Playboy Clubs International is set to introduce its renowned Playboy Bunnies to Jamaica, with plans to recruit 15 to 20 local girls for the distinctive Bunny hostess role at the Reef Club in Oracabessa. The Bunny uniform, featuring rabbit ears and a cotton 'bunny tail', will be part of the iconic attire. Arnold Morton, chief spokesman for Playboy International, outlined the recruitment process, stating that attractive, intelligent, and charming girls would undergo training in deportment, make-up, and customer service. Jamaican Bunnies will receive a minimum salary of $20 per week, accommodations, meals, and costumes.

PUBLISHED FRIDAY, JANUARY 17, 1964

Playboy Bunny jobs for Jamaican girls

Some 15 to 20 Jamaican girls are due to join the internationally known Playboy Bunnies. With Playboy Clubs International taking over the lease of the Reef Club at Oracabessa, a number of local girls will be recruited to serve as hostesses and to wear the distinctive Bunny uniform, featuring a pair of rabbit ears, a cotton 'bunny tail' and a decolette satin suit.

Executives of Playboy International revealed plans for the local club at a press conference held at the Myrtle Bank Hotel yesterday. Chief spokesman was Arnold Morton, who answered queries on what Jamaicans can expect in the "bunny trade".

Requirements

Prospective bunnies need no special basic talent, as a training scheme is conducted by Playboy Clubs training staff. There are five Playboy bunny trainers with the international organisation, and representatives will come to Jamaica later this year to audition candidates.

To be a bunny, a girl has to be attractive, intelligent and charming. When accepted for the job, a bunny is trained in deportment, make-up, fixing her hair, and waiting on customers. Bunnies bring the drinks to customers, but Morton emphasised bunnies are not required to make "any hard sell" of liquor.

Bunnies are not even supposed to ask the customer if he would like another drink. Just by being within call, said Morton, bunnies encourage the customer to make an order.

Jamaican bunnies will be paid a minimum salary of $20 a week. They will live on premises with all meals and costumes supplied. In the United States, said Morton, no basic salary is paid, but many bunnies make as much as $200 weekly in tips. Jamaican girls are being given a basic salary because of minimum wage requirements.

To the query as to whether Playboy chooses coloured bunnies, Morton said there are coloured bunnies in the American clubs and the same policy will be applied in Jamaica.

A number of American bunnies will serve in Jamaica along with the local girls. The Playboy policy is the transfer of bunnies from club to club, which means Jamaican girls will have the chance of serving elsewhere.

Rules

Morton said, from what he had seen here, there are many attractive girls to qualify for bunny jobs, He said, to allay any parental doubts as to the behaviour standard of bunnies, the girls have to adhere to certain rules - such as no drinking on the job, no dating with customers - and are carefully supervised by a house mother.

It was also revealed that Hugh Hefner, Playboy publisher, has plans for an international beauty concert in Jamaica.

And, for the benefit of local Playboy devotees, it was made clear that the hotel and club at Oracabessa will be open to local membership. A fee of $25 paid for a key, entitling membership in the club, with an annual service charge of $1, also opens the door to other Playboy clubs outside the island.

Entertainment will be as lavish in Jamaica as it is in other clubs, with big-name acts being brought in and local performers taking part as well.\

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