The Rabbit In Paradise

Christened in 1965, our first international club kicked off an especially heady chapter in Playboy history

- Cat Auer

In early 1964, Playboy was riding high on the success of its nascent network of clubs in cities as far-flung as Chicago, New York, Phoenix, Baltimore, Cincinnati and New Orleans — a veritable galaxy of nighttime hot spots. Business was better than good: The company’s net sales and revenue topped $30 million, and executives continued to dream big. It was time for an international club, one that would add something new to the Playboy mix: overnight accommodations. For the first Playboy hotel, they turned their eyes southward.

Jamaica had less than two years earlier transitioned from British rule to independence, and its young government was hungry for foreign investment. The gears started turning in Playboy founder Hugh Hefner’s mind, and in January 1964 the company paid $2.75 million for a beachfront property on the island’s north coast. More than $1 million went into renovations to bring the resort up to Playboy standards. Bunnies were flown in from the U.S. to train locals in the art of the Bunny dip, perch and stance; it was Hefner’s goal to eventually have a majority-Jamaican staff. (He also wanted to be sure they were taken care of, and the company boasted that “new health and welfare benefits, which the club provides its employees, represent a first in the Jamaica hotel industry.”)