'I was a Playboy Bunny at famous club – it looked glamorous but there was a dark side'
'I was a Playboy Bunny at famous club – it looked glamorous but there was a dark side'
Liam McInerneyThu, November 12, 2026 at 7:47 AM UTC
0
Barbara Haigh shared her Playboy experiences -Credit:OMG Stories Up Close/YouTube (OMG Stories Up Close/YouTube)
A woman who worked at Playboy's famous London club in the 1970s has revealed what it was really like. Barbara Haigh was 21 when she was recruited, and her father, a high-ranking police officer, subsequently refused to speak to her for six weeks.
But the young woman described it as the “best job ever”, despite having to follow super strict rules during shifts that left her in "agony". The Park Lane venue, with its mix of glamorous girls and gambling, opened in July 1966 and Hugh Hefner said the period was one of his “favourite times”.
It was Playboy’s first overseas club and Hefner told GQ Magazine: “I came back from that opening convinced I was looking at the future.The miniskirt had just arrived, gambling was prevalent, sexual attitudes had changed dramatically. I'd been making this case for the sexual revolution and it was there [in London].”
• Ex Playboy Bunny Precious Muir shares 'the bad and the ugly' from Hugh Hefner's mansion
• Playboy star claims Hugh Hefner forced her into incestous sex with twin sister
Barbara had worked at a bank after leaving school and had stints at other jobs like inside a travel agency before she was recommended to interview with Playboy while working at a nightclub in Liverpool.
Hugh Hefner pictured with his girlfriend Barbi Benton and various bunny girls during a visit to his London Playboy Club in Park Lane on 5th September 1969 -Credit:Rolls Press/Popperfoto via Getty Images/Getty Images
After getting the gig, her father was furious, and she recalled: “He wasn’t too happy about it. He was a police officer and a high-ranking one. First thing he said to me was, ‘You’re selling your body.’”
She began in 1971 and she spoke to OMG Stories Up Close about the gruelling audition process and the strict beauty standards she had to adhere to — along with how ruthless bosses were if you failed to be glam enough.
Barbara recalled: “When we had to fill in the application form and they wanted your height, weight and to read all the rules and regulations. You were given a training manual and you had to sign a contract that you would adhere to these rules. So you weren’t really allowed to put on any weight or there was a bit of leeway but not too much.
“And the full makeup and everything else. No tattoos, no blemishes that would have drawn attention. One girl had a birth mark on her arm. She had to cover that with stage makeup, things like that. It was very very strict.
Advertisement
Sammy Davis Jr and Ty Hardin at the London Playboy Club in October 1, 1969
“And once you were on the floor, you’d done your training and everything else, you would find that there’d be directors or other people who were sort of going around having dinner in the rest of the club. And if one of them spotted something they didn’t like, at the end of your shift, you’d be taken upstairs and dismissed because you got no bunny image.
“That was the famous one liner, ‘Sorry, you’ve lost your bunny image. Sorry, you don’t have any bunny image.’ And they would just say ‘bye bye’. And that was it. And you had no recourse.”
The former Playboy Bunny also said “street speak” was forbidden and she recalled one young woman, who had a strong London cockney accent, being sent to have elocution lessons, before she became Bunny of the Year three years later.
As for the work itself, she described being rushed off her feet while wearing a skimpy corset, rabbit ears and three-inch heels over eight-hour shifts. She also had to learn 300 different cocktails and the names of hundreds of spirit brands and that the knowledge required to succeed was “just unbelievable”.
Barbara also described it as a "sophisticated family restaurant” where women and children were welcome while the casino area had different rules and members had to be registered.
Barbara Haigh
She said she encountered various Hollywood movie stars and that whenever any American actors were in London filming, they would end up at the Playboy Club. The club closed back in 1981 (Hefner later opened a Playboy club in Mayfair in 2011).
Jack Nicholson, Omar Sharif, Dustin Hoffman, Stevie Wonder, Sylvester Stallone and John Wayne are just some of the celebs Barbara mentioned and she also said she “met royalty” during her 12 years at Playboy.
Barbara said some people will fail to understand what Playboy bunnies were like in the 70s, and described them as glamorous rather than cheap and how they worked in the “creme de la creme of nightclubs” where the restaurant and food was “beautiful” and everything was done professionally.
As for whether she would take the job if she was 21 again, she replied: “Absolutely. With both hands. Best job in the world. Used to look forward to going into work. You know, you’d be in agony. Your feet would be killing you.
“But once you realise what a hard job it was, and as I say, all the touches that made it look much more professional than your bogstandard waitress. That’s what they taught you. You know, ‘You’re not a waitress dear, you’re a bunny, you’re a cocktail bunny.’”
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
