The Bunny Years: The Surprising Inside Story of the Playboy Clubs – The Women Who Worked as Bunnies, and Where They Are Now by Kathryn Leigh Scott

The Bunny Years: The Surprising Inside Story of the Playboy Clubs – The Women Who Worked as Bunnies, and Where They Are Now by Kathryn Leigh Scott
Publisher: Gallery Books
Genre: Contemporary, Historical, Non-Fiction, Memoir
Rating: 3 Stars
Reviewed by Nymphaea

A PROVOCATIVE AND INSIGHTFUL PORTRAIT OF THE BEAUTIFUL, FREE-SPIRITED, AND SURPRISINGLY INDEPENDENT WOMEN OF THE ICONIC PLAYBOY CLUBS

The 1960s were a time of change in America, an era when safely guarded innocence gave way to explosive social revolution. For Kathryn Leigh Scott, or Bunny Kay as she was known in the New York City Playboy Club, and the more than 250 former Bunnies she interviewed for this book, donning satin ears and a fuzzy cottontail was an act of liberation—a chance to bridge the gap between being girls and becoming women, to earn more money than their own mothers ever fathomed, and to find their way in a world that would never be the same. Lauren Hutton was a Bunny. Deborah Harry was too. Bunnies went on to become doctors, lawyers, stockbrokers, real estate tycoons, nurses, scientists, entrepreneurs, and teachers.

Called “a smart oral history” by Esquire and “entertaining” by Entertainment Weekly, The Bunny Years goes beyond Gloria Steinem’s infamous magazine exposé, “A Bunny’s Tale,” beyond detailed instructions for perfecting the “Bunny Dip” and providing Keyholders with “efficient, friendly, personalized service,” to explore, in the words of the remarkable women themselves, what it really meant to be a Bunny.

There’s so much more to the bunnies than just ears and a fluffy tail.

I picked up this book because I wanted to know more about the actual lives of the Playboy Bunnies. Not the women in the magazine, but the women in the clubs. This book tells just that and a bit more. There are pieces on each of the clubs and resorts, but most about the women who worked there.

As biographies and anecdotes about the women, the book hits the mark. This is a sneak peek into their world. What it was like to wait tables there, what it was like to get older while serving and some of the not so fun things that took place. This book, while interesting, seemed to do a bit of name dropping in places. Yes, a lot of famous people did time as bunnies, but it almost seemed like the book traded on that, rather than the real situations the women dealt with.

Still, it’s an interesting window into their lives and the way the supernova of the Playboy brand exploded. It’s fascinating and somewhat scary, but I’m glad I read it. Give this book a try.