Bunny of the Year

They came from all points of the compass--from London and Los Angeles, New Orleans and New York, Jamaica, Denver, Montreal and a dozen other Bunny bastions--to converge on the stage of the Penthouse showroom in the Playboy Club-Hotel at Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, for this moment of truth: selection of the Playboy Clubs' Bunny of the Year for 1970. All 19 finalists, representing each Club in the Playboy empire, had just gone through four months of competition, topped by an exciting final week in Chicago and Lake Geneva that was one third frolic, two thirds preparation for the pageant.

Late in July, keyholders started balloting for the most beautiful Bunny in their local Clubs. Competition quickened, with each cottontail campaigning enthusiastically, until the close of voting in September. In Playboy Clubs throughout the world, panels of celebrity judges met early in October to choose each hutch's Bunny of the Year from a list of the five top vote getters. The Bunnies who emerged victorious from this round were those who competed in the elaborate November 16 pageant staged at Lake Geneva by Ed Pierce, a veteran producer of the Miss Universe and Miss U. S. A. spectacles.

The Bunny beauty pageant was the opening spectacular in what is planned as a yearlong observance of the Playboy Clubs' tenth anniversary. After an introductory ensemble song-and-dance number, backed by orchestra and chorus, each Bunny was spotlighted for individual introductions.

Up from Atlanta came Bunny Sara Atkinson, a blue-eyed blonde who's been with the Club since 1965. No stranger to Lake Geneva, she served as Training Bunny when the Club-Hotel in Wisconsin was coaching its own complement of cottontails. Sara, a rabid football fan, lives and dies with the fortunes of Atlanta's N. F. L. Falcons.

Baltimore's Gina Byrams came almost as a cottontail without a Club; the Maryland hutch was burned out in a midsummer fire. But it would take more than a setback like that to turn off Gina's spirit. A modern-jazz buff, she's studied dancing and has been a teacher's aide.

Bunny Suzy Kramer, who's the proverbial five foot, two, with eyes of blue, represented Playboy of Boston. After completing two years at the Chandler School for Women in Boston, Suzy went to work as an executive secretary for a catering firm but soon gave it up for a cottontail career. "I like the freedom that working as a Bunny affords," she says. Her favorite getaway site is the Bahamas, where her father has real-estate interests.

Brown-haired Bunny Carol Imhof, a native of Chicago, represented the Windy City, where the first link in the entire Playboy Club key chain was forged ten years ago. While attending Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, Carol was named "Femme Fatale of the Month" by the student newspaper; her self-image is somewhat different, however: "I like to roughhouse," she says. Fellow cottontails will attest to that; Carol was one of the ringleaders in what has since become known as the pillow fight of the century, which took place in the Lake Geneva Club-Hotel late one night during the week of the final pageant.

Another blue-eyed blonde was Cincinnati's Viki Casto, a former newspaper-woman from Beckley, West Virginia, who has her eye firmly fixed on the New York stage. "I like everything about the theater, even working on costumes and scenery," she says.

Petite Jackie Rhodes (4 feet, 11 inches, 93 pounds) came down from the Mile-High City to be Denver's representative in the contest. Jackie raises litters of Siamese cats and plans a career as a criminal lawyer.

From Detroit came Bunny Renée Burton, a bright-eyed brunette who, in keeping with the prime concern of that city, dotes on sports cars. During breaks in the rehearsal schedule at Lake Geneva, Renée was often found taking "just one more look" at the 1970 MGB on display as one of the prizes to be won by the Bunny of the Year.

Soft-voiced Bev Riley, candidate from the Jamaica Playboy Club-Hotel, flew up from the Caribbean hoping for a taste of cold weather--ideally, with snow, which she'd never seen. (The weatherman obliged with a few flakes.) This diminutive Jamaican Bunny, who stands 5 feet, I inch in her body-stocking feet, was born in Kingston and has spent all her life on the island.

The first thing one notices about Kansas City's raven-haired Brandi Christ is her flashing, jet-black eyes. Brandi, a five-year favorite with Missouri keyholders, numbers cats, candles and the occult among her interests; she plans to open a pet shop someday.

Participating in a beauty pageant was almost old hat for Nanci Boyles, Lake Geneva's entrant. Back home in Louisiana, where she first became a Bunny, Nanci was named Miss New Orleans and ended up as first alternate to Miss Louisiana of 1966 (she's also held a few other titles--among them, Miss Press Club, Miss Astro and Sweetheart of Tau Kappa Epsilon).

For London's Deana Turner, becoming a finalist in the Bunny Beauty Contest provided a chance to meet the celebrity who's been at the top of her list of most admired men for some time: Hugh Hefner. (The verdict: "He's charming!") Another bonus of the trip for this young lady was the opportunity to pursue her equestrian hobby with some of the fine horseflesh stabled at the Lake Geneva resort.

Heads naturally turn when Chere Davis, who's six feet tall in her Bunny heels, enters a room. Los Angeles Bunny Chere may have entered your living room, via television; she's appeared on several commercials in recent months. (She can also be seen in the Don Knotts movie The Love God.)

Bunny Jan Hornback's deep suntan was a giveaway; in November, that almost always means Miami. Jan migrated to Florida from Louisville and has been a cottontail for three years. Cooking, tennis and beachcombing vie for her attention in off-duty hours.

French ancestry showing through in her delightful accent, and model's training evidenced in her walk, Montreal's Roxanne Rozon made an instant impression on the pageant audience. As befits a representative of Playboy's outpost in bilingual Quebec, Roxanne introduced herself in both English and français. (She also speaks a little Italian.) For this French-Canadian cottontail, a highlight of the trip was seeing at close hand a famed sister model, England's Jean Shrimpton, who was one of the judges for the contest. "I think she's the greatest," says Roxanne.

Although (text concluded overleaf) her real name is Lynda, everybody at the New Orleans Playboy Club knows her as Bunny "Scottie" Scott. This North Carolina native is an ex-airline stewardess, whose favorite pastime is preparing good food, preferably enhanced by elaborate table settings. "My specialty is beef Stroganoff," says blue-eyed blonde Scottie, "but when it comes to beverages, my taste is downhome simple. I love chocolate milk."

Newest Bunny in the finalists' ranks was brown-haired Cheri Wright from the New York Club, who became a cottontail last July. A convert to the ranks of ski buffs, Cheri is looking forward to the opening next year of Playboy's new Club-Hotel at Great Gorge, in the mountains of New Jersey's Sussex County, just 50 miles from Manhattan.

Representing the Phoenix Club was Pat Duffel, whose auburn locks have earned her the nickname "Cinnamon." At the Lake Geneva Club-Hotel, Pat and several of her fellow contestants discovered the Bunny Hutch discothèque and could often be seen doing the latest dances in its psychedelic surroundings.

From St. Louis came a contestant with the Jane Fonda look: Jude Willbrand, now a Bunny stewardess on Hugh Hefner's DC 9-30 jet. Before becoming a cottontail last June, Jude worked as a doctor's assistant in her home town, St. Charles, Missouri.

The glowing smile of Peggy Berry, the finalist from San Francisco, has been winning friends all the way from Pasay in the Philippines, where she was born, to Dayton, Ohio, where she went to school. Just before joining the San Francisco Club, Peggy worked as a cashier at the University of California Hospitals and Clinics in the Bay City, where it's a good guess that her charm may have made paying up a bit less painful for patients.

All 19 finalists arrived in Chicago the Sunday before the pageant, for three days of excitement: a get-acquainted dinner in the famous Pump Room of the Ambassador East Hotel; seats for the Chicago performance of Hair; a round of press, radio and TV interviews, makeup and hairstyling appointments; a VIP Room dinner at the Chicago Playboy Club and a party at Hefner's mansion on North State Parkway. En route to the Lake Geneva resort on Wednesday, the Bunny finalists stopped to visit wounded Vietnam veterans at the Great Lakes Naval Hospital, where they autographed pictures of themselves and copies of Playboy.

The better part of the next three and a half days was taken up with rehearsals for the Bunny beauty pageant on Sunday night, November 16. With script by Donald K. Epstein, musical direction by Bernard Green and choreography by Gene Bayliss, the show afforded all 19 Bunnies a chance to demonstrate their singing and dancing talents, and they practiced diligently. "They did a marvelous job," said producer Pierce after the program. There were breaks in the schedule, of course, and the entrants used their spare time to the fullest, exploring the 1000 acres of Playboy's Wisconsin wonderland, sampling every sport from swimming to skeet-and trapshooting.

Sunday arrived and the girls were at their best for make-up sessions and a brunch with the celebrity judges who had flown up to Lake Geneva for the contest: Jean Shrimpton; Bill Cosby; consultant Mark McCormack, who is personal representative for Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus and other notables in and out of the world of sports; Wisconsin's lieutenant governor, Jack B. Olson; and Jan van der Marck, director of Chicago's Museum of Contemporary Art. A full-scale dress rehearsal followed, and then it was time to settle down for a light supper and a bout with the butterflies as the big moment neared.

Finally, the 19 lovely cottontails were snug in custom-made Bunny costumes of silver lamé with matching ears, collars, cuffs and shoes. The orchestra and chorus struck up an overture, segueing into Gee, but It's Good to Be Here, and the Bunnies danced onstage to open the first annual Bunny beauty pageant, emceed by Mike Darow, host of ABC's Dream House. The show went smoothly, from the introductory sequence through appearances by the girls in evening attire and entertainment by the featured Penthouse performers, Hines, Hines & Dad. Then the girls returned to the stage in their silver costumes for a production number of If My Friends Could See Me Now and to await the results of the judges' first ballot, which would cut the field to seven finalists. James L. Pioso of the firm of Laventhol, Krekstein, Horwath & Horwath, certified public accountants, handed the ballots to Mike Darow, who read out the seven names: Baltimore's Gina Byrams, Chicago's Carol Imhof, Lake Geneva's Nanci Boyles, London's Deana Turner, Los Angeles' Chere Davis, Montreal's Roxanne Rozon and San Francisco's Peggy Berry.

Each of the seven girls was then asked a question ("What is the difference between glamor and beauty?" "If you could do your own thing, what would it be?" "Do blondes really have more fun?" etc.) and the judges voted again. The results, announced by Darow: Fourth runner-up, Deana Turner of London; third runner-up, Nanci Boyles of Lake Geneva; tied for first runner-up, Roxanne Rozon of Montreal and Carol Imhof of Chicago. The orchestra struck a suspenseful chord, Mike pulled out a slip of paper and announced: "Ladies and gentlemen ... the Bunny of the Year for 1970 is ... our Bunny from Baltimore, Gina Byrams!"

Gina's fellow cottontails clustered around the winner with congratulatory hugs, as Hefner crowned the queen with a sparkling tiara and gold Bunny ears and presented her with a gold Bunny statuette. The runners-up received silver statuettes of the same design, and special awards went to Nanci Boyles, chosen "most photogenic" by members of the Chicago Press Photographers' Association at a luncheon earlier in the week, and to ebullient Chere Davis, voted "most popular" by the Bunnies themselves.

As Bunny of the Year, Gina claimed the 1970 MGB; a mink jacket from the Emba Mink Breeders Association, designed by D. H. Grosvenor; $1000 in cash; a vacation cruise aboard a French Line ship; a collection of 12 Bill Blass designer watches from the Hamilton Watch Company; a Schwinn ten-speed racing bicycle; Camaro skis from the Hart Ski Manufacturing Company; a Peter Kennedy stretch ski wardrobe and P & K ski poles from Peter Kennedy Manufacturing Company; Lange plastic ski boots; a Panasonic stereo music center; fall and eyelashes from Brentwood Hairpieces; a Yashica 35mm camera, with accessories; a metal tennis racquet from Spalding; and a Kiku Bathique Collection from Fabergé. She also was awarded a screen test with Playboy Productions and a guest appearance on Hefner's syndicated television series, Playboy After Dark.

"I really got the biggest kick out of getting all those watches," said Gina after the excitement had calmed down a bit. "And making television appearances is going to be fun." She was co-hostess on Chicago's The Jim Conway Show, over WGN-TV, the week after the contest, and really enjoyed it. "I liked meeting celebrities, such as William L. Shirer, Timothy Leary and Harold Robbins. Someday I'd like to be able to have my own television show. It would be a series based on a black family--maybe two neighbor families--and how they live. I'd want it to be true to life--to get across some serious ideas with an entertainment format."

For the next few months, however, Gina will be fairly well tied up as Bunny of the Year, with a schedule calling for personal appearances at Playboy Clubs all over the globe. She'll throw herself into the whirl with typical enthusiasm. "You know, winning this contest is like my first step into the world," Gina Byrams says. "It's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, I'm proud to have won, and I'm loving every minute of it."