Did you know there was a Playboy Club in Columbus?

Photo courtesy of Vintage Columbus

The original Playboy, Hugh Hefner, passed away of natural causes on Wednesday. He founded Playboy magazine and died surrounded by loved ones at the Playboy Mansion in LA at the age of 91.

The man will be remembered for his bunny empire including a magazine, a couple short-lived television series, and clubs. His legacy spread far and wide, even to the reaches of little ol’ Columbus Ohio.

Back in 1982 at 3540 East Broad Street (right across from the iconic Kahiki), The Columbus Playboy Club bustled with skimpily-dressed women wearing bunny ears and bending over backwards to serve their guests food and beverages. Literally, they had to bend over backwards while serving. AKA the “bunny dip.”

The Dispatch reports that the women went through eight rigorous weeks of training before the club even opened. It was quite the spectacle, gaining enough attention from the public to warrant body guards to escort the bunnies to their vehicles at the end of their shifts.

While the joint closed only a few years later in 1985, Hef’s footprint on Columbus and the rest of society will be remembered for decades to come.

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