PLAYBOY CLUBS ATTEMPT A $2,500,000 EXTRA FEE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP73-00475R000401140001-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 27, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 17, 2013
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: April 1, 1966
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

CI-AT
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release @ 50-Yr 2013/12/17: CIA-RDP73-00475R000401140001-7
VIE IND3WWIDENT
April 1966
_
Playboy Clubs Attempt A $2,500,000 Extra Fee
The Playboy Club this month tried to pull a fast one
members. It notified them that they would have to pay $5
tenance charge."
The original application for 'member-
ship in the Playboy Club offered a Life-
time key which entitled members to "full
lifetime privileges."
After a time, the word "lifetime" was
quietly dropped from the membership ap-
plications. Nevertheless, thousands had
subscribed as "lifetime" members.
This year, a letter went to 5,000 Mem-
bers?approximately one percent of the
membership. The directors wanted to see
what would happen if they told members
they'd have to pay $5 a year for what
they'd already bought once.
The letters dangled a prestige appeal.
Now members would receive a "white,
gold and black Playboy Club Key em-
bossed in gold . . ." It would have "raised
gold lettering" and would be "a creden-
tial you'll be proud to possess."
It was only in the tenth and last para-
graph of the two-page letter that the
?,member was told "it is important that you
remit the 1966 Annual Account Mainten-
on its 500,000
a year "main-
ance Charge listed on the accompanying
statement."
Of the 5,000 in the test mailing, 3,000
paid the $5 without protest. Barnum was
wrong. There isn't one born every minute:
suckers are made, not born.
Two thousand wrote letters ranging in
tone from puzzled to irate. At least two
lawsuits were filed with others in the
offing.
The Playboy Club now sent out letter
#2 to the non-payers.
"Perhaps," it explained, "our (previous)
letter did not explain the change. .. ."
.It then repeated the applesauce about
how proud members would be with the
new Playboy Club Key "embossed in gold."
However for those who didn't want to
pay the "annual account maintenance
charge" there was an alternative. They
could write a letter saying they wanted
to be "transferred" to a "cash-only" cat-
egory.
They wouldn't receive the "embossed in
gold" key. Rather, they would be sent a
"cardboard Admission, cash-only key."
Warned the letter: "We do not believe
that you will find this arrangement as sat-
isfactory. . . ."
And then, for those without imagina-
tion, it compared owning the "handsome"
"gold-embossed" key and paying the once-
a-month statement "with the alternative
arrangement (for cardboard .admission-
only keyholders) of having to pay in cash
after each round of drinks for your guests ,
and business associates." (Even Third ,
Avenue and Bowery bars don't ask their
customers to pay "after each round.")
If the Playboy Club could get away with
it, it would receive an additional $2,500,-
000 a year without having to bag another
Bunny or hire another hutch.
?
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release @ 50-Yr 2013/12/17: CIA-RDP73-00475R000401140001-7 /