Shay's Official Biography
Bunny at the Lake Geneva Playboy Club and then
September 1969 Playboy Playmate
I was born in Brown Deer, Wisconsin; a small, northwest suburb of Milwaukee. I spent my younger years growing up there attending grade school, high school, and college in the surrounding vicinity. Everything in my life was completely "normal" until one day I answered an advertisement from Playboy that was looking for Bunnies for the first Playboy Club-Hotel to be built in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. At that time, I was attending the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee majoring in Sociology with a minor in International Relations.
After a few days of hesitation, I "got up the nerve" and went down to apply for the position. Not only did I get the job, but I also have the distinction of being the "very first Bunny" hired for the club! When I started working at the club, I was to be included in a pictorial in Playboy entitled "Bunnies of Lake Geneva." While taking test shots for the shoot, my photographer, Dwight Hooker, asked me if I would mind if he submitted my photo as a candidate for a Playboy Playmate. I gave him my permission, never thinking "in a million years" that I would actually be accepted!!!
Since my centerfold came out in September of 1969, I have had the good fortune of doing many things for Playboy: I have worked in three different clubs: Lake Geneva, London, and San Francisco. I've done three magazine covers: Sept. '69, Jan. '70, and Dec. '70; the Playmate "coffee table" book, various magazine advertisements, calendars, and trading cards; was one of the original first four playmates to become a "puzzle"; and was featured in a Playmate pictorial "Playmates Forever" in April, 1984, covering a 15-year span since my original centerfold. During the time of this pictorial, I had the good fortune to be working at the infamous Studio 54 nightclub in New York where I was the official Party Coordinator for the club's private, corporate parties. I have also had the opportunity to live in various diverse cities: Mexico City, London, Rome, San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, and Marbella (Spain).
Well, now life has come "full circle", and I am now living in Chicago where it all began!!! I have chosen some of my favorite photographs from over the years for this website. They have given me a great deal of pleasure. I hope they will do the same for you.
Fondly,
Shay Knuth
Miss September, 1969
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