DUNGEONS
& BUNNIES

The Bunny Years

Most people would plunge a silver shovel into the dirt during a groundbreaking ceremony. Not Hugh Hefner. In the summer of ’66, the master of sexual symbolism stood in a meadow just east of Geneva Lake and triggered an explosion that launched a fountain of earth nearly 100 feet into the sky. The event celebrated the birth of the Playboy Club, a 1,200-acre luxury resort complete with golf courses, skiing facilities, a glitzy 450-seat nightclub, eight Bunny-filled bars and restaurants, and suites with plush round beds. Eager to spur tourism, local businessmen welcomed Hefner with a 7-foot-high floral arrangement in the shape of (what else?) a rabbit. A skydiver quartet dropped out of the clouds, waving Bunny flags. “With Playboy Bunnies overrunning the dozens of hilltops . . . it was a happy day indeed,” the Lake Geneva Regional News reported.

Roughly two years and $14 million later, the exclusive Playboy Club officially opened its doors to members (the club-key cost about $25 a year). A huge rabbit-head logo soared atop a pole along Highway 50, spinning hypnotically above the guarded gate. Gulfstream jets lined the resort’s 4,100-foot runway, and sleek foreign cars with Illinois license plates filled the parking lot. An army of groundskeepers and behind-the-scenes workers fulfilled Hefner’s vision of immaculate hedonism. “Not a single blade of grass was out of place,” one local businessman reminisces fondly.

Echoes of the Past