas' Palms Casino Closes'. USA Today. June 4, 2012. Retrieved June 4, 2012.
21. ^'Playboy Club Sands Macao Bunny Auditions In Sydney'.
22. ^'New Playboy club to open in London'. The Daily Telegraph. October 19, 2010.
23. ^Milton Bayer. 'Exclusive Members' Club with Casino, Cocktails, Playboy Bunny Hosts and more'. Playboy Club London. Retrieved 2012-11-07.
24. ^'Playboy bounces back into London'. UK Construction magazine. 13 October 2011. Archived from the original on 21 October 2011.
25. ^'Playboy Club London – The Bunny Ears return'. The Handbook. May 12, 2011.
26. ^'India to get First Playboy Club in Goa'. BBC News. November 1, 2012.
27. ^'Playboy's first India club rejected in Goa'. BBC News. April 16, 2013.
28. ^'Playboy denied licence to open beach club in India's party state of Goa'. The Guardian. Associated Press. 16 April 2013. Retrieved 9 October 2014.
29. ^Vasant, Khushita (November 2, 2012). 'Bunny Hop: Playboy Comes to India'. Wall Street Journal.
30. ^'India gets ready for first Playboy club, with bunnies'. NDTV. November 1, 2012.
31. ^'India Gets Ready for First Playboy Club'. CNN. December 21, 2012.
32. ^Thompson, Kara (13 September 2018). 'Hugh Hefner's Legendary Playboy Club Has Reopened in New York'. Town and Country.
33. ^Vianna, Carla (12 September 2018). 'Playboy Club Is Back And Sounds Just as Ridiculous as Ever'. New York Eater.
34. ^Eichner, Sam (14 September 2018). 'NYC's Playboy Club Is Reborn in the #MeToo Era, Bunnies and All'. The Daily Beast.
35. ^Gabbatt, Adam (10 September 2018). ''Tone deaf' Playboy Club opens in New York, defying the #MeToo era'. The Guardian.
36. ^Weiss, Lois (14 November 2019). 'NYC Playboy Club bunnies to hang up tails and ears after just one year'. New York Post.
37. ^Weiss, Lois (14 November 2019). 'NYC Playboy Club bunnies to hang up tails and ears after just one year'. New York Post.
38. ^'The Playboy Show' at IMDb
39. ^'Hefner:Unauthorized' at IMDb
40. ^'The Playboy Club'. NBC. NBC. Retrieved 9 October 2014.

Bunny Club London United Kingdom

External links[edit]

Bunny Club London Uk