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The Playboy Clubs, a chain of plush members-only joints that flourished in the 1960s, epitomized the sexy, affluent lifestyle promoted in Hugh Hefner's high class men's magazine
Playboy, but that's only half the story. "We weren't waitresses, we were Bunnies," explains one former employee in the made-for-cable documentary
The Bunny Years, a unique slant on the short-lived Playboy Club empire. The clubs became famous for the college girls, young professionals, single mothers, and ambitious young women of all nationalities who donned the strapless uniforms with matching ears, and these are their stories. In many ways it's a riposte to Gloria Steinem's famous exposé in
Ms. magazine (whose absence in the documentary is a glaring weakness). These women, icons of male fantasy in the early years of the sexual revolution, insist that they were engaged in an act of feminist independence. The Playboy mystique, captured in smoky black-and-white film and TV clips from the club's heyday, contrasts with the working experience of the Bunnies presented in rare training films, behind the scenes footage, and scores of interviews. Supermodel Lauren Hutton and actress Barbara Bosson figure among the roll call of businesswomen, authors, singers, and scientists who acquired confidence and management skills while working in the clubs and invested their generous income in education and careers. The praise becomes almost monotonous and the portrait would have benefited from any alternate perspective, but it's a curious and highly entertaining slice of American social history delivered with a surprising spin.
--Sean Axmaker
Product Description
Hugh Hefner opens up the Playboy archives for this behind-the-scenes look at the clubs that were at the heart of his empire for three decades. Former Bunnies Debbie Harry, Lauren Hutton, Gloria Steinem and others share their moments.
