Barbara Edwards, Playmate of the Year, 1984

All Abooooard! Step lively; you don't want to miss this train. It's the Playboy Express. And the principal passenger: none other than the 1984 Playmate of the Year, Barbara Edwards. She's about to embark on the fantasy adventure of her life, and yours, aboard a vintage rail car bound for ... well, who cares where? Why not ride along? The railroad buffs among you will remember Barbara, an artist and model, as our Amtrakking September Playmate. Buff buffs will remember her as our coonskinned coed in her ivy-draped centerfold. In either case, she was clearly unforgettable. And when it came time to choose the choicest of the choice, the memory lingered on.

When we first encountered Barbara, she was just discovering her talent as an artist and exploring her possibilities as a model. There was really never any doubt of either, but she takes some convincing: Yes, Barbara, you have artistic talent. Yes, Barbara, you are beautiful. Yes, Barbara, you are the Playmate of the Year.

"You're kidding," Barbara exclaimed when informed of our choice. "You guys are kidding. I can't believe it. I'm going to call you back. Are you telling me the truth?" Then, she told us later, she hung up and cried.

When we saw her a month later at her West Hollywood apartment, three weeks of dawn-to-way-past-dusk picture taking had left her exhausted. Still, she was ecstatic. Things had been going extraordinarily well for her lately. Since we last checked with her, she had joined the Playmates, our singing group, in their latest edition. We thought she might have a few stories to tell.

"Oh, yeah, boy, I have stories to tell!" she laughed. "Where should I begin? Ah, just got back from Hong Kong. We were on tour there for three weeks. It was a nightmare at the beginning.

"You see, we had a really bad communication gap with the people over there. They didn't speak English and we didn't speak Chinese. Well, the first night, the sound man didn't turn on the music background for our show. We did the whole show a cappella--with egg on our faces."

Just the recollection has Barbara doubled up in gales of laughter.

"But that's nothing. I'll tell you, we've been so humiliated, I think Hef should make a special medal for us. Have you ever heard of the Alan Thicke show, Thicke of the Night? We did that show with three of our (text concluded on page 214)Playmate of the Year(continued from page 136) mikes turned off! And this was in front of all America!" This memory has Barbara falling out of her chair. "Some of the girls cried. I was the only one who laughed about it. Hey, might as well laugh. Anyway, we did a lot of good shows in Hong Kong. Once in a while we'd pack the place. And the shopping was great. Some days, we'd wake up and the American dollars would be worth nine Hong Kong dollars. We overcharged all our charge cards. You go crazy! You get such bargains that you don't even think about what you're spending. I designed my own suits and dresses and had them made up. We got handmade snakeskin shoes for $40. Can you believe it? Like $200 shoes!"

When Barbara shows up at her Playmate of the Year party at Playboy Mansion West, we're going to give her even more nifty stuff. She's already seen one of her gifts, a brand-new 12-cylinder Jaguar XJ-S. "It's real fast," she warned "Ssshewww. Goes up to 65 in first gear! It's a killer. You can't hear the engine at all. It's gorgeous!"

Barbara is so excited about the car, you'd think we never gave her a check for $100,000. The truth is, she's trying to forget it. She has already decided she isn't going to blow a cent. She has consulted a number of investment counselors, and she plans to put most of it into real estate.

"I'm not touching one penny of the $100,000. I'm going to live off the money I make on Playmate promotions and modeling. That $100,000 is a lot of money to me. That's a fortune. I was used to having a nine-to-five job, and I worked hard for almost $200 a week. And I could make that last. So I'm used to stretching."

Before her train leaves on an extended tour of her domain, Barbara plans to take it easy.

"I'm going to relax at home and get into my artwork. I just finished two paintings. And there are a lot of pieces I want to start work on."

She's also looking forward to her new responsibilities.

"I like doing promotions. It's such fun to meet people. I like to get out there and meet everybody. I like promoting Playboy. I think it is one of the most exiting companies to work for. And just being out there promoting it, advertising the name, is just fantastic. I have a lot of fun. People seem to love Playboy.

"You know, I feel as if I'd been chosen Miss America or Miss Universe. I mean, this is the biggest. Someone told me, 'You're the luckiest girl in the world' and, you know, I am lucky. But I feel I can also share it with all my sisters, the Playmates and other people. And as long as everybody is happy for me, I am, too."