Bar celebrates late Playboy founder Hugh Hefner

Sporting matching bunny ears, Madi Smith and Amielia Holt celebrated the life of the founder of Playboy, Hugh Hefner, on Saturday.

The Bank Bar & Lounge, located at 22 W. University Ave., offered free cover to the first 50 people who came to the bar dressed as Hefner or a Playboy bunny between 10 p.m. and 1:30 a.m. Participants were also entered into a contest for a $50 gift certificate to the bar, which a woman wearing a black bustier won.

Smith, a Santa Fe College biomedical sciences sophomore, said she had watched a documentary about Hefner before he died Sept. 27 and thought he had a positive contribution to society.

“I was a little upset (when I learned he passed) because I had just learned so much about him and seen that he was more of a feminist,” Smith said.

Holt, a Santa Fe College nursing sophomore, said Hefner used his business to put women on a pedestal.

“He cherished women rather than shaming them,” Holt said.

The nightclub’s co-owner, Richard Thomas-Pusateri, 41, estimated about 12 people wore Hefner-themed costumes to the bar Saturday night. He said Hefner influenced a sexual revolution.

“If anybody can go from where he started to where he finished, that is the epitome of the American dream,” Thomas-Pusateri said. “Being able to make anything happen in this world, to create what he created, is amazing.”