Nearly half a century has passed since Valarie Woortman worked at the Playboy Club in Vernon.

She was 18 when she first began as a cocktail waitress there in the early 1970s. But when she spotted herself recently online — mid-conversation, complete with bunny ears and bow tie — she knew right away.

“I wasn’t surprised,” said Woortman, now 66 and living in Lafayette. “This isn’t the first time someone has reached out saying they had a photo of me … and you have to remember I come from a small town. Everybody kind of knew I was a bunny.”

Woortman was one of dozens of women photographer Christopher “Kit” Norton captured in the 1970s at the former club, located in a rural township about an hour from New York City. And while it’s not the first time Woortman has come across her own likeness online, never did the person in possession of the photos have such ambitions as Amanda DeMane.

DeMane, Norton’s daughter, says she received a call from her mom in early 2020 because her brother in West Milford was emptying out his basement — a flood-prone part of the house, which held many heirlooms including a cardboard box of photos her father took.

“Being that I have some photography in my background — including taking classes in high school and college — I became the suitable home for them. I inherited all the boxes of family stuff, including this treasure trove of Playboy Bunnies,” DeMane said.

DeMane, who found over 5,000 35mm negatives and slide film, said about 200 of the images were taken at the club and over 75 women are represented in the collection.

She’s had plenty of time amid the COVID-19 pandemic since last spring to scan and properly archive them. DeMane has also contacted a handful of women in the photos, as part of a larger effort to collect their stories and cast the novel history of the resort through her father’s lens.

DeMane emphasized that the photos are not affiliated in any way with a group or incorporated company, including Playboy or the club. They stand independently as a showcase of her father’s original artwork, she said.

“His pictures tell a side of the Playboy Club that I feel hasn’t necessarily been represented in image by a lot of photographers …which can sometimes be one-dimensional and ornamental, women standing and very posed,” said DeMane, a Norwalk, Connecticut, resident. “My dad’s pictures are the women holding trays, waiting for somebody to pay their bill, pouring coffee and sometimes looking bored. They (capture) real women doing a real job and, so far, they’ve really resonated with people.”

While Kit Norton primarily worked as a civil engineer for Passaic County, DeMane knew he often visited the Playboy Club with his camera. As a patron of the club, he was allowed to take photos in the glamorous space, she said.

A new lens

Playboy Clubs started to pop up in major metropolitan cities — like New York, Los Angeles and Miami — in the 1960s. So Vernon was abuzz when Hugh Hefner’s company announced plans to move into an eight-story building in the quaint New Jersey municipality.

The club’s stint in Vernon was prosperous while brief — lasting from the early 1970s to 1982 — including Hefner, founder of Playboy Magazine nestled in his own suite among the 600 or so rooms.

The history after the club shuttered is somewhat murky, with a couple hotels taking over before the building was turned over entirely to renters. The last known occupants, mostly low-income workers and their families, left in April 2018 after a lengthy court battle.

Today, it is a dilapidated and vacant building. Township officials did not immediately respond to questions about any potential future plans for the property.

“My brothers and sisters remember going to the club and my mom talks about it too. She remembers meeting Bill Cosby there and has a funny story she tells,” DeMane said, laughing. “I always knew the Playboy Club was part of our family history but didn’t know the volume of photos my father had.”

Kit Norton was a semi-professional photographer, who took on the hobby from his own father, Charlie Norton. Snapshots of a luxurious Playboy Club make up the collection, as well as photos of his family and different parts of New Jersey he encountered on travels.

Norton died in February 1997 from cancer, DeMane said. She was 16 at the time.

DeMane said her mom, Belinda, “loves” the work her daughter is doing to organize the photos and re-introduce people to her late husband’s work.

Since making her discovery, DeMane, a social worker, said she’s gotten in touch with five women. DeMane said she was surprised to hear that many are often charged by photographers for photos of themselves. She has given women she’s spoken to digitized versions of the photos for free and has so far said she’s received positive reception for the project.

Still, properly processing the photos has been time-consuming and costly — with upwards of $2,000 spent so far on equipment and materials.

“They were in a cardboard box for the better part of 25 years. So, I’ve been cleaning off all of the dust from the images, and then placing it in a scanner (to make a digital version) … then there are a few that had some scratches and some color destroyed, you could tell the image had been tattered a little bit, so through the power of Photoshop some need a little bit of restoration,” said DeMane.

“Part of what I’ve been trying to do is to repatriate these women with their images, and in exchange, gather their stories,” she added.

Future plans

DeMane, who recently displayed the images at a pop-up shop in Brooklyn, said she hopes to host a gallery and possibly publish a coffee table book as well. She is currently working to track down all the women to include interviews in any future projects.

She acknowledged that while the women she’s spoken to look back fondly on their time at the club, that may not be the case for all.

“I think there are probably women who have very mixed and challenged feelings about their time there and potentially having felt exploited (as well),” said DeMane. “That’s why I’m trying to do this in a sensitive way. I think these are important stories to hear.”

Woortman, who worked at the club until it closed in 1982, said she has only good memories of the club.

She recalled meeting Hefner, saying he hired her in part because she resembled Barbi Benton, a model who was his girlfriend at the time.

Someone who was “good at talking,” Woortman said she spent her near decade working at the Playboy Club brushing shoulders with famous stars, including actor William Shatner, professional boxer Muhammad Ali and comedian Flip Wilson.

Woortman said she made history when she got married at the Playboy Club in Vernon in 1978 and dazzled everyone in a white bunny costume.

While there was no shortage of parties and frivolity, the clubs also involved hard work, Woortman said. People also tend to conflate the clubs and magazine, which leads to some misconceptions.

“Of course, everybody parties when they’re young and we were not different than anyone else but it was very strict and there were a lot of rules. We were very protected,” said Woortman. “People thought it was always a wild culture, which it really wasn’t.”

Woortman said she made friendships throughout her time at the Playboy Club, some of which were rekindled during a recent reunion event in Vernon.

What will be important to keep in mind for a gallery or book of New Jersey’s former Playboy Club?

“To treat it with class,” said Woortman. “It should be presented in a classy way. The club was a great opportunity for women, and I can’t say anything negative about it.”

Anyone featured in DeMane’s images, more of which can be found at www.vivelapin.com, are asked to reach out via email at [email protected].

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Steven Rodas may be reached at [email protected]. Follow him @stevenrodasnj.