When key-holders walked into the Playboy Club in Chicago on opening day in 1960, the first bunny they saw was the young woman at the front door, Bonnie Jo Halpin. Halpin, who died March 31 at the age of 65, served as the prototype for the club’s bunnies, who became icons of the sexual revolution: a beautiful, petite brunet with a bubbly personality. “Bonnie Jo Halpin was the very first ‘door bunny’ on opening day at the very first club, so it’s quite appropriate to refer to her as the very first bunny,” said Playboy founder Hugh Hefner. Three weeks before the Chicago Playboy Club opened on Feb. 29, 1960, Halpin appeared in her bunny costume in an advertisement in the Chicago Tribune seeking “beautiful, charming and refined young ladies” to work as bunnies. Noted the ad: “Waitressing experience unnecessary.” Several hundred women showed up with dance leotards or swimsuits to have a Polaroid picture taken and be interviewed.
“She really was the quintessential bunny,” said Hefner’s brother, Keith, who became director of training for Playboy Clubs International. “We used to talk about bunny image and she really had it all.” When Playboy decided to open a club in New York in December 1962, they again used Halpin in newspaper ads headlined: “Step Into the Spotlight … Be a Playboy Club Bunny.” Applicants had to be “pretty, between the ages of 18 and 23, married or single, and want a fun-filled, pleasant and always exciting job while you enjoy a new measure of financial independence.”
In 1963, the 25-year-old Halpin left the Playboy organization to “see the world,” as she later told Scott. Halpin had held a variety of jobs since her bunny days, including working as a personal trainer. She was a marathon runner, a longtime volunteer at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles and a devoted animal rights advocate. Halpin died in her West Hollywood apartment after being seriously injured in a hit-and-run accident while walking her dog near her home more than a month earlier, said Joyce Nizzari, a friend and former bunny who worked with Halpin in Chicago.
How sad that Ms. Halpin was killed so tragically and didn’t get to live out her life doing the things she enjoyed. I hope they find the hit-and-run driver.
A short bald man wearing earflaps was reported speeding away from an accident involving an elderly (but shapely!) woman and her dog. Witnesses to the accident recall hearing him sing “Kiwl da wabbit” as he drove out of sight.
The site also confirms Ms. Halpin died of an overdose of Vicodin. She must have been in a lot of pain after the accident, so an accidental overdose could have easily happened. The other kind could have easily happened, too. It’s impossible to speculate either way.
Indeed he does, but I found this line to be slightly more creepy: “She kept her looks and was a keen jogger, running several miles every day.” I’m not trying to be an offenderati, but WTF? So if she hadn’t “kept her looks” it would be less sad?
“Sir Austin William Pearce, key figure in British industry who made a substantial contribution to better labor relations, especially in the oil industry, died March 21 in Sussex, England at the age of 82. He kept his looks and was a keen jogger, running several miles every day.”
No, but when someone is still a very active individual at a late age it seems like more of a waste than someone who succumbs to a couch and had given up on life.
Hey, If Sir Austin had a nice rack and looked good in a pair of black pumps that obit just may have turned up. I mean, given that he was from England and all…
Bonnie Jo Halpin was known primarily because of her looks and the fact that she was a Playboy Bunny. I would think Margaret Thatcher would be a more apt analogy. And I would imagine that if Paul Newman were to die soon, some mention would be made of how handsome he remained late into life. Human nature, ya know?