Blackjack dealers listen to a briefing from C. J. Grahm,
director of casino operations at the Palms Casino Resort, at the new Playboy
Club in Las Vegas October 5, 2006. (Steve Marcus/Reuters)
Flaunting bunnies, booze and blackjack, the first Playboy Club in nearly two
decades opened in Las Vegas on Saturday night with high hopes that its
time-tested combination of sex and celebrity will attract a new generation of
high rollers.
With a distinctly vintage feel, Playboy bunnies wearing the distinctive ears
and cottontail delivered drinks and dealt cards to a mostly male crowd at the
Palms Casino Resort.
Playboy founder Hugh Hefner surrounded himself with a bevy of blonds -- and
one brunette -- in a red corner booth while pulsating music filled the smoky
room.
"There's a new generation ready to come out and play," Playboy Enterprises
founder Hugh Hefner told Reuters before the party, saying the Playboy brand was
just as relevant today as it was when he started the men's magazine in 1953.
"Playboy has always stood for something -- a social, sexual and political
agenda that has real meaning," the 80-year-old Hefner said.
Almost a half century has passed since Hefner opened his first club in
Chicago in 1960 and helped usher in the sexual revolution while the Playboy
bunny and the Playboy centerfold skyrocketed to American icon status.
Now, the flagship magazine faces depressed advertising and lower newsstand
revenues amid competition from magazines like Maxim and Internet porn.
At the same time, however, Playboy has attracted new fans through "The Girls
Next Door," the reality television show about Hefner's three live-in
girlfriends, and a successful licensing business.
While once controversial, the brand appears almost quaint amid today's
X-rated offerings, said Robert Thompson, a professor of popular culture at
Syracuse University, who says that Playboy represents a pivotal moment in
American culture.
"(Hefner) was starting a revolution to break down fusty, infantile,
puritanical mores that probably needed to be broken down," Thompson said. "At
the same time he was creating a cultural climate that made many women who were
just starting to make progress in the young feminist movement very
uncomfortable."
In their heyday, the dozens of clubs reached as far as Japan and Jamaica and
featured the hottest entertainers of the time like Sammy Davis Jr. and Sonny
& Cher.
But the symbols of flesh and free wheeling began shuttering their doors in
the late 1980s amid escalating costs, and a sense among many that the bunny
brand had peaked.
Now, Playboy is banking that its retro appeal will lure younger fans into the
club.
DON'T TOUCH THE BUNNIES
The bunnies have been told how to deliver drinks and how to "perch"
themselves delicately on the backs of seats.
"Bunnies don't sit," said bunny Ashley Rovenheiser, who said she loved being
a bunny. "It's so exciting."
Patrons have rules, too, said bunny dealer Charity Mays.
"It's kind of like at the zoo -- don't touch the bunnies!" she said.
According to Palms owner George Maloof, the Playboy club will be a welcome
respite from the X-rated offerings available elsewhere in Vegas. Maloof said he
expects young women to frequent the club, along with bachelor parties and high
rollers.
"There's plenty in Vegas to do if you want to go to a strip club," Maloof
said earlier this week. "This is a sophisticated place."
Cocktails are served up at the bar adorned with thousands of diamond-shaped
crystals, while Playboy's famous rabbit ears adorn everything from the carpet to
ashtrays to gambling tables. The bathroom walls are covered with centerfolds,
with mirrored centerfold images on bathroom stalls.
Bunnies say the best part of their job is the outfit. Still, it has its
drawbacks, said bunny dealer Mays.
"People kept taking the bunny tails -- now they're attached so they can't
come off."
