This magazine became what it is because of her, I think'. However, Linda said that Charlene needed some persuading, explaining: 'This could take off or this could be really bad.
Who knew what would happen with these pictures? I believe he had to convince her many times to do it'. Revealing what it was really like during the early days of the brand, s Playboy Bunny Kathryn Leigh Scott left and Playmate Jeannie Bell right have shared their experiences in a new Podcast.
Rebranding as Janet Pilgrim, Charlaine became Playboy's original 'girl next door' when photographs of her in Marilyn-style hair and make-up sitting at a typewriter were published in Obviously it shows her cleavage', said Linda. Men were constantly calling her and I know she liked the attention'. Hefner was raised in the the early 50s to a conservative middle-class family in Chicago, going straight from fighting in the Second World War to college and then into marriage with his first wife, Millie.
He split from Millie ten years later, discovering days before their wedding that she had an affair while he was fighting in the army. By the time he was 30 Hefner had began having raucous parties with his friends, playing strip poker and watching porn and had quit his job at Esquire as a copywriter. Jaki Nett arrived in California from Mississippi in straight after graduating from high school, dreaming of becoming an actress and studying theatre at university.
In need of a job after graduation, she took advice from one of her friends to audition to become a Bunny at the Los Angeles club - but was told she was 'too skinny' and she vowed to gain weight and return. However when she was leaving the woman hiring noticed the young model was riding a motorcycle and, impressed with her form of transport, gave her another chance at the job. Nett, who was one of the first black women to be hired as a Playboy bunny, says she was a 'flower child' before her job at the club, but would soon have to adhere to the strict rules.
We were hired for an illusion, Playboy was an illusion. Walking down into the club there was the ambience, the lighting, the beautiful bunnies, everything gave this illusion of sexuality.
Despite struggling to work on the door because of her dyslexia and finding it difficult to remember table orders, the determined model climbed the ranks to eventually become a 'bunny mother' - training new bunnies in LA.
Hugh Hefner making a speech after arriving at Heathrow Airport on his private jet the 'Big Bunny' with 'Jet Bunnies' who were met at the airport by British Bunnies in You make your tips off your looks. If your service is bad you become ugly very quickly. You don't take your shoes off, because if you take your shoes off and your foot swells, then you can't get your shoes back on. Kathryn Leigh Scott was 19 when she arrived from Minnesota to New York dreaming of becoming an actress. She had a scholarship to a theatre school but 'needed a bread-and-butter job' to pay the rent.
She responded to an advert in the New York Times asking young women to 'step into the spotlight' as a Playboy bunny. Hefner is pictured with his girlfriend Barbi Benton right. Kathryn Leigh Scott pictured in was 19 when she arrived from Minnesota to New York dreaming of becoming an actress. Right, Leigh Scott attending a movie premiere in New York in That would allow me to go to classes and get tickets to Broadway shows and it was nirvana.
Claiming to have met both The Beatles and Jack Nicholson, Kathryn said that she's 'lost count' of all the A-listers she encountered, and how many celebrities she 'turned down'. Holly Madison famously exposed her relationship with the magazine editor in her memoir Down the Rabbit Hole. In the book, she revealed how young women were given drugs and encouraged to take part in regular orgies with Hefner in exchange for rent at the luxury mansion. Madison was Hefner's longest partner after moving to the mansion in aged just 21, while he was During that time she became one of the stars of Girls Next Door, a reality show revolving around her and Hefner's other two live-in girlfriends, Bridget Marquardt and Kendra Wilkinson.
Madison was considered his 'main girlfriend', and openly stated she wanted to marry him and have children. However the couple eventually broke up in after she managed to break free of her self-described 'Stockholm Syndrome'.
Behind the scenes in the mansion, Madison said she was enduring a 'living hell' during which she even contemplated suicide. In the book she details first meeting him at Hooters in , when after a night out clubbing with his 'girlfriends', she realised that she was expected to sleep with him. She claimed her first encounter with Hefner was him offering her a Quaalude from a tissue in his pocket. After he brought her home from the club on the first night, she described in her book how Hefner masturbated as bunnies around him play-acted lesbian scenes while hardcore pornography played on two TV screens.
She was pushed forward as Hefner was encouraged to try the 'new girl' while the other women were high on the Quaaludes. Hefner also made regular comments about her appearance and would not let her see a therapist when she started to have mental health struggles, leaving her on the point of suicide. Playboy Bunnies working at the clubs had to undergo a rigorous training programme and follow a stringent rule book, written by Hugh's younger brother Keith. An excerpt of the book reads: The Bunnies' hair, nails, shoes make-up and costumes must be bunny perfect, and no Bunny is permitted to be working unless specifications are met.
Demerits may be issued for carelessness in this regard. Bunnies may dance with patrons provided there is no close physical contact. But actress Kathryn enjoyed her time at the club, insisting: 'It taught me how to send the right signals as to how I wanted to be treated in the workplace. Several of these strict rules were uncovered in feminist campaigner Gloria Steinem's month long undercover investigation into the club.
Her investigation found that bunnies would have to pay for their costumes and make-up including mandatory fake eyelashes, were docked pay for messy hair, were investigated by undercover detectives in the club and required an internal examination for STIs.
But several of the Bunnies asked in the first episodes of the podcast have dismissed the narrative that they were being exploited. Those who say they worked in the club at the same time as Steinem view their time there in a very different way. I can only tell you that we viewed it very differently. In October , Jeannie became the second black Playboy Playmate to appear in the centerfold of the magazine, the first being Jennifer Jackson, in March Jeannie later became the first black woman on the cover.
She had been recruited after becoming the first black woman to participate in the Miss Texas Pageant, which is part of the Miss Universe competition, where she was recruited by a photogaher.
I said: "I'll believe it when I see it". The article was seen as the beginning of Ms. I lost a number of serious journalistic assignments because so many people saw me as a Bunny. In , the editors of Cosmopolitan famously published a photo of Burt Reynolds as a centerfold. The debut issue of Playgirl appeared in June with the actor Lyle Waggoner as the centerfold. In the late s and s, the so-called lad mags — including Maxim, Stuff and FHM — claimed the mantle of championing a male lifestyle that emphasized bawdy humor and sex.
The circulation of Playboy magazine, the bedrock of the empire, declined from a peak of around 5 million in the s to 1. Despite the decline in circulation, the Playboy logo of a rabbit head wearing a tuxedo bow tie remains one of the most recognized brands globally.
There remains a huge and growing market for such merchandise overseas, especially in Asia and Eastern Europe. With its circulation below ,, the magazine is struggling to leverage the Playboy brand and stay relevant in an era where sexting is commonplace and nude photographs in magazines are almost quaint.
Hefner and top editors agreed in to stop publishing images of naked women in a bid to broaden its audience. In , in an about-face, the publication brought back the nudes. In , Mr. Hefner sold the Playboy Mansion to J. Daren Metropoulos, the son of C. Dean Metropoulos, a billionaire investor who is chairman of Hostess Brands. The sale agreement for the property included a stipulation that Mr.
Hefner and his wife, Crystal Harris, a former playmate, could live in the famed pleasure palace until his death. Please upgrade your browser. See next articles.
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