3. The Bunny Hiring Process Was Very Exclusive
The pay for Playboy Bunnies was advertised as $200 to $300 a week, which, at the time, was the equivalent of the salary of a Madison Avenue ad man, like Don Draper in Mad Men. Given the extremely high pay, there was an incredible amount of competition for the positions. Women had to meet the initial requirements of being thin and conventionally attractive and most often, white. They had to be, in the words of a Playboy recruiting poster, “not a broad or a ‘hippy.” The women had to meet the subjective standard of being sexually appealing without being lewd or cheap-looking.
If women met those standards, which few reportedly did out of over 400 in the initial hiring process, the women needed to also be between the ages of 21 and 24 and either single or married, no engaged or dating women were permitted. Women were then subjected to mandatory physical examinations by a physician to test for STIs, pelvic condition, the straightness of their legs, overall health, and more. It should be noted that none of these tests were required due to local or state regulations of waitresses at the time, they were unique to the Playboy clubs.
