Mother Rabbit
Mother Rabbit is the true story of Alyce Bonura, the Bunny Mother for Chicago's famous Playboy Club in the tumultuous 1960s ...this could be the dream job of a lifetime or the toughest challenge.
Alyce is a single mother who takes a position as the Bunny Mother of the Chicago Playboy Club to not only flee from a negative relationship but to pursue a career that guarantees financial freedom and upward mobility. Unfortunately, all is not what is assured or expected.
Mother Rabbit is the story about a woman like so many in the 1960’s, caught between living according to traditional social mores and pursuing the promises of the feminist movement. Alyce’s stint as the Bunny Mother is set during a particularly turbulent era when such a secluded environment as the Playboy Club is affected by the Viet Nam War, the Apollo 1 tragedy and back alley abortions. Alyce’s story pays tribute to the women who had the courage to break free from the oppressive standards of the day while also dealing with the universal dilemmas of single mothers including abuse, financial crises, the special difficulties of parenthood and the quest for self-fulfillment.
Please tell us a bit about Alyce.
My sister Alyce became my guardian when she was only 23 years old and in a troubled marriage. When I was nine years old our father died as a result of injuries incurred in train accident when he was working as a conductor for the New York Central Railroad. Our mother committed suicide 4 years later. Alyce was a working mother of 2 sons and an abused spouse. My memoir A Bowl of Cherries chronicles Alyce’s and my journey from a tragedy-filled life in a bleak railroad town to one of victory over impossible odds. Alyce’s determination, intelligence and courage guided us into a stable and successful life including getting her Master’s Degree in Business and my career in corrections.
Although working for Playboy Inc. was difficult, Alyce, admits that it trained her to be able to work with anyone and under any circumstances. Today Alyce Bonura is the principal owner of Bonura Plus, Inc. a tax consulting business that specializes in entertainment taxes and is located in southern California.
What made you want to tell her story for others to read?
There are several reasons Alyce’s story is important. Foremost is for all women, especially the younger generations to recognize the struggles women had to survive and the battles they had to fight so they could have the “equality” with men they have today. The second reason is to inspire women to be confident, accept oneself, to be resilient and not to give up on their dreams regardless of the constraints and limits society still tries to place on us as women. The third reason is tied somewhat to the second. We need to be aware that what women have achieved since the 1960’s can easily be eroded if we are negligent in our resolve to maintain our position. Each day we are confronted with attempts to wear away what has been hard fought for and achieved. If we let this happen we not only won’t continue to move forward, we will regress.
What was your writing process when you were putting the book together?
When Alyce asked me to write her story about the 1 ½ years she was the Bunny Mother for Playboy Inc. I accepted without question. Then she delivered two huge boxes of memorabilia, documents, photos and her 800 page journal that she kept during her tenure. It took me nearly 2 years to weed through these items, put them in chronological order, read the materials and make copious notes. Then I asked Alyce what she envisioned for the book. Once that was done I wrote an outline including a list of characters and their traits followed by a rough draft. I wrote every day. Alyce read what I wrote as I finished each section. The first draft took about a year. After my critique group (4 women that have been meeting for 15 years) gave me feedback I worked on the second and then a third version before I had the manuscript edited and ready for submission.
Which parts of the book were particularly difficult to write about?
The most difficult part of writing Mother Rabbit was making sure the first person voice was Alyce’s and not mine. This meant putting myself in Alyce’s head during the 1960’s. Luckily we are very close so I know her well and I had her journal that gave me a clear vision of who she was in the 1960’s. The other difficult part was learning about the struggles Alyce had to endure as a single mother and as a woman wanting a career that ensured upward mobility and financial stability that also would allow her to take care of her sons and be self-sufficient. These challenges not only clashed with the male vision of a women’s place then but with Alyce’s moral, emotional and social constrictions and the physical and emotional demands faced by the bunnies. Courageous women like Alyce created the path to independence and the freedom of choice in both personal lives and careers that led to the successes women have achieved and that have made it easier for women in the 21st century to find self-fulfillment.
Why is it important to show how far women have come since the 60s.
It is important for women to stay focused on what has been achieved since the 1960’s because if we let up on our vigilance what has been gained can easily be taken away. We only need to see what is happening politically in the U.S. and in other countries. As with any civil rights issue, the fight is never over.
What surprised you most while writing this book?
This process revealed much that I did not know about Playboy Clubs, Bunnies, Bunny Mothers and Alyce. I came to understand what I didn’t in my early feminist years—why women worked for Playboy. No matter what we feel about Hugh Hefner and the exploitation of women, through Alyce’s story I discovered that Hefner paid high wages and provided health benefits—unheard of in the mid-60s or today for that matter. So single women and single mothers like Alyce, earned enough money to pay for a college education or to start their own business. Several bunnies became lawyers, doctors, social workers, owners of travel agencies, real estate moguls and more.
Sadly there was also the dark side—too many women joined playboy for the glamour only to find out they were glorified waitresses and the work was demanding. Too many women hoped to find a man, preferably rich to marry and provide a life of leisure. Too many women hoped to become movie stars or famous model. Unfortunately most who sought these routes ended up with men they supported and often abused them or men who dumped them when they became pregnant and would not get an illegal abortion or the man’s wife found out about the affair.
I was again surprised when I discovered another positive side of Hugh Hefner—he had the courage to integrate his clubs. This included employees, entertainers and key holders. He stuck by this decision because he felt it was the right thing to do even when his clubs were boycotted and employees were ridiculed.
What is next for you?
I have completed another work of fiction titled Ten Hours in July that still needs some tweaking. It is a suspense inspired by my experiences during a twenty-year career with the Michigan Department of Corrections. It is a weave of fiction with the true crime. The antagonist, Lily Hood has manipulated her four sons as her accomplices during a lifetime of spectacular scams. Now, having bankrupted her family and run out of suckers to con, she resorts to a violent, murderous payback. This time the victims are the police. But the African-American Police Chief Jefferson Quarles and the Lebanese-American hostage negotiator Nadia Barakat are determined that for once, Lily Hood won’t be calling all the shots.