Bunnies of 75

Although we like to think of Playboy Clubs as cool, dark, comfortable places where keyholders can forget about all the hassle and strife outside, it's a matter of record that strife and hassle--of a relatively mild nature, to be sure--reached the Chicago Playboy Club this year. In fact, it started on the cool, dark and comfortable inside and was carried out to the bright light of day by ten sign-beating Bunnies (a typical message: Why are we the Untouchables?). Their demonstration attracted plenty of attention from the local gendarmes--and the media, which gave the girls ample opportunity to air their complaints. What they wanted was freedom to give keyholders their last names, to date them if they wished and to hang around the Club after working hours. Well, all's well that ends well, and our tale of discord and strife came to an early--and happy--denoucement when Playboy Editor-Publisher Hugh M. Hefner granted the girls' demands without delay, making all (text concluded on page 171) Bunnies of '75 (continued from page 89) Bunnies honorary keyholders. Hef conceded that in forbidding Bunnies to fraternize, he might have been "just a wee bit overprotective," insisted that he wanted to make "Bunny lib a reality rather than just a slogan" and declared, "Really, Bunnies, I'm not a male chauvinist and I love and respect all of you." He also observed that Bunnies are "responsible young ladies fully capable of leading their own private lives without bringing any discredit to themselves or the company." To which we can only chorus, "Amen."

Newsworthy as the Chicago demonstration may have been, however, the highlight of the year--as it has been for the past six years--was the Bunny of the Year Pageant, held at Los Angeles' Aquarius Theater and broadcast by ABC-TV as a Wide World Special. Nearly 1000 Bunnies took part in the preliminary contests, held under the auspices of the various Clubs, with the keyholders casting the ballots for their favorites. Eventually, the field was narrowed to 22 finalists: Atlanta's Sharon Crowe, Baltimore's Carrie Jackson, Boston's Britt Stratton, Chicago's Laura Lyons, Cincinnati's Debra Whitaker, Denver's Phaedra Durst, Detroit's Jackie Banks, Great Gorge's Alyson Merkel, Jamaica's Michelle MacDonald, Kansas City's Victoria Night, Lake Geneva's Debbie Lemke, London's Carolyn Moore, Los Angeles' Victoria Cunningham, Manchester's Tara Silcock, Miami's Sue Marks, Montreal's Johanna Saucier, New Orleans' Debi Brown, New York's Naomi Lee, Phoenix' Nikki Williams, Portsmouth's Lynne Hayto, St. Louis' Jody Dyson and San Francisco's Beth Martin. During the pageant, which was hosted by singer John Davidson and featured entertainment by Barbi Benton, John Byner, Charo and an up-and-coming dance group, The Lockers, a panel of celebrities--including Connie Stevens, Bob Crane, Bert Convy, Peter Lawford, Jim Brown and the all-time heavyweight champ of girl watchers, Groucho Marx--selected San Francisco's Bunny Beth as Bunny of the Year. Outgoing Bunny queen Angle Chester of the Chicago Playboy Club crowned her successor, a 25-year-old Florida native and former airline stewardess who, coincidentally, had long been a fan of Groucho's. Beth, the Training Bunny at the San Francisco Club, is a yoga devotee who plays tennis whenever she gets the chance and is looking ahead to a career in interior decoration. Her bounty as Bunny of the Year included a Datsun 280Z sports car from Nissan Motor Enterprises, a Harley-Davidson motorcycle, a Canadian-fox-fur coat from Evans, Inc., of Chicago, a $1000 check from Playboy and variou other prizes. As it happens, though, Beth isn't a materialist; shortly after her coronation--which surprised her quite a bit, as she was quick to admit--she took off for a vacation in Hawaii, to "get her head together." (She's now back at the San Francisco Playboy Club, in between promotional assignments.) Of course, Beth wasn't the only winner at the pageant. Jody Dyson of St. Louis, who studies journalism at J. C. Smith College when she isn't serving drinks to keyholders, won the annual Miss Congeniality contest as the girl voted "most friendly and helpful" by her fellow contestants. And all 22 finalists thoroughly enjoyed their week of wining, dining, posing for photographers and checking out the wonders of Los Angeles itself, plus those of Hefner's West Coast Mansion in Holmby Hills, which, as London Bunny Carolyn said, is "not exactly your average Thamesside cottage." (Bunny Jackie noted that the carp in the pond were "big enough to jump out after you if you don't feed them fast enough"; Bunny Debi, a film buff, said she'd probably "never leave the house" if she had a theater like the one at the Mansion; and Jamaica's Bunny Michelle, zonked out by L.A., said she was at home with the palm trees, "but those freeways really throw me.")

Otherwise, it was a pretty normal year for Bunnies here, there and everywhere. Which meant that a lot of them made local news by aiding various charities; and four of them--Janice Raymond and Kacey Cobb of L.A. and Sharon Gwin and Maynell Thomas of Chicago (along with some other Playboy staffers)--made national news by assisting in the Playboy airlift of 41 Vietnamese orphans--from San Francisco to Denver and New York--shortly after you-know-which domino toppled in Southeast Asia. A normal year also means that a full quota of Bunnies won titles in various beauty contests, earned or at least made tangible progress toward college degrees in a mind-boggling variety of subjects, from criminal law (Miami's Marcy Feinzig) to marine biology (L.A.'s Melanie Rambeck, who traveled to Africa to study her subject), or got into something theatrical. Among the latter were New Orleans Playmate-Bunny Laura Misch, who had several movie roles, including a featured part in the blockbuster Mandingo; Chicago's Laura Lyons, who appeared in Godfather Part II (they would get a Chicago Bunny for that one); and L.A. Bunnies Ninette Bravo, Kandi Keith and Betty Samuelson, all of whom appeared in segments of popular TV shows, from Cannon and Police Woman to a Flip Wilson special. Gloria Weems, also of the L.A. Club, was a featured songstress at the L.A., Chicago and San Francisco hutches. San Francisco Bunnies Kim Tong, Rosie Klemish, Kim Streeter and Sandy Nicholson used their spare time to assemble a musical revue that played successfully at the Club. Which just goes to show you what Bunny power can do. Believe us, when these girls take to the street with placards, the whole world pays attention.