Ultraswank.net Interviews Playboy Bunny Sharon Bernstein Peyton
In the summer of 1964 when Sharon Bernstein Peyton was 18 years old, she saw an ad for the new Baltimore Playboy Club opening. This stylish, sexy and glamorous world was quite different from the life she had been living. Nevertheless, she applied for a job and before she knew it, she was working among the high rollers and go getters as a Playboy Bunny. Ultra Swank sits down to talk to her about glamour, ambitions, sex and the legend in the silk pajamas.
How did you first hear of the Playboy Club and what made you want to work there as a Playboy Bunny?
I first remember learning about the Playboy Clubs when I was a teenager in high school, about 1962. I had a boyfriend who was in college. When I would spend time with him at his house, I would look at his Playboy Magazines. This is the first time I had seen Playboy Magazine. I remember looking at the pictures of the Bunnies in the Magazine and thinking how alluring and exciting it would be to be one of them.
In my wildest imagination, I never thought I could ever be one of them. Especially in Baltimore, not a very sophisticated or cosmopolitan city compared to Chicago or New York, where they already had clubs operating. Since there was no club in Baltimore, it didn’t seriously occur to me to pursue such a job in another city. Also, I expected to go to college after high school and pursue some kind of profession. Although, I didn’t know exactly what that would be.
About two years later, in the summer of 1964, I finished my first year of college at Maryland Institute of Art in Baltimore, Maryland. I decided that I didn’t want to continue studying art. I didn’t think I had enough artistic talent to be a professional artist. I thought that if I was going to spend the rest of my life in a profession, then I needed to have some obvious talent.
Nor did I want to continue attending college, until I was sure what else I did want to study. I knew that I wasn’t really applying myself to my studies. I was definitely being distracted by my personal life issues. In the meantime, I knew I needed to work at something, a work ethic I gleaned from my parents.I began to look for a job and my boyfriend at the time, John Marshall, saw the classified ad for the Playboy Club in the newspaper. He is the one who encouraged me to apply for the job as a Bunny. If he had not encouraged me to apply for the job, I probably would not have done it. He and I are still friends 47 years later. Playboy was the first stop on that career journey, and it changed everything that followed.
Continue reading “Confessions of a Playboy Bunny — Part One” at Ultraswank.net.
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I really don’t think that’s Hef in the photo. It just looks, slightly off.
Scott, you are correct that is not Hugh Hefner in the picture with me. It is a man named John Marshall, who was my boyfriend when I became a Bunny. He is the one that encouraged me to become a Bunny.
Hi…
I, too, worked there in the mid-60’s and remember you. I hope this note finds you well and in good spirit. Holly Royce got the credit for the photo dancing on Jimmy Wells piano: How is she? I have a few photos myself; do you have any more? Willing to share?
:o)