Bunnies Reminisce About Their Time at the Dallas Playboy Club

Chances are if you’re reading this, you’re already well aware of the fact that Playboy founder Hugh Hefner passed away at his home, the Playboy Mansion, on Wednesday. The guy was 91. That’s a great run. Pour out a Jack Daniel’s and cola for him. It was his favorite nightcap, after all.

Regardless of your stance on Hefner and his publication, there’s no denying the magnitude of the brand he built. The Playboy logo is one of the most recognizable in the world. There are Playboy cookbooks, clothing, and clubs. A tattered copy of The Playboy Gourmet is one of my most cherished possessions.

I came across a story about Dallas’ Playboy Club in the January 1977 issue of D Magazine a while back while I was digging through the archives. This seemed like an ideal time to pull it back out and share. (Fun fact: the Dallas Playboy Club was located at Express Tower by North Central Expressway, and the Dallas Cowboys offices were located in the same building. Apparently the Playboy Bunnies and Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders had quite the ongoing rivalry.)

It also inspired me to reach out to the women who worked at the club during its heyday. Mary Ann Russell, Thressa Anderson, Terry Parrish, and Lori Bailey were employed as Bunnies in Dallas during the ’70s and ’80, and they loved it.

These are their stories.

“I started in 1981; it was the tail end of the club, no pun intended. It was so wonderful and glamorous. We were well protected. You couldn’t touch a bunny. The best thing I got out of the experience was my friends. I’m still friends with them. The sisterhood of the bunnies is just amazing.

It was almost an illusion; we wore more clothes than you’d think. There were two types of pantyhose: support hose and black stockings. The made-to-fit costumes were tedious to put on. It took up to three girls to get one girl into her outfit. One girl would hold it at the waist, one person would hold at the top, and another would zip it up. I used two pairs of tube socks to fill it up. My outfit was pastel. It took five years to get a black suit. I really wanted a black suit. We did have Christmas outfits; they were red with white fur.

There was the main den where cocktails were served, the lounge with bumper pool, the showroom where performers headlined and dinner was served, and the game room. There was a regular stream of clients. So many Dallas Cowboys. The Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders and the Bunnies had an ongoing rivalry. It was a lot of fun. We weren’t supposed to date customers, but they loosened the rules for celebrities.

Some of the girls were making more money than their fathers did. It was very empowering for a woman. I had great insurance and benefits, and the money was good. I was in school at the time; a lot of the girls were. We were working toward bigger and better dreams.

I was a bit conflicted when I heard that Hugh died. Since then I’ve become a big woman of God. So I was torn. But what I always loved about Hugh was the way he broke down race barriers by way of entertainment and music in his clubs. I loved him for that.” – Mary Ann Russell

“I worked at the club from 1978 until it closed in 1982. I was 20 years old when I started working there. I still remember everything. It was the best years of my life. The first weekend I worked, there was a Cowboys game on TV and Howard Cosell and Jimmy ‘The Greek’ Snyder came in. It was always exciting. There were movie stars and TV stars and rock and roll musicians. It was just a pretty magical place. It was so upscale.

It wasn’t like a topless bar or anything; you had to have a key to get in. It was for members only. I remember drinks costing $5.50, which was a lot for back then. I was a Silver Anniversary Bunny. I still have some of my suits. I have the red one, the black one, and the silver one.

Somebody called last night and said that Hugh passed. I actually cried. I met my best friends of my life there. My best friend was a Bunny in Dallas, too.

She married the drummer in the band Boston. I call them every day, even after all of these years. He got us all together—a group of incredible women from all over the world. It was so empowering. I can’t stop smiling talking about it. I dream about going back. It was just a fabulous time and a fabulous club.” – Thressa Anderson

“I was one of the original girls. We had to go through at least four to five interviews. It reminded me of beauty pageants. You wouldn’t hear from them for a few weeks, and then you would get a letter. And then there was another audition at the Fairmount. We had to wear a swimsuit and there were celebrity judges. Rose Marie Mazetta from The Dick Van Dyke Show was one of them. You started at the top of a runway and then walked down it—in high heels. It was very scary and intimidating. There were so many people on-site. More than 5,000 girls tried out; out of that, they chose 188. Then we had to go through training. There were classes for six weeks, for almost all day.

It was fun. It was absolutely, positively the best years of my life. People would stand in line for hours to get into the club. And we were so protected and treated with respect. People couldn’t touch us. You would stuff so much money down the front of your suit that when you unzipped it, all of the bills would fall out onto the floor. We were making $200, $300, up to $600 in a night. I paid cash for a new car. We made really, really, really good money. And we were always doing promotions and charity work.

I moved to Los Angeles in 1981 and was looking for a place to stay. I lived in the Playboy Mansion for two weeks. Hugh was such a wonderful man. He was caring. Some girls were having a rough time financially, and he would help them out. He didn’t know me, but he knew I was one of the Bunnies, one of his girls. He was so sweet. He was so loving. He had a dream, and I was so privileged to be a part of that. We’re a family of Bunnies. Some went on to be attorneys, some are teachers. I have two masters and am working on my doctorates. I’m a licensed mortician and teach American history.

My younger sister was also a Bunny. The night Hugh died, I was watching TV, except it was something that I recorded. The phone rang and she goes ‘Terry!’ I say, ‘What?’ She scared me. She goes, ‘Hef just died! They just announced it.’ I was wondering why I hadn’t seen it on TV, but then remembered I was watching a recorded program. It was everywhere: CNN, Facebook. I felt very sad, but as someone who’s been working in a death industry, I probably felt a little different. He lived to be 91 and that’s a wonderful life.” – Terry Parrish

“I started at the beginning. I was an original Bunny. I was working a terrible job, and my boyfriend at the time saw an ad in the Dallas Morning News. He was like, ‘You should do this.’ I secretly auditioned and waited on an acceptance letter. I was thrilled to leave that job. I never looked back.

It was the most wonderful four years of my life. Us Bunnies loved each other. We looked out for each other. We still hang out together. And it was a darn good job. A lot of girls made a lot of money and blew it. But I bought a house at 22; it was pretty revolutionary for the ’70s.

The night Hugh was at the club, I wasn’t scheduled to work. I was bummed. He was classy, a perfect gentleman. He lived a great life and lived to be 91, so God bless him. Hugh was a revolutionary. He changed everything. People sometimes think of the Bunnies as strippers, but it was not even close to that. The Dallas Playboy club was very elite, and I thoroughly enjoyed working there. Well, except for the high heels. My feet suffered. Our method of a foot massage was to stick our feet in the toilet and flush it over and over again.

It’s nothing but good memories. The first celebrity I met was Mel Tormé, and my favorite was Lainie Kazan. I got to watch the show when she performed. When the lights went down, the bunnies stopped serving. I remember sitting on the steps and crying when she was performing. It was so beautiful. She was so incredible.

There were some happy times there. We took it in stride, put money in our pockets, and danced all the way home.”– Lori Bailey

The Playboy Club closed in 1982. Click the gallery below to view some of Thressa Anderson’s photos from her time there.