TV Diva
A television sex-pot selling to a crazed audience.
Acrylic on Canvas/ 40” by 30” /$ 499
In Honor of Hugh Hefner
Surprisingly, Hugh Hefner helped me get my start as director of a science center. Since he died recently I thought I would share the story of how the Playboy Bunnies assisted Impression 5, the Lansing, Michigan museum I founded, over a hurdle and propelled me into my career that eventually brought me to Portland to run the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI). At times I am shocked by what I did, but during the early 70’s I was a naive yet ambitious, young housewife interested in providing the best for my young ones.
The year was 1972 and I had just moved with my family from Boston to reside in Lansing, Michigan. There were few museums in the community and with four children running around the house when it rained, there were times I thought I would go crazy. One such day, over a cup of coffee, a friend and I brainstormed about starting a hands-on museum. Friends from the engineering and physics departments at Michigan State University (MSU) enthusiastically helped assemble table-top displays to promote the idea but fundraising was less successful, for wherever we turned we received a “not now” answer. It was frustrating to hear the mayor’s assistant tell us to get in line behind a long list of projects. The director of the YMCA reconfirmed the hopelessness of our cause by saying that we would never get the project off the ground because there were only two things that mattered, one was sports and the other was sex. Since the science center did not promote either, we did not have a chance of succeeding.
What happened next, is from Lives of Museum Junkies: The Story of America’s Hands-on Museums.
“One day, with not much to do, I relaxed in my office reading a magazine article about how the Playboy Bunnies visited communities to engage in sporting events against local celebrities in order to raise money for charity. My brain started churning and I remembered what the director of the YMCA had said: ‘Sports and sex would be the secret of success.’
The Detroit Playboy Club was close enough to Lansing so I immediately called their manager. Much to my amazement, without hesitation or questions, the Bunnies agreed to visit and play basketball against our community businessmen. Days were becoming exciting once more. I telephoned every well-known chief executive I could think of and asked for his involvement. Not one man declined. The game was on with a who’s who of local participants that included the mayor, president of MSU, superintendent of schools, CEOs of various manufacturing companies, real estate developers, the head of Oldsmobile, and state politicians. When the Lansing State Journal learned of the event we had all the makings of the game to became a feature.
One problem, a big one, reared its ugly head and I was reminded of lesson #1: “Nothing ever occurs as you might imagine.” The early 70s heralded in the start of the women’s lib movement with books by Gloria Steinem and Betty Friedan circulating and being read by a wide audience. The equal rights amendment was headed to the states for ratification and organizations like Planned Parenthood and NOW were growing in prominence.
In East Lansing a group of high school students and university women threatened to picket the Bunny Game. What had started out as a fun crazy event was turning into a political nightmare and we didn’t know what to do. Now we had the makings not of a feature but of a gossip column. In fact, the gossip columnist did pick up the controversy with gusto and had a great time splashing the story daily. A number of the men who held public office called to inform me that they were reluctantly compelled to back out of their commitment.
My stomach churned with worry and I started looking for ways to work with the women libbers, finally coming up with the idea of asking Michigan State University’s woman’s basketball team if they would be willing to hold a practice game against our local celebrities. I hoped that by involving the female team the newspaper would soften the Playboy image and make the game acceptable. Their coach agreed to the practice, and the celebrity men arrived for a grueling session. The women were fantastic athletes in perfect condition. The men, many of whom were potbellied, had to be replaced every three minutes to ensure there were no injuries. Our celebrity team enjoyed their practice game, but it was not enough to silence the critics. Ticket sales were sparse and we were prepared to fail when a miracle occurred.
Thankfully for us (though tragically for a great many) we were rescued by Mother Nature. The night before the game clouds exploded and it started to rain and rain and rain. The Lansing area was deluged with a fifty-year flood and all citizens not concerned with water-filled basements were called on to bag the river banks. Jenison Field House at MSU was swamped with two and a half feet of water flooding the basketball court. The Playboy Bunny Game had to be canceled.
My sigh of relief is still carried on the winds today. But the upside to the controversy is that the science museum became a known entity and was on its way to becoming more than just an office in a public school. The entire Lansing community knew what was being planned and though many did not like the Bunny Game they certainly did support our idea for Impression 5.”
Lessons Learned? Bad publicity is sometimes better than no publicity and growth comes from taking risks.
I am now more sympathetic to feminine issues and would not embark on such a sex-based enterprise today. When I see how women are treated on internet pornography sites, in prostitution rings, and with domestic abuse, I am more willing to picket than promote Hefner style enterprises.
“Lives of Museum Junkies” by Marilynne Eichinger shares the good, bad, and ugly of starting the nations hands-on science centers. It is available in though Amazon, Barnes and Nobel, Powells Books, Broadway Books, MAC Emporium, and Kindle.