The Bunny Years: Inside the Playboy Empire

"It was a small step....There was a reverend mother in the convent, there was a Bunny Mother at the Playboy Club. It was kind of like a sisterhood." Thus does Helen Hite explain her transition from wearing a nun's habit to donning floppy ears, a revealing outfit, and a cotton tail. Hugh Hefner established the first Playboy Club in Chicago in 1960, offering exclusive memberships for men who wanted to ogle well-endowed women. Despite the overt sexual atmosphere, however, members were constantly reminded, "Don't touch the Bunnies," and oafs who did were summarily shown the door. The skimpy outfits were as constricting as Victorian whalebone corsets, often cutting off circulation, and the rules and regulations were legion. The Bunny manual specified everything, including the famed "Bunny dip," a method of serving a drink with a graceful backward arch that prevented breasts from spilling out. Combining b&w and color archival clips and photos, the program follows the spread of Playboy Clubs across the United States, London, Montreal, and elsewhere, interviewing former Bunnies--some frumpy and heavy-set, others regally beautiful--who went on to careers as actresses (such as Lauren Hutton), computer programmers, social workers, advertising executives, midwives, immunologists, and mall developers. Shattering condescending stereotypes, this documentary convincingly portrays a world in which young women made $1,000 a week, went to school with Playboy-paid tuition, and learned a lot about human psychology. Yes, many were addicted to diet pills, and some of them succumbed to Hefner and his high-rolling friends at sex parties. But most remain bitter at Gloria Steinem's undercover "exposé" of the Bunny life, which portrayed them as poor bimbos, victims of a sexist society. In fact, they unionized, went on strike, and won demands for better treatment, and many relished the diversity of the Bunny world, in which every race was represented. By the mid-1980s, the Playboy Clubs and their Bunnies, which seemed dated and quaint, largely disappeared. Their history offers a bittersweet exploration of a strange American institution, and this documentary, based on the book of the same name by former Bunny Kathryn Leigh Scott, is an entertaining, thought-provoking tribute. Highly recommended. Editor's Choice. Aud: C, P. (M. Pendergrast)