Playboy Club
The Playboy Club initially was a chain of nightclubs and resorts owned and operated by Playboy Enterprises. The first club opened at 116 E. Walton Street in downtown Chicago, Illinois, United States, on February 29, 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 in the Living Rooms were local musicians and the occasional close-up magician. Starting with the London and Jamaica club locations, the Playboy Club became international in scope. Contrary to gossip and rumors, the clubs presented members and guests with a respectable and professionally run entertainment venue. In 1991, with changing times, the club chain became defunct. In 2006, a few new clubs were re-launched and as of 2011, there are operating clubs in Macao, Cancun, and Las Vegas.
Hugh Hefner was inspired by Burton Brown's Chicago chain of Gaslight Clubs. The Gaslight Clubs opened in 1953, featuring women dressed in velvet, one-piece "bunny" type costumes, and had live entertainment.
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[edit] History
The first Playboy Club opened in Chicago in 1960, and later there were clubs in New York, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Detroit, San Francisco, Phoenix, Kansas City, and St. Louis. There were Playboy Club resorts in Jamaica, New Jersey and elsewhere. The last American location before Playboy Club Las Vegas opened was Lansing, Michigan located in the Hilton Hotel, which closed in 1988. International Clubs existed until the 1991 closing of the Manila, Philippines Club located in the Silahis International Hotel. Now International Clubs again exist with locations in Macao and Cancun. 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 earned $25 million for every 1,000,000 members. This revenue stream was critical to the development of the Playboy empire.
The Rabbit-headed metal Playboy key (supplanted by a plastic key-card in 1966) was required for admission to a club.[1]
In 1965 Hugh Hefner sent Victor Lownes to London to open Playboy's British casinos, following legalization of gambling in the United Kingdom. Gaming income from these casinos enabled Playboy to continue throwing money at financially disastrous clubs, theaters, resorts, record companies and film investments. The magazine's income was modest compared to that from these casinos. In 1981 the casino at 45 Park Lane[2] was the most profitable casino in the world and the British casinos contributed $32 million to the corporation. Playboy showed a total profit of $31 million that year, meaning the rest of the empire made a net loss of $1 million. However, in that year Victor Lownes was fired, and gambling licenses were not renewed, thereby cutting off Playboy's biggest source of income and creating a financial crisis that would only be solved by enormous changes within the empire.
The Playboy Club in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin had a ski slope and was one of the first to install a chair lift.
On October 6, 2006 Playboy officially opened a new Playboy Club in Las Vegas, Nevada. The new club at The Palms, with its very noticeable neon bunny head, has casinos, bars, and a restroom with pictures of Playmates on the walls.[3]
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 will be chosen to travel to Macao for a six month contract as a Playboy Bunny. The Macao Playboy Club opened on November 24, 2010.[4]
In October 2010 it was officially announced that a new Playboy Club in London was to be opened on the site of the old Rendezvous Mayfair Casino in Old Park Lane. It was opened on June 4, 2011.[5][6] The 17,000sq ft property spread over two floors has been designed by acclaimed London-based Architect Jestico + Whiles. [7] The club features a casino, cigar terrace, gentleman's tonic, sports bar ("The Player's Lounge"), night club ("The Cottontail Lounge"), cocktail bar under the direction of Salvatore Calabrase, and a fine dining restaurant under the reins of Iron Chef Judy Joo.
[edit] Locations and opening dates
- Chicago (February 29, 1960)
- Miami (May 20, 1961)
- New Orleans (October 13, 1961)
- St. Louis (October 16, 1962)
- Beirut (April, 2011)
- New York (December 8, 1962)
- Phoenix (December 19, 1962)
- Detroit (December 28, 1963)
- Manila, Philippines (January 1964)
- Baltimore (1964)
- Kansas City (June 13, 1964)
- Cincinnati (September 16, 1964)
- Los Angeles (December 31, 1964)
- Ochos Rios Club, Hotel, & Resort, Jamaica (January 4, 1965)
- Boston (February 26, 1965)
- Atlanta (March 6, 1965)
- San Francisco (November 13, 1965)
- London Casino & Club (July 1, 1966)
- Montreal (July 15, 1967)
- Denver (December 9, 1967)
- Lake Geneva Club, Hotel, & Resort, Wisconsin (May 6, 1968)
- Playboy Towers, Chicago (November 1, 1970)
- Miami Plaza Club, Hotel, & Resort (December 22, 1970)
- Great Gorge Club, Hotel, & Resort, New Jersey (December 22, 1971)
- Clermont Club, London (1972; not strictly a Playboy Club but non-costumed Bunnies did work there)
- Portsmouth, U.K. (December 1972)
- Manchester, U.K. (December 13, 1973)
- Tokyo (December 9, 1976)
- Dallas (July 27, 1977)
- Osaka, Japan (February 1, 1978)
- Bahamas (April 11, 1978)
- Nagoya, Japan (July 16, 1979)
- Sapporo, Japan (April 25, 1980)
- Atlantic City Hotel, Casino, & Club (April 14, 1981)
- Buffalo (April 24, 1981)
- St. Petersburg, Florida (May 8, 1981)
- Lansing (September 17, 1981)
- San Diego (December 17, 1981)
- Columbus, Ohio (December 7, 1982)
- Des Moines (March 12, 1984)
- Omaha (May 18, 1984)
- Rhodes (1999)
- Las Vegas (October 6, 2006)
[edit] Playboy Clubs in popular culture
- 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 2000 TV movie, A Tale of Two Bunnies (aka Price of Beauty) starring Marina Black and Julie Condra, tells the story of two girls who try out as Playboy Bunnies in 1961.
- 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 his Playboy Club Member Card, which she uses to identify the man on the floor.
- The film, Hefner; an Unauthorized Biography, includes leotard-wearing women being trained as hostesses in a Playboy Club.
- In season four, episode ten of Mad Men, the characters visit the Playboy Club.
- In season one, episode two of Swingtown, the characters visit the Playboy Club.
- September 2011 saw the premiere of NBC's The Playboy Club, a television series focusing on the employees and patrons of the first Playboy Club, located in Chicago. A storm of protests against the sexuality in the TV show and low ratings led to the show's cancellation on October 4, 2011. Reports state that Canadian TV will continue to run the show. [8]
[edit] References
- ^ http://www.explayboybunnies.com/history/anniversary/anniversary1.html
- ^ http://www.45parklane.com
- ^ "Playboy Club Opens in Las Vegas". http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15093574/ns/business-us_business/.
- ^ "Playboy Club Sands Macao Bunny Auditions In Sydney". http://iknowjack.radio.com/2010/11/18/playboy-club-sands-macao-bunny-auditions-in-sydney/.
- ^ "New Playboy club to open in London". The Daily Telegraph. October 19, 2010. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/8073495/New-Playboy-club-to-open-in-London.html.
- ^ http://www.playboyclublondon.com/
- ^ "Playboy bounces back into London". UK Construction magazine. 13 october 2011. http://www.ukconstructionmagazine.co.uk/online/uk_construction/uk_features/august2011/Playboy%20bounces%20back%20into%20London.html.
- ^ NBC.com - The Playboy Club
[edit] External links
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