Bruce Handy gathered an oral history from Hugh Hefner's original Playboy Clubs, which, after opening in 1960 offered men "swinging-bachelor-pad décor, the carefully garnished cocktails, and, above all, the cantilevered, cottontailed Bunnies." Former Bunny Kathryn Leigh Scott recounts a signal of the clubs' decline, when membership fees were lowered and the allure of exclusivity evaporated:
I’ll tell you a story that a Chicago Bunny told me. She saw these guys on a garbage truck one morning and as she passed them, one of the guys yelled out, “Bunny Quinn!” She turned around, wondering how this guy knew she was a Bunny, and he said, “I saw you at the club Saturday night.” It suddenly dawned on her: of course, anybody can be a keyholder. Nothing wrong with that, but it was an indication of how things had changed from the early 60s.
(Image: From the full Playboy Bunny Club Manual)
The Dish 