For the first time in 30 years, a Playboy club in London will swing open its doors. In honor, we look back at the bunnies of yore.
“Step into the Playroom,” the brochure said, “and the wonderful world of Playboy is yours!” That was in the 1960s, when the first of 41 Playboy Clubs
...opened. The idea riveted both men and women. Suddenly Hugh Hefner’s vision that readers found in the magazine—the good life, the sexual revolution—became three-dimensional space you could walk into and instantly become a part of. The first club opened in Chicago in 1960, and soon there were clubs all over the world, including four in Japan. While the last of the original clubs closed 20 years ago, their aura has never ceased to fascinate. And recently they’ve begun to reopen—first in Las Vegas in 2006, then in Macao and Cancún in 2010 and finally this month in London, the epicenter of European nightlife. The original London club, on Park Lane, was one of the most successful Playboy Clubs. On any given night you might have spotted Sean Connery, Ursula Andress, Peter Sellers, Roman Polanski. And so it will be again today, with a contemporary spin. The new club, in Mayfair, has a restaurant, cocktail bar, casino and private gaming lounge. Most exciting is the iconic Bunny’s return to Europe. In honor of the new group of elegant women we recruited from across the globe, we’re taking these pages to revisit our favorite London Bunnies from the heyday