The Lake Geneva Playboy Club-Hotel

What is it about the Playboy Club-Hotel in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, that launches normally levelheaded people on flights of poetic fancy? Henry Kisor, reporting in the Chicago Daily News on a weekend spent at the luxury resort, wrote: "When all the reviewers called this place 'Xanadu' after that pleasure dome Coleridge built in his mind, they weren't doing it justice. Old Sam, on his wildest hashish trip, could never have imagined the Playboy Club-Hotel." The editors of Institutions, the restaurant-industry magazine, headlined a 16-page feature on Playboy's Lake Geneva operation "Everyman's Eden." And syndicated columnist Irv Kupcinet said, in the Chicago Sun-Times: "It's enough to boggle the mind."

Arnold J. Morton, Executive Vice-President of Playboy Clubs International and the man who masterminded the development of this 1000-acre pleasure preserve--an area that could contain the principality of Monaco almost three times over--explains its otherworldly appeal: "We've created a total environment here. You have the feeling that even if you're from Chicago or Milwaukee or right down the road, you're very, very far from home the moment you drive through the gates." The opportunity to feel luxuriously at home away from home has drawn to Lake Geneva thousands of golfers, armchair sportsmen, equestrians, night people, day people, skeet shooters, gourmets, boaters, bons vivants, swimmers, skiers (snow and water), (text continued on page 144) billiard players, fishermen, showbiz buffs, business tycoons, girl watchers, girls to watch, cyclists, lovers and other worshipers of the good life in all of its manifestations. Toward that end, Playboy has called its second Club-Hotel (the first is the lush tropical resort at Ocho Rios, Jamaica) the inn for all seasons: There's something going for you, whatever your bag may be, around the clock and throughout the year. If you haven't yet savored the Lake Geneva experience, journey along with Playboy on a vicarious visit to our unique Wisconsin resort.

That faraway feeling begins to assert itself as you near the area, whether you're driving through the rolling Wisconsin countryside or flying over it on your approach to Playboy's private airport on the grounds (the field, with its 4100-foot landing strip, is large enough to accommodate executive jet planes). The gently contoured landscape could have been lifted from a European travel poster. If you can imagine the Swiss foothills without the sharp pinnacles of the Alps for background, you have southeastern Wisconsin and the environs of the Playboy Club-Hotel.

As you approach, and set back from the highway, is the entrance to the Playboy Club-Hotel grounds, on Cottontail Trail. Fluttering colorfully from tall flagstaffs are Playboy's Rabbit banner and the flags of the United States, Canada, Jamaica and Great Britain--countries in which Playboy Clubs flourish. If you're arriving by car, you're welcomed by the gatehouse guard, to whom you present your Playboy Key-Card. Beyond, the drive winds up-and downhill through lanes of trees, illuminated at night by wrought-iron gas lanterns. This time of year, you may be surrounded by pink clouds of flowering crab-apple trees. In summer, you'll see the delicate green and white of slender birches; in fall, flaming crimson maples; and in winter, bushy Christmas-tree Douglas firs. The landscaping, like everything else at Playboy's Lake Geneva resort, is designed to call attention to the Club-Hotel's four-season attractions.

Ranged along the crest of a hill over-looking the 25-acre Playboy lake are seven interconnected buildings that make up the central complex of the Club-Hotel. Spreading over the length of five football fields, the structures give the impression of rugged strength wedded to luxurious comfort. Searching for architectural comparisons, many observers have come up with the name of Frank Lloyd Wright in his Taliesin period. Powerful horizontal lines are created by great beams of dark-stained, rough-sawn redwood, which set off the paler, variegated hues of the pebble-textured concrete-aggregate walls. Wide expanses of bronze-tinted solar glass expand the vistas of those inside, enhancing the visual effect of unity with the surroundings. As you approach the Main Lodge, which is flanked by three residential wings, you pass beneath a canopy hewn from giant redwoods. There, a bellman takes your bags and ushers you into the lobby.

On your left is the registration desk; to your right, the sunken entrance lounge, with its enormous open-hearth fireplace, in which low gas flames create the illusion of a bed of stones on fire. The fireplace is glass-backed; and if you've arrived at night, you can look through it into the action scene at the psychedelic Bunny Hutch discothèque--about which, more later. Directly ahead as you enter the Club-Hotel are multileveled vistas--glimpses of shops and massive stone stairs that appear to be rising out of a wall of greenery. Daylight filters down from unseen skylights; at night, hidden spotlights outline the tracery of leaves. These are living trees, vines, shrubs--part of a $20,000 annual investment in rare plants--growing in terraces of the same rough-textured concrete and stone that makes up the outside walls of the Club-Hotel.

A temperature differential tells you you're indoors; your eyes aren't so sure. The architecture of the Lake Geneva Club-Hotel represents a blending of the talents of Playboy's interior-design staff with those of architects Robert L. Taege and Paul Magierek of Taege's firm, who developed the total design concept.

"People who go to a resort want to feel that they're part of the countryside, not enclosed in a glass ball," says Magierek. "These buildings are not a statement of man's superiority over nature but of man's superiority over nature but of man's ability to enjoy nature by becoming part of it."

Here's what some observers have said about it:

Institutions magazine: "Like something you never saw before ... what might be called distinctive rustic opulence."

Actor Tony Randall, appearing on Jack Eigen's radio show broadcast from the resort: "Breath-taking. Conceivably the handsomest hotel I've ever seen."

Eigen himself: "Fabulous--a tremendous place. I've been around for many years, in Las Vegas, California, Europe--but I don't think I've seen anything that can compare with this."

Chicago's American columnist Maggie Daly: "Incredibly beautiful. It just lifts you out in space, like a dream."

And reporter Bill Porterfield, in a page-one article in Chicago's Daily News, described Playboy's year-round playground as "a paradise."

Playboy's Lake Geneva Club-Hotel is so conveniently located (a 90-minute drive from Chicago, 45 minutes from Milwaukee) that many fun lovers drop in just for a day's golfing or an evening's night-clubbing. The best way to get in the swing, however, is to check into one of its 300 rooms for a luxurious and relaxing stay. You'll have your choice of wooded or lake-view room; celebrity suite with den, game table and wet bar; executive suite with fireplace and color television; VIP suite with parlor and connecting bedroom; hospitality suite suitable for parties or small business gatherings; or, if you really want to splurge, reserve the superopulent, soon-to-be-completed Hugh M. Hefner Pent-house, where you'll be able to entertain as many as 200 guests at cocktails and buffet in the 50-by-40-foot living room.

The living accommodations were designed by Richard Himmel, a noted Chicago decorator, whose previous work has included the remodeling of the Ambassador East and West hotels in Chicago and the Georgetown Inn in Washington, D.C. There are three basic color schemes--red, blue and gold--and the feeling is thoroughly masculine, with rough and casual fabrics contrasting with leathery vinyls and polished metals. "Design a room for a man," says Himmel, "and the girls will be crazy about it, too. They love the feeling of being in the environment of a man's world."

Once you've settled into your room and checked the view from your balcony, you'll be ready for a Playboy-sized drink and possibly a bite to eat. Your problem? Which one of ten strategically located watering spots shall you try first? Or do you wish prompt room service? It all depends on your mood, the hour and your plans for the rest of the day or evening. Chances are you'll want to start out in the Playmate Bar on the main level; it's probably the best spot for getting into the spirit of things, with beautiful Bunnies (live) to serve you and beautiful Playmates (on film) to delight the eye. The view through a panoramic expanse of bronze-tinted glass affords, in daytime, a view of lake and golf course; at night, a fantastic trompe l'oeil, in which likenesses of lush nudes appear to be suspended from invisible wires strung between the birch trees. Pure serendipity, according to the architects; nobody realized what would happen when the illuminated Playmate transparencies behind the bar were reflected off the mirrorlike sheen of the windows.

After enjoying a giant-size cocktail or two, you may want to stay right there in the Playmate Bar for dinner. The menu is lettered on a breadboard--which is appropriate, since an outstanding feature of this room is the loaf of home-baked bread that's served with your dinner. Petite ladies have been known to make a meal of the generous pink shrimp cocktail, but you'll probably want to order a steak. The sirloin strip is first-chair.

Those with truly ravenous appetites would do well to head for the buffet in the Living Room. There, the talents of designer Himmel and artist LeRoy Neiman (continued on page 148)Playboy Club-Hotel(continued from page 144) have combined to create the atmosphere of a modernized medieval hunting lodge. Guests seated at trestled tables may view Neiman's impressive mural, The Hunt of the Unicorn, which covers two walls of the large room. The buffet itself is spread out on a giant burnished-copper table, which you're expected to visit at least three times--for appetizers, hot dishes and desserts. The selection is near stupefying and offerings vary daily, but don't miss the broiled tomatoes, the artichoke hearts, the pickled fish, the cannelloni, the blueberry tarts, the cheesecake, the. ... Enough. Just go to the Living Room hungry. (The same advice applies for breakfast and lunch in this room.) If your taste for the moment runs more to a beer and a hamburger, drop in at the Sidewalk Café, where you can watch passing Bunnies, as well as bathers en route to the indoor and outdoor pools. It's also a prime location for window-shopping, since it's situated at one end of the indoor avenue of shops lining the main level of the Lodge.

Perhaps what you have in mind is a multicourse gourmet repast, or dinner and a show. Make your way up the grand staircase to the upper level. To your right is the VIP Room, one of the country's outstanding restaurants; to your left is the luxurious Penthouse showroom, headquarters for top talent. The VIP Room's epicurean cuisine is matched only by its elegant atmosphere (gentle cascades of water in reflecting pools, gleaming silverware, brilliant crystal, elegant blue decor, soft candlelight, and irreproachable service from a full staff of Bunnies, liveried butlers and attentive maîtres d'hôtel). Spécialités de la maison include oysters Rockefeller as prepared by Chef Michel Cipolla (who came to Lake Geneva from the London Playboy Club and the Hôtel de Paris in Monte Carlo); entrecôte marchand de vin; Maine lobster thermidor; savarin aux fruits--and vintage wines from the VIP Room's distinguished cellar.

The green-and-gold, 400-seat Penthouse is the home of star-studded showtime. You'll want to reserve a table for the night's entertainment--either following your VIP Room feast or after dinner right there in the Penthouse. The showroom menu's offerings come from the same kitchen as those of the VIP Room and its quality meets those lofty standards. On stage, there are name stars every night. Featured to date have been such headliners as Bill Cosby, Julie London, Gordon MacRae, Sarah Vaughan, Woody Woodbury, Louis Nye, Sid Caesar, Jack Jones, Della Reese, Shecky Greene, Vic Damone, Red Buttons, Phil Ford and Mimi Hines, Tony Martin, Diahann Carroll and Liza Minnelli. Among those immediately upcoming: The Checkmates, Flip Wilson, Barbara McNair and Lainie Kazan. Wherever you sit, you'll enjoy the artistry of these and other performers from a ringside seat. Chicago Daily News critic Sam Lesner called the Penthouse "masterfully arranged ... superb lighting and perfect visibility. A 12-piece orchestra, under the direction of pianist George Gaffney, is one of the best in this part of the country. ... The Lake Geneva Playboy Club's Penthouse will become a great magnet for Chicago-area entertainment seekers." Institutions commented that the Penthouse provides "a considered elegance--like extra space between the tables--just to avoid being what even the most popular night clubs are: hectic. The excellence of the Penthouse sound system plays a role, too, in creating this excitement."

As you leave the showroom, you'll see several other rooms on the upper level. The Milwaukee, Madison, Lake Geneva and Chicago Rooms are only four of the ten meeting rooms, seating from 40 to 480 persons, available at the Playboy Club-Hotel in Lake Geneva. These have proved particularly popular for organizational gatherings. Also on the upper level is the Playboy Forum, an electronically equipped 80-seat theater equally in demand by business groups. This doubles on occasion as a moviehouse; there have been bad-weather showings of feature films, a summer series of comedy classics starring W. C. Fields and Laurel and Hardy, and Saturday-afternoon cartoon shows for the small fry.

Entertainment holds forth nightly, too, in the Playmate Bar, which you might like to revisit after dinner to catch the musical combo. It's a groovy scene. But the really late show at Lake Geneva is in the Bunny Hutch discothèque, where the lights flash, the images burst on screen, the drinks flow and the hard rock rocks till two A.M., Wisconsin's summer closing hour. The Bunny Hutch shines as the watering spot for the younger set, and the scene is strictly from psychedelia. Dancers on the polished-steel floor are bathed in wildly colored rainbows, as Bunnies in psychedelic costumes synchronize the projection of far-out slides with the musical beat. Flames from the see-through fireplace are reflected from hundreds of mirrored disks on the ceiling.

Even the most stalwart fun-and-games-man must retire sometime, and at Lake Geneva, Playboy sees to it that you rest well when the last light goes out. All the furnishings in your room are man-sized, chosen with an eye for sumptuous comfort. In several of the suites, you can even make like Hugh Hefner in a round bed (not, however, motorized, like the famous original in the Playboy Mansion).

Morning finds you refreshed and ready for more extensive explorations of Playboy's superspa. If you prefer a light breakfast, stop at the Sidewalk Cafe for a Continental repast of juice, rolls and coffee. Heartier appetite? Stoke up in the Living Room, where you can either breakfast from the buffet or order your favorite specialties--perhaps buttermilk pancakes or eggs Benedict--à la carte.

Before going out, you may want to take a closer look at the shops whose windows you found so intriguing last night. You can find anything from cigars and paperbacks at Thingsville to Wisconsin cheeses and sausages at L'Epicure, to the latest in men's apparel at the Country Gentlemen; or pick up a present for your companion, ranging from a bagatelle to a once-in-a-lifetime gift, at The Clothes Horse boutique (everything from beach bags to Dior originals), Harriet's Imperial Furs (kicky lapel pins, jasmine mink bikinis and full-length evening wraps) or the House of Dominic, Ltd. (exclusive imports, from paperweights to works of art). The Man at His Leisure Shop offers barware, crystal and cutlery of the patterns used in the VIP Room and elsewhere, and other accessories for the well-appointed pad. There are toys at Thingsville Jr., and the popular Rabbit-branded items are on sale at the Playboy Gift Shop. Take note of the fact that downstairs are a barbershop, where you can get the latest in masculine hairstyling, and a men-only health club, where you can work out on exercise equipment or relax in a sauna. For your lady, there's a smart beauty salon next door.

Also on the avenue are a haven for card and billiard buffs--the Cartoon Corner game room, adjacent to the Playmate Bar--and the two swimming pools, next to the Living room, at the other end of the building. On the terrace by the outdoor pool, bikinied Bunnies stand ready to take the orders of guests relaxing on deeply cushioned lounges as they soak up the sunshine. Through a glass door is the lavishly landscaped indoor pool, with a waterfall cascading down a silver sheet on the west wall of the building. The sound of rushing water provides a muted musical background for patrons seated at the nearby Sidewalk Café.

You now have a pretty good idea of what's inside the Main Lodge. That leaves 900-plus acres to explore. Some 320 of them are devoted to golf--and if you're a real links enthusiast, that may be as far as you get in your peregrinations. Last summer saw the opening of the Club-Hotel's first 18-hole championship course, designed by Robert Bruce Harris. Every golfer who's played this course has praised it; some have damned it as well, depending on the altitude of their scores. After the Pro-Am Invitational inaugurating the course, in which participating pros averaged a horrendous 79 strokes, Golf Digest editor Howard R. Gill, Jr., said: "I think the word that (continued on page 208)Playboy Club-Hotel(continued from page 148) best describes it at the moment is 'controversial.' " Milwaukee Sentinel columnist Buck Herzog wrote: "If you are planning an attack on the Playboy hilly, watery course, I suggest your equipment include a shovel, compass, water wings and a seeing-eye mountain goat. I needed them. But don't get me wrong. It's a beautiful layout." Former football great Paul Hornung, now a sportscaster, said simply: "It's a super golf course."

Harris himself, when asked if this was his toughest assignment in a career that has included design of such celebrated courses as the Tucson National Golf Club, replied: "I never think of it that way; I've tried to design it so it will be a pleasure for all classes of player. I think it's going to work out to be about the most beautiful course in America--but I am a modest man, and I would like to have the golfers give their evaluation."

A completely different type of course is scheduled to be ready for play in July, offering Club-Hotel visitors two distinctive 18-hole championship setups. This one is designed by Jack Nicklaus and his associate Pete Dye, whose idea was to leave the contours of the land alone as much as possible--unlike the Harris course, which was literally carved out of the countryside. The Nicklaus-Dye course will meander over the natural lay of the land much in the style of the venerable British and Scottish links. When you visit Lake Geneva this summer, you can try all 36 holes and judge for yourself which style you prefer. If you're not yet a golfer but would like to learn--or sharpen your putting skill--sign up for private lessons with Playboy's resident pro, the gregarious Ken Judd. Duffers have rated the nuggets cast up from Ken's apparently bottomless reservoir of jokes worth the cost of instruction.

The links are by no means the only outdoor attractions. To find out what's elsewhere on the grounds, catch the Rabbit Transit bus, which leaves the main entrance of the Club-Hotel at regular intervals. It will take you past the airstrip; the Winchester skeet- and trap-shooting range; the championship tennis courts (the United States Professional Lawn Tennis Association held its convention and team matches there last fall); the stables, headquarters for horsemanship (English and Western), surrey and trail rides; the off-limits Bunny Dorm; and the Ski Lodge. Hop off the bus at the Ski Lodge and have a second cup of coffee in the Loaf of Bread restaurant. Summer or winter, you'll enjoy the view from the lodge, which is shaped like a pair of joined snowflakes with great, ceiling-high windows designed for maximum exposure of the hillside panorama. The lodge and the ski slopes (two chair lifts and many runs providing the best skiing anywhere in the immediate area) were designed by architect Alexander McIlvaine, who did Squaw Valley, California (site of the 1960 Winter Olympics), and Stratton Mountain, Vermont. The restaurant and The Jug of Wine bar operate year round, but you'll have to come back next winter to savor the excitement of schussing down the slopes or the kick of learning to ski the Art Furrer way. Furrer, Playboy's internationally renowned Swiss-born ski school chief, believes ski instruction should be fun--for pupil and teacher.

Catch the bus again at the Ski Lodge and ride back to the Pro Shop, which, in addition to being the hub of golfing activities with its locker facilities, showers, sports shop and cart-rental service, is a good place to get a snack or a cool drink any time of the year. When winter arrives, the golf carts give way to snow-mobiles and the Pro Shop becomes action central for skating on the frozen lake. You can take lessons from Carol Rawski, the eye-filling ex-Bunny who serves as skating instructress. Other winter divertissements at the Lake Geneva resort include rides around the lake in horse-drawn sleighs (reserve one at the Gift Shop) and, of course, swinging après-ski fun. Big attraction for pro-football fans: Sunday-afternoon wide-screen telecasts of Chicago Bears' and Green Bay Packers' games, shown in the Penthouse.

Now, however, it's spring at Lake Geneva and the pier at the shore of Playboy's 25-acre lake is headquarters not only for fishing (largemouth bass) but for canoeing, sailing, rowing and pedaling along on Aqua-Bikes built for two. You can get instruction, by the way, in almost any of the activities offered at the Club-Hotel. That includes flight training at the airstrip, where flyovers and charter flights are also available.

By this time, you'll have decided to spend several days at Playboy's newest resort--and to make reservations for return visits later in the year. Even before Playboy arrived on the scene, this part of Wisconsin was a famous resort area. During the Gay Nineties, Lake Geneva, the 5262-acre body of water located some two miles west of the Playboy Club-Hotel site, was ringed by palatial estates. N. K. Fairbank of Ivory Soap fame frequently entertained 50 guests for dinner--and retained a staff of 42, including 17 grooms, to accommodate them. Another great house, Stone Manor, cost $2,000,000 to build at turn-of-the-century prices. Playboy's $12,000,000 resort has almost singlehandedly revived that atmosphere of plush luxury.

Wisconsin's Lieutenant Governor Jack B. Olson, whose family has for three generations been in the tourist business at scenic Wisconsin Dells, in the central part of the state, put it this way: "This Playboy Club-Hotel at Lake Geneva ranks among the great resorts in the world. It is creating a desire among a great new group of people to see why we like it here in Wisconsin--and we like to have them here."

The Lake Geneva Club-Hotel opened just one year ago this month. Unlike most yearlings, it is not at the awkward age. Some peak-season weeks in 1970 are already booked solid; plans for expansion (additional restaurants, a convention center) are under way. As one industry observer commented: "Anybody who plans to get into the resort business from now on is going to have to look long at what's going on in Lake Geneva. They're years ahead of everbody." Already on the drawing boards is an Eastern year-round resort, the Playboy Club-Hotel at Great Gorge, New Jersey, and there are plans for others.

Lake Geneva's success is the result of delivering on a promise of quality, Arnold Morton believes. "Resort hotels in this country have a miserable image," he says. "You read the ads, you go there expecting to find Shangri-La, and what do you find: a little rinky-dink golf course, some sway-backed old mares, a tiny swimming pool and a volleyball net. Talk about the credibility gap!"

There's no credibility gap at Lake Geneva. As radio personality Jack Eigen said at the opening of the resort, "This is everything the publicity told us it would be." Morton explains: "We offer a guy two of the best golf courses in the country, something pretty to look at, name talent in the showrooms, a whole series of the finest restaurants--the kind of places he'd drive seventy-five miles to get to--a lake teeming with bass, skiing, with instruction by the finest acrobatic pro in the world. We're talking, really, in terms of a deluxe country club. Otherwise, it wouldn't be worth it."

It's worth it. Visit Playboy at Lake Geneva and see for yourself. After all, even Hugh Hefner, a frequent guest of honor, admits: "I'm overwhelmed by it all myself."

The Lake Geneva Club-Hotel, which is open only to Playboy Club keyholders, their families and their guests, is now accepting reservations for summer, fall and winter. For information or reservations, write to the Playboy Club-Hotel, Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. Organizations may inquire about convention and group facilities from Sales Manager Jack Nitkey at the same address.