From the Archives: Hugh Hefner's Lansing Playboy Club

The Lansing Playboy Club opened Sept. 17, 1982 in the Hilton Inn in Delta Township.

The club took up 3,500-square feet of bar and dance floor, which had been occupied by Jamie's Jungle, the Hilton's club and restaurant.

Within two weeks, they had sold more than 1,500 memberships. The Lansing club eventually drew about 4,700 dues-paying members, according to a Lansing State Journal article in 1986.

Why would Playboy bring a club to the Lansing area? Ronald McCauley, director of marketing for Playboy Clubs International Inc., told the Lansing State Journal at the time that it was mainly because of the Capitol and Michigan State University.

Playboy magazine publisher Hugh Hefner opened the first Playboy Club in Chicago in 1960.

Hefner died at the age of 91 on September 27, 2017. Playboy Enterprises announced Hefner's death on Twitter at 8:13 p.m. PT and released a statement saying Hefner died at his home of natural causes surrounded by family.

In their heyday, the early 1970s, there were as many as 22 Playboy clubs around the country.

The company-owned clubs were closed in 1986, and the three remaining franchise contracts — with hotels in Des Moines, Omaha and Lansing — were not renewed in 1988.

Bunny waitresses were the trademark feature of the clubs. They were specially trained cocktail servers with figure-hugging costumes featuring low-cut tops, fluffy white tails, cuffs, collars and bunny ears.

The bunny world was not as glamorous as some thought. Bunnies had to pass weigh-ins and tests about club history. They had to balance trays. They also had to obey a code designed to enhance and protect the bunny image.

For most of its life, the club was a $25-a-year key-card club geared to men, but in May of 1987 with business declining, it was opened to the general public.

Once employing 45 bunnies, towards the end, there were only nine.

The five-year old Lansing Playboy Club, the last of its kind in the United States, took a bow on July 30, 1988. It was the end of an era.