Playboy Club

Hugh Hefner opened the first Playboy Club in Chicago in 1960, and clubs were opened the following year in New Orleans and Miami. Surprisingly, the fourth Playboy Club was built in 1962 on the 3900 block of Lindell, across the street from the AAA Motor Club, in the normally conservative city of St. Louis.
 

3900 block of Lindell, looking east to Vandeventer - November 29, 1953
AAA Motor Club in foreground - Continental Building and Moolah Temple in background

The grand old home of Ms. Ellen Huctson was cleared from the site to make way for the multilevel building. The St. Louis club was the only Playboy Club built from the ground up.

A series of pagoda shaped canopies extending from Lindell to the club entrance, which was recessed 40 feet from the street. The 18,000 square feet '50s modern structure had a glass front exposing two of its three floors and a sunken patio garden in its forecourt. Automobiles drove up to the club entrance and then through a drive under the building to parking areas in the rear.
 

St. Louis Playboy Club - 3914 Lindell Boulevard

The announcement that a Playboy Club was to open in St Louis triggered a massive "bunny hunt."

Attractive young girls who are interested in the exciting world of show business can now earn big money working as Bunnies at the soon to be opened St. Louis Playboy Club. Whether you are serving drinks, snapping pictures or greeting guests at the door, the atmosphere is strictly "show biz" and our Bunnies are the stars.

The charm and beauty of our Bunnies has been extolled in TIME, NEWSWEEK and PAGEANT and Ed Sullivan has called the Playboy Club ". . . the greatest new show biz gimmick."

So, if you would like to make top money with the added opportunity of traveling to other Playboy Clubs throughout the world, phone for appointment.

St. Louis Post-Dispatch, July 5, 1962

Bored with routine? Tired of dreary offices? Become a part of the glamorous, exciting world of show business. If you’re an attractive young lady, between 21-25, you can double what you are earning now as an office girl by becoming one of Playboy’s famous Bunnies. The earnings are high and so is the fun and glamour. And there is the opportunity to travel to other Playboy Clubs throughout the country. For appointment call Miss Frankie Helms.

St. Louis Post-Dispatch, July 5, 1962

Over 800 young women showed up at the Coronado Hotel on Lindell to apply. Forty-one bunnies were hired and sent off to "bunny school," a training program run by Hugh Hefner's brother, Keith. The St Louis Playboy Club would produce six Playmates of the Month and one Playmate of the Year. Its most famous playmate was Patti McGuire, who married local tennis star, Jimmy Connors.

The St Louis Playboy Club opened its doors on October 16, 1962. The facility featured the Playmate Bar, Cartoon Corner, the Piano Bar, the Library, the Playpen, which was used for private parties, and the invitation only Penthouse. A barber shop, beauty shop and club offices occupied space on the lower level.
 

St. Louis Bunnies Kitty, Bea and Kelly
greet key holders on opening night
The Playpen suspended over the Playmate Bar,
with Cartoon Corner in the background
Playboy Club Lobby

The St. Louis Playboy Club was operated under franchise by Cottontail, Inc., a corporation formed by local investors, including William Horvath, Mel Friedman, Herschel Price, Herb Koberman, James Gosserau, Gil Newsome, Joseph Moore and Kingsley Wright. It catered exclusively to Playboy key holders and their guests, offering dining and luncheon facilities, as well as evening entertainment. Membership was $25, with an additional $20 annual fee. The key with the bunny-head logo allowed entry into any club nationwide.
 

Playboy Club Dining & Drink Menus - June 21, 1966
(click image to enlarge)
Playboy Penthouse Buffet

Within two years, the St. Louis Playboy Club had issued 17,600 membership keys. On weekends, waiting lines stretched west on Lindell for more than a block. Bobby Darin, whose hit "Mack The Knife" had just topped the charts, was refused his own table because the rooms were filled to capacity.

Among the unknown comics who broke in their acts at the St. Louis club were George Carlin, Pat Morita, Flip Wilson and Richard Pryor – all paid $300 a week. Harry Blackstone Jr. was a fill-in act; Gabe Kaplan was a stand-up comic; and there was singing novice Lana Cantrell, Professor Irwin Corey and Tiny Tim.
 

Hugh Hefner at the St. Louis Playboy Club

The Playboy Club closed its doors at 3914 Lindell Boulevard on September 25, 1975. Signs in front of the building and on the marquee advised customers that the club would reopen at a new site.

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Margie Stafford grew up in Belleville, Illinois. At age 15, she quit high school and eloped. She had a child, was divorced after two years of marriage and traveled around the country with her son, working as a waitress.

When the Playboy Club opened in St. Louis, her stepmother told her about the bunny hunt. She had never heard of Playboy. At age 17, Margie Stafford showed up at the Coronado Hotel for the audition, lied about her age and got one of the 41 bunny jobs.

Herschel Price, whose principal businesses had been the coffee company started by his father and real estate, was one of the investors in the St. Louis club when it opened in 1962. Stafford recalled, "When I met Herschel, I was 18 and he was one of the club owners. I called him 'Mr. Price.' In those days, he was a smooth bachelor around town. When he asked me to marry him, I said, 'You’ve got to be kidding!' He still says I’ve never said yes."

When the St. Louis Playboy Club closed its doors in September of 1975, Herschel Price bought the rights to the franchise from his partners and moved operations to South County. Herschel and Margie Price reopened the club at the Ramada Inn on South Lindbergh on New Year's Eve, 1975.
 

Ramada Inn, 6926 South Lindbergh at Interstate 55

The new 800-seat Ramada Inn Playboy Club represented what Herschel Price called the "second concept" for the clubs. "Instead of a freestanding building, we thought, why not put them in a hotel, where you’ll also have all the hotel guests? We’ll simply rent the nightclub facilities." It was still a key club, not open to the public, with a key still costing $25, plus a $15 annual fee.
 

Playboy Club Menu, circa 1980
(click image to enlarge)

Price explained, "In the beginning a real playboy wouldn’t have gone near a Playboy Club; we only had people who wanted to be playboys. We went after the new franchise because we saw this was changing and our new audience would be dating couples, young married couples – the traditional nightclub audience."
 

Margie Price at the Playboy Club on Lindell Herschel Price at the Ramada Inn Playboy Club

In September of 1976, five former bunnies sued the St. Louis Playboy Club. They had all worked at the club on Lindell and claimed they had been assured of jobs at the new location, but were not rehired "because of failure to maintain the bunny image," which Playboy defined as "the physical appearance of a bunny and the impression she conveyed to customers and others." The ex-bunnies asserted the definition was "arbitrary, capricious and allowed the employer to discharge without reason."

Betty Bennett was the "bunny mother" at the Lindell club – hirer, trainer, adviser and judge. She wasn’t happy with some of Playboy's bunny practices.

One of the main things I found wrong was the rating system. The general manager, the bunny mother and an international rep each voted periodically on each girl. Rating "one" meant you were on top, "two" you were average, "three" you were on notice and "four" you were fired. This was only on appearance, not service.

After age 25, you were supposed to be through. They wanted constant turnover. And they had a fat-bunny list. You had to maintain your hiring weight. If you didn’t, you had two weeks to take it off.

Margie Price was in charge of the bunnies at the Ramada Inn club.

This is really a tough business. In this world looks are everything. The girls are always dieting, and it’s a rough night when all the girls have dizzy spells from not eating.

I loved hearing women say, "If I had that on, I’d look like that, too." Oh yeah? That costume emphasized everything good and showed everything bad. I’d say send them down to the bunny dressing room and let them see for themselves.

It’s not a job, it’s a world you lived in. Sure it was hard and tough work, especially working on 3-inch heels. But it also had the feel of Camelot. We were protected like hothouse plants; look but don’t touch.

I came from an extremely poor family. It was shoved down my throat that I wasn’t as good as other people. Playboy taught me that I was.

Bunny costumes hanging in the dressing room at the Ramada Inn Playboy Club
St. Louis Post-Dispatch, April 2, 1978

Herschel and Margie Price chose not to renew their lease at the Ramada Inn and ceased operating the St. Louis Playboy Club as of the close of business on August 11, 1985.

On June 30, 1986, Hugh Hefner closed the Playboy Clubs in Los Angeles, New York and Chicago. Hefner said closing the clubs "at last freed us from the attempt to make something old-fashioned seem like a contemporary symbol when it wasn’t."

The last of the original Playboy Clubs in America closed on July 29, 1988 when the distinctive, stylized rabbit came down from the awning entrance to the Hilton in Lansing, Michigan.


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