To: StockDung who wrote (4254 ) 9/18/1999 12:16:00 PM From: Sir Auric Goldfinger Respond to of 10354
PLAYBOY TO ALLOW HISTORIC FIRST SALE OF A BUNNY COSTUME TO 9/17/99 18:41 Benefit Aids Research Company to Host Benefit Cocktail Supper Hugh Hefner to Donate Pajamas NEW YORK, Sept. 17 /PRNewswire/ -- Playboy Enterprises announced today that it would host an exclusive cocktail supper to benefit the New York based AIDS research organization, Community Research Initiative on AIDS (CRIA). The September 22nd dinner will celebrate Playboy's participation in Sotheby's Fashion department's upcoming cocktail sale. The sale marks the first time that Playboy has ever allowed a Bunny Costume to be sold. The dinner will take place at Playboy's private terrace atop Manhattan's Crown Building and overlooking Central Park. Approximately 100 guests will dine amidst a recreation of the legendary Playboy Club of the Sixties and Seventies. All proceeds from the $300 per person event will benefit CRIA. Immediately preceding the Playboy cocktail supper, Bergdorf will host a cocktail party for 400 guests at it's Men's Store from 6:30pm to 8:30pm. All of the windows of the famed New York store, Bergdorf Goodman feature items from the sale including the authentic Bunny Costume and a pair of Hugh Hefner's pajamas. "Playboy played a major part in forging the cocktail aesthetic of the Sixties and Seventies so it's only fitting that they're a part of the sale," said Tiffany Dubin, Director of Sotheby's Fashion Department. "I could not be more thrilled that Sotheby's will have the opportunity to be the first to sell one of Playboy's legendary Bunny Costumes." The Kelly green satin Costume is complete with ears, cuffs, collar and tail. The ensemble is expected to sell for between $8,000 and $10,000. Only one woman wore it, Bunny Connie, whose name is stitched inside the garment. She was an employee at the Los Angeles Playboy Club in the late 1960s and early 1970s. In addition to the Bunny Costume, Playboy founder Hugh Hefner also has donated a pair of pajamas to be sold exclusively online by CRIA. The navy satin ensemble is expected to sell for $500 to $750. Hefner raised eyebrows in the fifties when he began wearing silk pajamas to receive guests at his legendary parties at the Playboy Mansion, a practice he later enshrined. Christie Hefner, Playboy's chairman and chief executive officer, said the company is pleased that proceeds from the auction will benefit such a worthwhile charity. "Public interest in the Playboy Bunny has recently been re-ignited by a successful book and television documentary about the women who worked as Bunnies," Hefner noted. "We're pleased that's such a noteworthy organization will benefit form both the Bunny's stature in pop culture and its renewed popularity." CRIA, the organization benefiting from the sale, is an independent, non-profit community-based AIDS research and treatment education center, which studies new treatments for HIV-related diseases. SOURCE Playboy Enterprises