COVER Watching the city on a romantic moonlit night is a popular Penthouse pastime
at the New York Club, even on rainy winter evenings. Through the talents of Norman
Kloker of Technimation Mid-America, New Yorkers get a panorama alive with the
movement of their city, with traffic hurrying by, beaconsturning and window lights
going on and off. An ingenious construction of Polaroid spinners, motors and colored
lights behind plexiglass, the mural gives keyholders a beautiful, moving view
of moonlit Manhattan.
1 PLAYBOY CLUB CALENDAR
February's entertainment schedule
3 AN INTRODUCTION TO VIP
by Hugh M. Hefner
4 RSVIP
Letters to the editor
6 AT THE CLUB
News and views of keyholderf and guests
9 PROPOSITION
A short story by Garson Kanin
11 WHAT'S NEW
Playboy Club plans and prospects
12 BUNNY OF THE MONTH
Fine China Lee
14 THE VIP SELECTOR
Recommended items and entertainments
16 PLAYBOY CLUB PERFORMER PROFILE
Dick Gregory by Nat Hentoff
19 THE VIP LOOK
Attire by Robert L. Green
20 OPEN SEASON ON GUESTS
Article by John Steinbeck
22 NEW BUNNIES IN TOWN
Candid close-ups of our newest cottontails
25 KEYNOTABLES
Who's Who among our keyholders
26 IN THE PLAYBOY PICTURE
Photo highlights from the world of Playboy
29 COMEDY CORNER
Ribald riddles for sophisticated sleuths
32 VIPERSONALS
Keyholders' exchange
AN INTRODUCTION TO VIP
Four years ago this month PLAYBOY became the first magazine in the world to create
a private club for its readers. Among the original Rabbitués was comic
Slappy White, who stepped inside our Windy City warren, took one look, and said,
"I'm sure glad you guys got the idea instead of the Ladies' Home Journal!"
So are we. Today eight Playboy Clubs are in full swing; seven more — Atlanta,
Baltimore, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Kansas City, San Francisco and Jamaica —
are warming up in the wings; and an additional seven — Dallas, Denver, Houston,
Los Angeles, Minneapolis, Philadelphia and Seattle — are set to follow in
quick succession. Obviously, our erstwhile newsletter is no longer sufficient
to key you in on the highlights, let alone sidelights, of Club activities. So
VIP, the magazine for Very Important Playboys, is born. VIP is a closed-circuit
publication with staffers in every Club city to report the news, take the pictures,
and reflect the special esprit de corps of Playboy keyholders. It will keep you
in touch with your Club (and the doings of every chapter) while, equally important,
it will keep those of us responsible for operating the Clubs in touch with you.
We really do want to hear your comments and criticisms — for with so many
new Clubs coming up, each with its own distinctive features, these suggestions
will be particularly useful to us. We'll air as many of them as space permits
in our letters column — called RSVIP because we fully intend to respond
if you pleas4. Having spent most of this space simply introducing you to VIP,
I'll let the rest of the magazine speak for itself. However, I do want to commend
to you Nobel Prize winner John Steinbeck's and Academy Award winner Garson Kanin's
appearances in this premiere issue. I also want to note that the problem of picking
one Bunny from the more than four hundred to be our Bunny of the Month, and three
keyholders from a quarter of a million to be our first Keynotables in the premiere
issue, required some very subjective decision making. Nor can the ten recommendations
in the VIP Selector pretend to represent anything but an arbitrary choice from
among the countless things that just happened to impress us for one reason or
another this month. Next issue there will be other Bunnies, Keynotables, selections,
stories, articles, news, views, and some rather intriguing added attractions.
Finally, a good time was had by all of us in creating this unique publication,
and that's as it should be with the magazine of the Playboy Clubs. We hope you
have as good a time reading it. Hugh Hefner
President. Playboy Clubs International
