Barbara Haigh, who worked as a Playboy Bunny at Playboy Club London in the 1970s, has described the strict rules, rigid beauty standards, and gruelling shifts that left her in "agony". Despite the challenges, she called it the "best job ever".
Strict rules and beauty standards
Haigh was 21 when she was hired, and her father, a high-ranking police officer, refused to speak to her for six weeks. She recalled his reaction: "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.'"
Starting in 1971, Haigh spoke about the gruelling audition process and the rigid expectations. She said applicants had to fill in a form detailing height and weight, read rules and regulations, and sign a contract to adhere to them. "So you weren't really allowed to put on any weight or there was a bit of leeway but not too much," she said.
She added: "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."
Dismissal and discipline
Haigh described how directors or other diners could spot something they disliked, leading to dismissal. "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," she said. "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."
"Street speak" was also prohibited. One young woman with a strong London cockney accent was sent for elocution lessons, later becoming Bunny of the Year three years on.
Work and celebrity encounters
Haigh described working eight-hour shifts in a skimpy corset, rabbit ears, and three-inch heels, while memorising 300 cocktails and hundreds of spirit brands. She called the level of knowledge needed "just unbelievable".
The club, which opened on Park Lane in July 1966, was Playboy's first overseas club. Hugh 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]."
Haigh described the club as a "sophisticated family restaurant" where women and children were welcomed, while the casino area operated under separate rules. She met celebrities including Jack Nicholson, Omar Sharif, Dustin Hoffman, Stevie Wonder, Sylvester Stallone, and John Wayne, and said she "met royalty" during her 12 years there.
The club closed in 1981, with a new Playboy Club opening in Mayfair in 2011. Asked if she would take the job again at 21, Haigh said: "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."
