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Remember that time Gloria Steinem infiltrated the Playboy Club in Manhattan? Drunk History does. In a segment from Tuesday’s upcoming episode, Abbi Jacobson portrays the young feminist as she enters the realm of bunnies in the name of journalism back in the 60s. ESPN host and comedian Katie Nolan narrates the fascinating tale, while Jane Krakowski offers a masterful turn opposite Jacobson as “bunny mother” Sheralee.
As Nolan notes in the clip, Playboy Clubs at the time lorded over their waitresses with several policies that were “just gross.” Bunnies worked long hours, with an exhaustive demerit system that punished them for a wide swath of innocuous offenses, including not smiling enough. And to secure employment, each prospective bunny was required to come in for a physical examination—you know, the kind with stirrups. In the end, Nolan notes, Steinem concluded that Playboy Bunnies were overworked, did not make as much money as they were led to expect—and, “on top of that, it [was] basically a prostitution ring,”
Steinem’s exposé, “A Bunny’s Tale,” published as a two-parter in Show magazine in 1963, helped launch Steinem to prominence many years before she founded Ms. magazine. The article also played a role in getting Hugh Hefner’s clubs to stop administering physical examinations on bunny applicants and to overhaul the demerit system. Drunk History’s segment is available in full above—though if you want an even longer treatment, you can always watch the 1985 made-for-TV dramedy based on the same story, starring Kirstie Alley as Steinem.
22 Movies and TV Shows That Will Save Us in 2018
By John P. Johnson/HBO.
Westworld (Season 2)
HBO is once again hoping you’ll ignore the big
Game of Thrones
-shaped hole in its schedule and turn your attention back to the sci-fi mind game that is
Westworld.
The Emmy-nominated series, starring
Evan Rachel Wood
and
Thandie Newton,
is ready to confound you once again in its second season. Until its spring 2018 premiere, take a trip back in time and revisit
we still have about the finale.