PLAYBOY GOLF TOURNAMENTS: Celebrities | Playmates | Day Drinking | Epic Parties

In this episode, hosts Corinna Harney-Jones and Echo Johnson reminisce about the iconic Playboy Golf tournaments of the 2000s, featuring an interview with AJ Pathak, the former president and CEO of Playboy Golf. They discuss the origins of Playboy Golf, its evolution, and the unique experiences it offered to participants, including celebrity encounters and the vibrant atmosphere of the events. The conversation highlights the sense of family within the Playboy community and the lasting impact of these tournaments on pop culture. In this segment, the conversation delves into the unique experiences and stories surrounding the Playboy golf tournaments, the financial strategies behind them, and the relationships formed with Hugh Hefner. The speakers share anecdotes about memorable events, the importance of philanthropy, and the evolution of Playboy over the years. They emphasize the trust and protective nature of Hefner towards the Playmates and the fun, wild experiences that defined their time in the Playboy world. In this engaging conversation, the hosts reflect on their experiences with Playboy, sharing nostalgic memories, personal connections, and the unique culture fostered by Hugh Hefner. They discuss the impact Hefner had on their lives, the friendships formed, and the importance of capturing the stories of those who contributed to Playboy's legacy. The conversation culminates in heartfelt messages of gratitude and admiration for Hefner's mentorship and influence.

Takeaways:

Playboy Golf was a unique blend of golf, parties, and celebrity culture.
AJ Pathak played a crucial role in shaping Playboy Golf's identity.

The events were designed to be upscale and fun, attracting a diverse audience.

Playboy Golf created a sense of community among participants and playmates.

The tournaments featured local celebrities and aspiring models, enhancing the experience.

The events were held in various cities, including mid-America, to reach a broader audience.

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Transcript

ECHO JOHNSON (00:03.143)
Okay, so we're live.

Corinna Harney-Jones (00:05.14)
echo. So coming up next, we're going back to the 2000s, the era of Playboy golf celebrities, golf tournament parties, and the winners go to the Playboy Mansion. It was epic. And today we're going to interview the man behind making this all happen. AJ

How do you say AJ's name right? I don't want to say it. Patek. Patek. Is it Patek or Patek?

ECHO JOHNSON (00:36.335)
AJ, yeah, it's AJ Patek, Patek, Patek, yeah. I think it's Patek, but I don't know, we should actually ask him. I know it's spelled Patek, but I think it's Patek.

Corinna Harney-Jones (00:51.254)
Anyway, yeah.

ECHO JOHNSON (00:51.899)
You want to read that again? Take two.

Corinna Harney-Jones (00:56.886)
take two Here we go! my gosh and coming up next, I'm going to start that over. And coming up next, we're going back to the 2000s, the era of Playboy Golf.

celebrities, golf tournament parties, and the winners go to the Playboy Mansion. It was epic. Whoop whoop! It was epic. I know we were in a few of these golf events. Yeah. So today we're going to interview the man behind the, who made this all come together and happen. AJ Pathak Pathak. Pathak! AJ Pathak!

ECHO JOHNSON (01:18.078)
woop woop

ECHO JOHNSON (01:24.271)
Yeah, the best times.

ECHO JOHNSON (01:37.393)
Patap.

Corinna Harney-Jones (01:38.766)
President and CEO of Playboy Golf. We're gonna dive down the rabbit hole, something like that.

Corinna Harney-Jones (01:52.174)
Well, I'm excited, Echo, to hear, you know? It's funny because...

It is interesting that we were there. have photos on golf carts with Naraya Davis and all of us in our Playboy head shirts and and then not realizing because I we were also very young when we first started doing the golf tournaments. I never realized what all went into them. You know, I was just there, you know there to be part of the the team. Yes, we just had fun and didn't really

ECHO JOHNSON (02:06.107)
Yeah.

ECHO JOHNSON (02:19.087)
Yeah.

ECHO JOHNSON (02:23.405)
Entertainment, basically.

Corinna Harney-Jones (02:27.697)
think about those things. I didn't anyway. I didn't back then. It's interesting now. So it'll be fun to talk to him.

ECHO JOHNSON (02:35.271)
Yeah, definitely. So I wanted to, while we have this chance, I wanted to just do a shout out to our audience and to our fans. Here we are in 2025. I can't believe it has arrived. And our podcast continues to grow around the world. We are so grateful to not only our loyal

Playboy fans who have been supporting us for 30 plus years since we were first featured in the magazine. new audience members and reaching new people that may have not known about a lot of stuff about Playboy and just like the history of Playboy and the empire that it was and.

the, great impact it had on our world and pop culture and whatnot. So with that said, also, we received our stats for the year from, BuzzSprout and we're the top 10 % of all podcasts in the world. So that's like really, yay. Thank you. Yeah.

Corinna Harney-Jones (03:44.411)
my god that's so crazy.

ECHO JOHNSON (03:47.779)
Super, super cool. Again, couldn't do it without y'all. So we are just so grateful. We thank you for all of the support and we ask you just to please continue to follow us, whether you're listening to the audio. And if you are listening to audio, please come check out our YouTube channel because every interview that we have in the audio format also has long fat.

long format video as well and so you can watch the full video interviews as well. Please like, subscribe and follow obviously.

Corinna Harney-Jones (04:22.446)
share if it's something you know someone else would appreciate

ECHO JOHNSON (04:26.757)
Yeah, yeah, and definitely share. We also have just reached a couple of milestones with YouTube and so we have the ability now for Super Thanks. So that's something that our fans can contribute towards as well, or our audience can contribute to, can contribute towards. We are working on a merch line and

The pictures that you see in the back with the different logos, that's just a couple of ideas that we have, but we have literally like, I think a thousand different logos and colors, Corinna.

Corinna Harney-Jones (05:04.654)
I already have a t-shirt and my husband got a sweatshirt and Everyone loves them wherever we go. I mean, it's a brilliant logo

ECHO JOHNSON (05:13.967)
Yeah. cool. Yeah. So we are diligently working on that and we're going to get that going because I just know that people will love it and the logos are so cool and the colors, like there's a plethora. So, you know, we'll start small, probably just with hats and like tees, but definitely we'll work on growing that. So that will be another way that you can support the show. Also, we want to do a shout out to so

Within our Buzzsprout platform, the analytics are very deep and we're able to look at who our audience is. And I kid you not, we have listeners in every country in the world. It blows my mind when I look at it. And then there's some countries where there's just like three or four people listening, but I just want to do a quick shout out because I was looking at it earlier and I'm going to go to...

Corinna Harney-Jones (05:55.415)
you

Corinna Harney-Jones (06:02.445)
No.

ECHO JOHNSON (06:10.063)
Morocco. We have four listeners in Morocco. Someplace I'd love to go someday, right?

Corinna Harney-Jones (06:16.441)
Yes. We should randomly, once we really start monetizing, go and visit our fans in Morocco. Go take them to coffee.

ECHO JOHNSON (06:27.271)
Oh, wouldn't that be so fun if we like, let's pick out a destination and we'll go on a trip. But with that said, this is something that I wanna start doing in our shows at the end of the show, is to just do a shout out to, you we're gonna randomly choose from the different cities, countries, whatever, wherever we land. So listen to the shows to the end. And if you hear your country.

Reach out to us on Instagram at Bunny Chronicles podcast or on YouTube. All of our contact information is on there. Let us know you're one of the listeners and we can give you an opportunity to call into one of these shows and ask Corinna and I two questions. So.

Corinna Harney-Jones (07:08.462)
I love that and and also echo Let's remind the listeners that especially on YouTube, please leave comments ask questions and give us Suggestions if there's anyone that you can think of that we that you would want on the bunny Chronicles Let us know put your comments in the comment section and will

ECHO JOHNSON (07:19.759)
Yes. Yeah.

ECHO JOHNSON (07:33.829)
or any history, an era you'd like to know about, if you have particular questions relating to whatever, whether it's, know, HEF himself or the mansion or whatever else, please do. That's a good point. Thank you, Corinna, for bringing that up. That also helps our algorithm. So the more comments we get, then we can continue to grow. So we just want to do a quick shout out. And just again, we thank you from the bottom of our hearts. And this has just been a labor of love. And we...

Corinna Harney-Jones (07:59.8)
Thanks.

ECHO JOHNSON (08:03.719)
promise to continue to bring you some really great shows and interviews and we're going to get into this next one because AJ is in the waiting room. Okay.

Corinna Harney-Jones (08:12.248)
Yeah.

ECHO JOHNSON (08:15.524)
AJ?

Ajay (08:17.071)
How are you guys?

ECHO JOHNSON (08:18.501)
Hi, doll. How are you?

Ajay (08:22.843)
We're doing okay. I'm just waiting for my three dogs to interrupt. My three golden retrievers will hear me and start coming in.

ECHO JOHNSON (08:25.105)
can you?

Corinna Harney-Jones (08:29.864)
same. Mine's the crap of the door.

ECHO JOHNSON (08:31.847)
Is there any way that you can get more center in front of your camera?

Ajay (08:36.163)
Yeah, I can do. Let's see.

Corinna Harney-Jones (08:41.922)
I felt like I had a hair. I felt like there's a dog hair on my lip. Do you see that there's a dog hair on my lip?

Ajay (08:42.587)
I might go in the wrong way.

ECHO JOHNSON (08:46.619)
That's a perfect behind. Do I see a dog?

Ajay (08:49.999)
What? Why is that?

Corinna Harney-Jones (08:52.0)
can't see it that fine, but I can feel it like a dog. You know what I mean? Like a little

ECHO JOHNSON (08:57.177)
Yeah.

Ajay (08:57.307)
Try it on this side.

Corinna Harney-Jones (08:59.598)
Hopefully it's not going to impede me Let's see.

Ajay (09:01.915)
Is that better?

ECHO JOHNSON (09:02.259)
there you go. Yeah, that's perfect. That's perfect. Okay, so Corinna and I were just doing a little shout out to our fans. We keep hitting these milestones and now we're in year three of the podcast. We got our analytics from Buzzsprout, which is where our podcast is distributed through and we're top 10 % of all podcasts in the world. So we're doing a shout out for that.

and to just continue to follow and like and subscribe our YouTube channel. It's growing and we encourage you to watch the video format interviews because they're great. So thank you, AJ. So with that said, first of all, welcome to the show, AJ. I'm so happy to see you. It has been a minute and what we're about to get into it

Ajay (09:41.221)
That's fantastic.

ECHO JOHNSON (09:54.055)
Some of my fondest memories in Playboy was the Playboy Golf tournaments. They were epic. But I want to give our audience a little background on who you are and all that you did with Playboy Golf. Okay, so do you pronounce your last name? Pathak, okay.

Ajay (10:16.687)
Pathak. Yep.

ECHO JOHNSON (10:19.367)
So, Pathak was a president and CEO of Playboy Golf, a partner and licensed entity of Playboy Enterprises from 2000 to 2014. That was a long run. Playboy Golf was created to provide sponsorship and advertising for clients of Playboy Enterprises and to give fans of Playboy the opportunity to tee off at their local golf course and land on the green at the Playboy Mansion. Playboy Golf created an unbeatable combination of golf,

parties, playmates, celebrities, athletes, and just all around beautiful, fabulous people. The fans of Playboy had an opportunity to be a part of HEF world and party in their city and at the Playboy Mansion. The Playboy Golf Tour was featured on multiple national and local media outlets, including ESPN.com, Fox Sports Net, the Golf Channel, People OK Magazine, Us Weekly, LA Times, New York Post, Chicago Sun Times, and it goes on.

So welcome to the show AJ.

Ajay (11:20.933)
Thank you so much and it's truly a pleasure, one, to see you again because I remember you were really one of the first ones. I used to remember how you would be whispering in my ear and telling me about everybody. And I used to be like, I listen so intently because, okay, she's looking out for me. So.

Corinna Harney-Jones (11:37.965)
Huh.

Ajay (11:46.093)
It's truly great to see you again and to be part of it. I, for, you know, for any of the playmates, I would do anything. They're a family to me. And to me, that was the most important thing. That really, if I was to say that if there was something I could walk away with and cherish forever, it's the fact that I really had a family with all of them and a lot of the Playboy world too. It was a tight family.

ECHO JOHNSON (12:16.155)
Yeah, I mean, that's actually like perfect to say, AJ, because that's what we always come back to in every single interview is that we are all just so blessed to have been a part of Playboy and this incredible extended family that we created. And to this day, we have these incredible relationships with all these people. And I just can't think of another company that had that sort of, you know, cohesion with everybody from Playboy corporate to, you know,

to the staff, to the playmates, to everything. And so that is a good word, family.

Ajay (12:50.691)
It really, it's a testament to HEF and how that was established because, know, and I always tried to emulate that there was a caring effort with that. then, you know, of course there was Glitz Glamour and, you know, if you're surrounded with beautiful women, everyone has their interpretation. But all I ever found was that, you know, we had a job to do, but really that established bond.

It was to this day. It's it's still some of the closest friends I have and and family and things that you know, I get to see them and That means the world it really really does

ECHO JOHNSON (13:25.991)
Yeah.

ECHO JOHNSON (13:33.627)
I believe that. So tell us like kind of from the beginning. So your background, was it in marketing and sports entertainment or how did you even come up with this idea and present it to Playboy? What did that look like?

Ajay (13:48.219)
Yeah, when we first started, what had begun to entail in really the late 90s is that I'd originally had started, I had a sports sunscreen company and my father, he was a very famous dermatologist. He had created sunscreens at the Mass General Hospital in Harvard Medical School with him, with several of the doctors that were there. And one of my partners was the head of Reebok and he was head of the, and he was retiring.

ECHO JOHNSON (14:00.057)
Okay.

Ajay (14:17.339)
And, you know, we had this company and we sold off eventually the licensing rights with a European pharmaceutical firm and so forth and so on. my partner, Tom, his wife worked at Playboy and she said to us, hey, you guys have established a sports network and marketing in this that we've begun to, you know, go with different.

marketing companies all over the country because of our sunscreen originally. And you need to talk to them about bringing your ability to harness into a more conservative, what's the word I'm looking for? An audience that Playboy was desiring to have. If you recall in the...

Playboy could get the sin products in their advertising when I mean sin products, alcohol, tobacco. But one of the goals was to try to make it more mainstream so that, for instance, the tech merging market was starting to emerge. And how do you access that? Because it was going to be a younger audience, right? And you have to maintain the generations, you know, one after the other. was always Playboy went from father to son, right? And so part of this was what

could you guys provide to them that might enhance their ability to bring in a much broader scope of advertisers and people that want to get more involved with Playboy? Because you always remember Playboy was behind the shelf. And the hard fight was to try to make it more mainstream. And things like the Super Bowl party were part of that way of trying to get that in there too. But the goal was

What can we do to make it more attractive to some of the larger companies that would tend to shy away? And so initially we were looking at cigarette boat racing and some other things, but golf became an avenue that would allow very affluent people the ability to get introduced to the Playboy world, but feel comfortable with it.

Ajay (16:38.499)
And so we began to process, know, at the time there was a tour called the Oldsmobile Scramble. And the Oldsmobile Scramble was the way Oldsmobiles would bring in people to buy their car at the dealership. And they would have like 300 golf tournaments all across the country. And you you'd go in and you'd form a team and you ended up there winning.

would be if they were able to continue on and win, they would end up at Disney World. So when we looked at this and we said, well, wait a minute, we're not your father's Oldsmobile anymore, but we're not your father's golf tournament. That's how they used to advertise. So we looked at it and said, we're gonna give a sexy upscale fun event and we're gonna bring it to everybody. Now, initially we went through some growing pains because

The one thing that you'll always have with Playboys, people want to see beautiful women. golf becomes, I don't want to say secondary because golf is still part of it, but ultimately if you're going to delineate yourself from the others, you want to see beautiful women. So instead of 300 events across the country, the vision I had was scale it down to maybe 25 to 30 events in various cities.

where people might not always get that Playboy world coming to the city. So we brought it to Iowa and we brought it to all like different cities that might not be, we did it in the bigger ones, New York, LA, Boston, Chicago and all that. But we also brought it to mid America and brought it into places that normally you would never get to see the Playboy world from where they were. And so that concept.

really began to take off because we would bring local celebrities into and local girls that maybe had an aspiration of becoming what you guys did, you know, that to be found and discovered and that, and we were an avenue for that. And so we looked at that, which then began to attract sponsors and advertisers to be able to entertain their clientele at an upscale fun event because we had no nudity in it.

Ajay (19:01.991)
looking at the mansion, that's a whole other story. But during our golf events, if you recall, everything was, everyone, we had everybody in dresses and outfits and different things that kept it very upscale for a golf course, that you could go to an upscale golf course and not have to worry about it. yeah, yeah. And they had the sexy side to it and fun and people got a little crazy. And of course, every other hole we had alcohol and we had our alcohol sponsors and

ECHO JOHNSON (19:19.867)
Yeah, it was a proper golf tournament across the board. Yeah. Yeah.

Corinna Harney-Jones (19:22.945)
Yeah.

Ajay (19:31.599)
And fun, but we had every, you all kinds of fun events going on. So there were some guys that never even took their club out of the bag. They just went from hole to hole to meet everybody. And we had contests with local girls that could have a shot if they won the best hostess, they were able to win a trip out to the, our finals event at the Playboy Mansion. So we created, and the judges were the golfers. So everybody had an incentive to talk to everybody else.

ECHO JOHNSON (19:41.084)
Yep.

Corinna Harney-Jones (19:41.208)
Yeah.

Ajay (20:01.293)
and mix and mingle. And our playmates were all the hostesses. So they just made sure everybody had fun, which they were really good at. And so every single playmate always wanted to work it because they could be themselves. They didn't have to be something they weren't comfortable with. And so everybody would have a great time and they created friendships for many, many years.

Corinna Harney-Jones (20:12.312)
Mm-hmm.

ECHO JOHNSON (20:12.391)
Yeah.

ECHO JOHNSON (20:28.357)
Yeah, it was wild and to that point, yes, everybody was playing a little bit of golf, but there certainly were teams that were just like, whatever, I'm here for fun. each of playmates was assigned to a team, which was cool. And so you would be with your team the whole day, right? Going around the golf course.

I think it was the very first one that we did AJ. My team was so fabulous. I wish I could remember their names, but we got so loaded that I ended up falling out of the golf cart and rolling down the hill. then Lacey is like, here's about it. She comes to find me and she's like, you've reprimanded me. like you're still here to do a job. And I was like, okay, okay.

Corinna Harney-Jones (21:07.347)
Ajay (21:07.522)
You

Ajay (21:24.411)
And I used to...

Corinna Harney-Jones (21:26.158)
I never drank at the Playboy Golf Tournament. I was probably more serious, but I still I wish I had dug out photos because I There's one of all I think you it's you Neriah myself

ECHO JOHNSON (21:39.953)
Yeah, yeah, we definitely.

Ajay (21:41.177)
that's at the one of the very, Corina, that was one of the very beginning of it, because if Neriah was there, it was like early on in 2001, maybe somewhere in there. Might've been when Kid Rock was there too, but early on. But yeah, if you got, I remember with you guys there, that would have been it, right? Early on.

Corinna Harney-Jones (21:46.574)
you

Corinna Harney-Jones (21:50.474)
yeah. yeah.

ECHO JOHNSON (22:02.983)
Yeah, it was absolutely.

Corinna Harney-Jones (22:03.046)
Now when you first wore it, you had us wearing the, we just, remember, because I loved the shirt. I think I still have it because I keep all of those things. It was the pink Playboy blue head on black, pink on black. was, know, halter tops and we wore black pants and that was one of them.

Ajay (22:15.343)
Pink. Yeah.

Pink on black, yeah.

ECHO JOHNSON (22:23.527)
yeah.

Ajay (22:25.371)
And it was so funny. I used to want the girls to design it so that they could be comfortable with the outfits. And then the whole Playboy marketing team, including Lacey, they'd always want to design the clothes, right? And it'd be this running battle because the girls wanted it a certain way and they would want it a certain way. And all the time I'd be like, boy, I'm stuck in the middle of this right now. But yeah, we'd always want the girls to feel like

ECHO JOHNSON (22:37.756)
Yeah.

Corinna Harney-Jones (22:42.444)
Mm-hmm.

Corinna Harney-Jones (22:49.006)
Bye.

Ajay (22:53.339)
You know, especially with those outfits and you're so right many of them kept them all like I still even have Somewhere stored I have some various outfits from from that time because you know, somebody will always ask me Can you get me one of those back again? I'll say, you know, I'll try to find it for them. So I brought something to show you guys so I was trying to find and I have to go through my archives Can you see this this? Do you remember you you guys used to sign these?

ECHO JOHNSON (23:13.564)
that you.

ECHO JOHNSON (23:19.175)
So cool, yeah.

Yup.

Ajay (23:24.183)
And these would have all the different, when you guys were coming there and I held on to a bunch of different ones, because they were a whole mix of all your friends and girls. There were new ones, ones that were, I've had them from the 90s all the way up to the 2000 and 12, 14 or whatever. people would go crazy for that. They'd steal our flags with that, yeah.

Corinna Harney-Jones (23:52.686)
That's

ECHO JOHNSON (23:52.765)
yeah. Yeah, yeah, for sure. You know, that actually that makes sense that Lacey would be like, no, no, no, I'm gonna be in charge of this because after all, she was the bunny mom and, you know, like, make sure that your bunny suits were correct and whatnot. So I didn't know that that totally makes sense.

Ajay (23:53.935)
With that.

Ajay (24:03.236)
Yep.

Corinna Harney-Jones (24:08.512)
I just think it's so funny Echo that you got hammered and would get in so much trouble. So that was easy probably. You were party on the golf course.

ECHO JOHNSON (24:14.437)
All the time.

Ajay (24:19.619)
Of I'd sort of, not saying courage it.

Corinna Harney-Jones (24:21.995)
I just love people so much, but I'm sorry AJ what?

Ajay (24:25.625)
No, no, I apologize. I would encourage it because I wanted them to have fun. See, the one thing I learned, and I think why we were always so successful, is if the playmates were having fun, everybody else had fun. Because the goal was really to make everybody comfortable and that really have half-side deal with that girl next door. Like now you're meeting the person that was in the center of the magazine.

Corinna Harney-Jones (24:39.747)
Yeah.

Ajay (24:53.093)
that every girl dreams and aspires to be and every guy wants to meet them. But here she is sitting right next to you in a golf cart, you know? And so the whole idea was just to make them feel comfortable and have fun.

Corinna Harney-Jones (25:05.442)
Well, was brilliant, H.A.

ECHO JOHNSON (25:06.139)
You know, the last year I was there, it's when Mark Wahlberg was there and I like, like Mark Wahlberg is like my everything, right? So I got wind that he was there and I left my team, which was by the way, the most boring team I'd ever been like put with. And I was so mad and I was like, I'm going to go find Mark Wahlberg. So I did. And then sure enough, guess who comes in the golf cart at me, Lacey going, what the hell are you doing? Get back to your team.

Ajay (25:10.341)
Yeah.

Corinna Harney-Jones (25:14.21)
Yeah.

ECHO JOHNSON (25:35.481)
and she's like, nope. I was like, Lacey!

Ajay (25:39.0)
And Echo wouldn't put up with that. You wouldn't. You were like, I'm not listening.

Corinna Harney-Jones (25:45.902)
I feel like this is our own thing.

Ajay (25:48.323)
Did you know that year? I think that year when Whalberg well, he's been there a few times, when he came, so that show, The Entourage, if you recall, right? With Kevin Dillon and all them. So the guys that played Entourage in the movie, that whole Entourage with Kevin Dillon, and so they were one team. The real Entourage, the guys that they were, you know, like,

ECHO JOHNSON (25:58.811)
Of course,

ECHO JOHNSON (26:11.054)
they were? Okay.

Ajay (26:16.731)
Mark Wahlberg's original crew.

all the real guys were also on a team. are so, yeah, yep. Yep, so they had, so we had both ones, the entourage on the show and the real entourage, both. Yeah, that it was based on.

ECHO JOHNSON (26:25.019)
That is so cool!

Corinna Harney-Jones (26:27.534)
That's hilarious. That's really-

ECHO JOHNSON (26:35.397)
Yeah, that it was based off of. That's cool. my gosh, how wild.

Corinna Harney-Jones (26:37.646)
So it was that time period when they did the show based on them Right. I Sadly, I have not watched all of the entourage the whole series I know I get caught up I need to I need to watch it but but so did they recreate the golf tournament in entourage and then

Ajay (26:44.345)
Yep.

ECHO JOHNSON (26:49.975)
my gosh, you should. It's a good one.

Ajay (27:01.371)
They were always golfing, but they never created... No, this is when they were in the show and it was based on them. And then Mark asked if they could play too. And I said, absolutely, because some of them were from... Like I'm from Boston and you take care of people from home. But so some of the guys were there and I said, absolutely, they can play. And so it was the funniest thing. And one day I was given a lecture somewhere.

ECHO JOHNSON (27:21.254)
Yeah.

Ajay (27:29.731)
And I see this guy in this audience and I'm going, how do I know this guy, right? It was driving me crazy. And he has a smile on him. And I said, excuse me, sir, do we know each other? And he goes, I go, you look so familiar. It was the brother of, Kevin Dillon was, you the guy that Kevin Dillon played. It was his brother. And he knew the whole story of

of, I was telling the story to the audience, but they were, he knew the whole story and it was true. And he got up in front of everybody said, they just telling you the truth. The whole lot Taraj was there and back and forth. And he knew it because he was, his brother was in the, it was based on him. So, yeah.

ECHO JOHNSON (28:15.867)
Right, right, right. that's funny. How wild. How wild. So what kind of money did that take to do those tournaments? And was it all just sponsorship money that came in that you were able to?

Corinna Harney-Jones (28:18.542)
was somehow legendary.

Ajay (28:27.355)
Yeah, that's a great question. See, one of the things that it wasn't expensive tournament to run that we did because we tried to keep everything upscale, the food, all the things. So generally it was businesses that would play or a group of affluent guys, because from a cost of a foursome, if it ranged from $500 a person, we tried to get, know, in smaller cities, it would be less and so forth. But, you know,

ECHO JOHNSON (28:34.469)
I could imagine.

Ajay (28:57.463)
It was expensive to run. So the way we were able to profit off of that was really the sponsorships from advertisers and companies that way. That was the really only way you were gonna make some money with us because the overall hard cost of doing it were expensive. And we gave Playboy merchandise away. Like we had your gift bag that the people got was really a nice gift bag, whether it was.

ECHO JOHNSON (29:15.057)
Yeah. Yeah.

Ajay (29:25.359)
You know, we had everything from the golf shirts and, you know, we would have different rabbit head covers and all kinds of things that, you know, they probably, you know, just because we ended up getting quite a number of things, they'd have about $200 in merchandise with them too. So they got quite a bit for what they paid. And that was subsidized by sponsors, yeah.

ECHO JOHNSON (29:51.942)
car.

that makes sense. And now when they would go to the mansion, was that just like an annual thing? like, how were they, how were they chosen? So whoever won from each tournament.

Ajay (30:01.938)
The way...

So yeah, what we did, and it was sort of funny how we did this in the sense that we had a semi-finals in Las Vegas. So qualifying teams, now all they really got was a discounted rate because it was so expensive to produce, but those guys didn't care. They just wanted the picture with the girls. That's all they really cared about, you know, to be up there on the podium and then stand there.

ECHO JOHNSON (30:13.351)
Mm.

Ajay (30:30.489)
And so, you the playmates would be around them and they'd have all the pictures and they're going to go to their buddies. Look what I'm doing and you're not, you know, so, you know, that's the, that's the bravado. And actually we used to get women who were in sales and they used to love to come because that was their best sales day ever. If they brought guys out there on the course, they were guaranteed the sale of, know, whatever they wanted. So we used to have loyal, faithful women.

ECHO JOHNSON (30:55.731)
yeah.

Ajay (30:58.789)
golfers come to our event all the time with teams that they would invite their companies to. And for them, it was the biggest payday for them because they always made the deal on the golf course. the Las Vegas one, now we start ramping up all the cost involved and the cost for coming because now we're starting to produce parties and big events in Vegas. And we would partner with a casino.

ECHO JOHNSON (31:11.593)
Wow, that's cool.

Ajay (31:29.531)
And then the casino would subsidize because they'd entertain their high rollers at our event, which is a casino marketing event, which usually if you work with casinos, know, they're their own best customer because they're having to entertain those high rollers, which was where the money was at for a long time. And then, know, Vegas changed with the, you know, the DJs and the headliners and all that, you know, and that format changed. But for the most part, it was Big Gamblers that

you know, that they wanted to get in there and our event was a great way for them to do that.

ECHO JOHNSON (32:03.749)
Yeah, definitely a good segue. Interesting. Did you have much contact with Hef? Did you have any sort of relationship with him?

Ajay (32:14.127)
Yeah, well, I would periodically always come to see him because he would sign things for us for the events. And he did one of the nicest things. You he once told me and I was, you know, was trying to create the party, you know, because it has parties. You didn't come to his party unless you were invited. Right. It was his pride. You know, the really the the ones that everybody heard about everything from midsummer to Halloween and all that. That's his personal invite. But when he allowed us to do

you know, do this. He believed the fact that we could do something that would emulate his party, but then try to bring it to the mainstream to give the average individual the actual dream of a lifetime to sort of live his life for one day, you know, one day that way. And so he liked that concept. And, you know, I always tell people that ask me, are you friends with him? go,

He, you know, he's 80 something. He's got his friends. But was I fortunate enough to sit with him several times? Yes. And, and, and I remember one night, you know, my family would always come, right? You know, and he wanted to meet my mother because he heard my mother had come up. And, and so I get a phone call. Like this is after we'd finished the event and everything.

ECHO JOHNSON (33:16.519)
Yeah.

Ajay (33:39.717)
and I get a phone call from a friend of mine. He was watching Playboy TV and he goes, hey, your mom's on Playboy TV. Now that's not really what you wanna hear right away. I think sometimes, right? yeah, yeah, yeah. But do you remember that he used to do the world of HEF like the, where they would show where he would go in LA and where he did all different things? Well, they showed my mom meeting him up at the mansion.

ECHO JOHNSON (33:53.0)
my gosh, that's so funny AJ.

Ajay (34:09.795)
And she, my mom, you know, had everybody there in lingerie and pajamas and everything. I did everything to copy what he did, right? But my mom was in a beautiful gold sari. And she gave it, she's meeting him and they have it all on film with that. And it was her highlight. She loved, and her best friend that was there too. They were all in the paper when they got back home and everything that, know, showing that they meet. Yeah. Yep.

ECHO JOHNSON (34:29.69)
Yeah.

ECHO JOHNSON (34:36.005)
Yeah, she's famous. It was like her moment of fame. I love it.

Ajay (34:40.037)
That's exactly it, so.

Corinna Harney-Jones (34:40.302)
How beautiful. And we always talk about how he was thoughtful like that. He really wondered who's the mother to this amazing, you know, I'm sure he respected everything you were doing.

ECHO JOHNSON (34:42.055)
How funny, that's cool.

Ajay (34:54.875)
And that's where I felt truly blessed because you know, of course he's got his own Friends and what he does with so people would you know, you hang it out with them. I go no, you know, I tell him the truth, but But he would afford that respect and and and he appreciated what I did and if I asked for like something to be signed that we could do it for charity I Unequivocally he just automatically did it for us and took care of it

And he'd always say, have him come see me and I'll take care of him. And I would go up there and he'd sign different things.

ECHO JOHNSON (35:29.039)
Yeah, you know, that actually, that's a good point. And I'm happy that you said that because we have spoken a lot about HEFS philanthropic endeavors, which were vast and many. And I didn't know that he was that involved with philanthropy when we started the podcast. And so that completely makes sense. Anything that's going to charity is going to be like, of course he would do it for you. He was such a believer in that and giving back. And he was a part of so many incredible foundations.

Corinna Harney-Jones (35:56.404)
about it.

Ajay (35:57.677)
No, no, never did. And he would just do that. And really that would be our biggest, that would be the biggest moneymaker for the charity, something that he endorsed, signed or did anything with. And you know Victoria Fuller well, right? And I would have Victoria bring her artwork and everything there too. And then we would work something where she would have a piece of artwork and he would sign it. And then that would go for auction and things like that. And so that we would generate

ECHO JOHNSON (36:09.499)
Yeah, of course.

Ajay (36:26.231)
know, funds for the charity that way too.

ECHO JOHNSON (36:28.615)
Nice. So you had a good run. mean, 14 years is a long time to be doing that. I had no idea it went that long. I was surprised when you had sent that to me. So that would have been right around the time that was that like when Playboy was sold in 2004 and then it changed. Okay. Yeah.

Ajay (36:33.381)
Yeah.

Ajay (36:43.107)
Yeah. Yeah, I had issues with that all happened and, and really when he was getting out of it and then, you know, that it was really a, an investment firm that came in and then they had hired a, let's just say a consulting firm to help run it. Well, you know, they almost ran it into the ground really is what, you know, what happened. And they were all gone after six months.

ECHO JOHNSON (36:48.743)
Yeah.

Ajay (37:11.387)
They were all gone, fired. They all left. And so yes, that was at the point that it just wasn't the same. So.

ECHO JOHNSON (37:11.58)
Yeah.

ECHO JOHNSON (37:19.249)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, definitely. It's so sad, huh, to see what happened to Playboy today. It's mind blowing.

Ajay (37:24.731)
Yeah, really is because you just, even if I even look at, even the, and I never mean to say this in the wrong way, the difference in Playmates from the time that they came and had it in there, it's so different. I just,

ECHO JOHNSON (37:44.391)
It doesn't, yeah, just, doesn't, it doesn't make, it's not that the equation doesn't equal like what we all were. Like it was, yeah, it was so baffling. then.

Corinna Harney-Jones (37:53.524)
We always say that Playboy, as Hef's vision went and as his, you know, as we all do, we're only going to be on this planet so long. He was just a visionary and I don't think anyone will ever be able to ever do what he did. He was unique that way. Yeah.

Ajay (38:12.515)
No, no, and I think that's where it lost. There was only one. No matter what you could try to do around that, it really became quite apparent that in sometimes in just life's history, there's only one that can do that, you know, and be that way. That's how iconic it was. You know, and I was just so fortunate for that time and frame that like I had such a unique relationship.

ECHO JOHNSON (38:13.776)
Right, right.

Corinna Harney-Jones (38:28.543)
Yes.

Yes, absolutely. We agree.

Ajay (38:41.305)
Like, and the biggest thing, and this is what I should always emphasize, he entrusted me, like nobody had that relationship with the playmates really outside of that company besides Heff. And I always say in myself, because he gave me carte blanche to go anywhere, everywhere, because he trusted that I would watch it as if it was, you know, I don't mean to sound old, but like my daughters, you know what I mean? Like it would be like, that I'm going to be that protective of it.

ECHO JOHNSON (39:07.077)
Yeah.

Corinna Harney-Jones (39:10.029)
Yeah.

Ajay (39:10.907)
And that's what made me feel really the best at that point.

ECHO JOHNSON (39:16.517)
Yeah, that completely makes sense.

Corinna Harney-Jones (39:17.856)
People have a hard time understanding that side.

of Playboy as well because it really was a business and you had a business relationship but it wasn't, I always saw it as a job even working you know for the Playboy golf tournament. I took it seriously and it was, and he was very protective of us and I think he could read character you know he knew who was a person of character or a sleazebag and people always think of Playboy

Ajay (39:43.258)
Right.

Corinna Harney-Jones (39:51.704)
well, of course he was a sleazebag. I hate when they say that I'm like

Ajay (39:55.575)
drive me crazy.

Corinna Harney-Jones (39:56.398)
It was class we had class All the girls I ever worked with were class acts especially if they were working for something like you're you know for it for some like you and and He could see that in you and I think it's really special that you recognized that and it's fun looking back at these things because You know it it was a world like no other and these girls like you said they're the they're They really drew attention. It was iconic

iconic. mean, there was nothing like playmates. It was kind of a special thrill. So people really loved it. But he was very protective. He wouldn't let you wouldn't just be like free rein. I trust that you're going to do things because we always had security detail. We always had someone right there like you were saying echo Pat Lacey and in trouble because you were drinking on the job. Don't do that, you know, always have

Ajay (40:45.381)
Yep.

Corinna Harney-Jones (40:56.224)
Someone following us and making sure we're in line and acting like, well, Pat Lacey was always, you better act like a lady. Yeah, this brand, yeah.

ECHO JOHNSON (41:06.053)
Yeah, you better represent the playmate status that way.

Ajay (41:07.451)
she did that to you guys all the time. I was like, sometimes I feel so bad.

Corinna Harney-Jones (41:13.492)
my god. Success!

ECHO JOHNSON (41:17.511)
There was not a better...

Corinna Harney-Jones (41:21.422)
a wardrobe, she would fix things. She would come over and or tell you, need to go to this right now and fix this or.

ECHO JOHNSON (41:29.669)
Yeah. Yeah.

Ajay (41:30.465)
I'll never forget this. Because the girls, so I worked hard also to give the girls different opportunities. Like I would put them on the microphone to talk to the audience. And then I would put them on video camera. they would do all, know, B-roll footage and all kinds of different things to, I wanted them to be prepared because, you know, the career, how long can it go? 10 years, whatever. But like to prepare for the future, right? So I got them doing interviews.

with other people and trying to get them to do all these kinds of things. So they used our golf event as also to practice for advertisers and sponsors when they had to go to events because they knew I would take the time to work with them. Well, I remember when Lacey, one day she goes, I need you to do me a favor AJ. And she had a playmate out and she made me

like tell her if the girl was too heavy or not, like in the bunny outfit. And I'm like, Lacey, please don't do this to me. Please don't put me in this spot. I'm not gonna do. Yeah, I was like, my God, I was in panic mode.

ECHO JOHNSON (42:38.279)
Dude, like, please don't put me in this-

Corinna Harney-Jones (42:46.062)
You get weight burning. Remember that? get a weight burning. It's like...

Ajay (42:51.471)
But you know what? The ironic thing. And I won't say what the I just remember when she came out, I go, my God, that Lacey's right. It doesn't quite look right. And I was like, my God, she begged it. She knew. She knew when the bunny out. Yeah, she called it. I was like, I'm not gonna say anything. I can't do it. can't do it. But she was right. Yeah.

Corinna Harney-Jones (43:05.144)
was good.

ECHO JOHNSON (43:09.639)
She called it.

Corinna Harney-Jones (43:15.054)
No.

ECHO JOHNSON (43:17.265)
That is funny. You're like, please, I don't want to.

Corinna Harney-Jones (43:21.166)
He had that eye, she did. That's why I her right there where she was all those years.

Ajay (43:23.619)
Yeah. Yeah.

ECHO JOHNSON (43:28.729)
You know, and what we were just talking about in terms of what Corinna was just saying is that, you know, we were always so taken care of and looked after. And that goes all the way back to the beginning of like the bunnies in the clubs. I mean, there was all of these rules and bylaws and guidelines that you had to, in terms of how you present yourself and, you know, what was in tell in working in the club and, you know, this curie that was there to look out for you and.

I mean, if any client or if any customer and a fan or anybody at the mansion, if they ever mess with any one of us, they were like kicked out immediately, like unwillingly being touched or like mess with or whatever. And it didn't matter if you were like, have a good friend, if you were a celebrity, whatever, like he had no time for that and he did not condone that. And it was like a swift reaction of like, you're not coming back.

Ajay (44:06.341)
Yeah. Yeah.

Ajay (44:23.247)
Right? No, it's so true. And all of this, you know, some of these things that they say about what happens at the mansion, I used to go, listen to me. He'd have a list that he'd want to come to my party. And I had security and I would investigate like to make sure, cause I didn't want any issues with the girls when we, I wanted everybody having a greatest time. And if I said, hey, we prefer him not to come, like if he had somebody,

Corinna Harney-Jones (44:24.396)
HGD.

Ajay (44:51.097)
You know, there was just an entourage of people that would ask him, could they go to the party? You know, he's not looking at every single one. But if we told him no, he would always honor that. You know, like he wouldn't, he knew that the security at the mansion and the fact that the playmates always, you know, have, and it's not just protected, like it's more of this is a brand they have a job to do.

ECHO JOHNSON (44:55.429)
Yeah. Right.

Ajay (45:19.107)
and their security is paramount to the company to make sure that, you know, because they represent the company, you know, and so, so he.

ECHO JOHNSON (45:22.471)
Mmm.

ECHO JOHNSON (45:26.055)
That's a good way to say that it was paramount to the company. Yeah, I like that. Yeah.

Ajay (45:30.265)
Yeah.

Corinna Harney-Jones (45:31.81)
Did now AJ is there a particular golf tournament that you put together that just stands out in your mind for maybe something that happened that was I whether it's good or bad maybe a real crazy

Ajay (45:49.935)
I had so many. I was just thinking of one though to share with your audience and everything too that. So I remember we were out in Lake Tahoe. Okay. And so was with a casino, we had an event and I always wanted the girls to have fun. I didn't drink, right? So I could sit there and keep an eye on things and make sure that, cause I want them to have a good time. Cause like I say, if they're having a good time, my entire clientele is having a good time.

ECHO JOHNSON (45:49.946)
Yeah.

Ajay (46:20.559)
But we're partying. I mean, I can tell that it was like Jennifer Walcott, Stephanie Heinrich, Stacey Fusen, and Carol Wakelin. So I had a mix of years, right? And they were the main hostesses. And we're out at night. And we're at their party and everything in the club. And Terry Harrison was there. Terry, yeah.

ECHO JOHNSON (46:47.323)
Okay, wow.

Ajay (46:47.789)
And Terry and Jennifer had a competition going. And it was so funny. They would always try to outdo each other. yeah, they would do things. And here we are in the middle of this casino and they're dancing on the stage. Jennifer is, she is doing some kind of dance that I never see. And she fell.

ECHO JOHNSON (46:57.038)
Really?

Ajay (47:17.841)
yeah. And you know, extensions, like I didn't know any of this stuff like about extensions, but the extension cut her scalp like she was bleeding.

ECHO JOHNSON (47:32.766)
my gosh, wow.

Ajay (47:34.459)
And so we had the event the next day. And so we're like, she doesn't feel a thing. Like we're all, we're going to the hospital and we're not going to say one word because they all would have gotten in trouble, right? It wouldn't have been me. They, they would have known who, was the instigator, right? And, and so we were in the middle of nowhere and we take them to the emergency room and Jennifer is going in to get stitched up. Okay.

And now remember, this is in the emergency room. Stacey's inside thinking Jennifer's gonna die and she's a hypochondriac. She'd be like, she's gonna die, she's gonna die. Terry's so drunk in the emergency room, she's looking at me and she's pulling her shirt down and flashing and I'm going, put those away. And there's people in there, right?

ECHO JOHNSON (48:20.689)
excuse me.

Ajay (48:33.701)
They were drunk. There was a couple of drunk guys in like, just like, and Kara Wakelin is dancing in the emergency room around circles around these drunk people. And I told everybody, if anybody says anything to Lacey out of any of you, I'm gonna make you disappear, right? And so Lacey never found out.

ECHO JOHNSON (48:55.899)
Yeah. Yeah.

Ajay (49:00.507)
and they all got up the next morning. We had an early like 730 start and we were up with the four or five in the morning. Everybody got up. It was looking, you know, know, cause you have to get ready and make up and all that, all kinds and everybody was ready to go. And we're like, and nobody spilled the beans the entire, like I waited for like six months going, who's going to say something. I'm going to get that call.

ECHO JOHNSON (49:25.095)
You're gonna get that call.

Ajay (49:30.203)
and nobody ever.

Corinna Harney-Jones (49:32.046)
even if we party. There's the Army Rangers, the Navy Seals, I used to make jokes. There's the Playboy Playmates.

Ajay (49:34.747)
a professional.

Ajay (49:39.035)
That's exactly it!

That's exactly it. we would be in places. I remember we were in Traverse City, Michigan. I'll never forget this. Stephanie Heinrich, we're in a limo driving and she's driving down, her and I'm trying to remember the other place. Julie McCullough was there and she's going, I'm gonna teach you young girls a few things or two, right, Julie?

ECHO JOHNSON (49:46.033)
my God, that's so funny.

Corinna Harney-Jones (49:50.734)
you

Ajay (50:14.103)
Stephanie gets out the sunroof and Traverse City is a beautiful city where they have like the cherry picking capital of world or whatever. And she's flashing, going right down the middle of the just like the limo driver I'm going, we're never gonna hear the end of this. And we get to the hotel and they proceeded to find whipped cream.

everywhere and sprayed it. I had a whipped cream fight. And I'm like, this is going to cost a fortune.

But a young guy who was, he was so mesmerized by the fact that in his lobby were like six playmates or whatever. He said, I'll take care of everything. I'll clean it up. And it looked like the place was spotless the next day. You know, like he had cleaned everything all up and we took his picture with him and you know, and signed stuff for him. It was worth it. It was worth it.

Corinna Harney-Jones (51:09.998)
Aww.

ECHO JOHNSON (51:13.895)
So,

Corinna Harney-Jones (51:19.77)
It was worth it. He's like, that was worth it. I was like, his fantasy come true. I bet he still calls people about that, you know?

ECHO JOHNSON (51:24.923)
that.

Ajay (51:26.965)
we'd be out and like I say, I used to always have a drink, because I was there, I could watch over them and make sure nothing would happen. But because that little buzz was going, they could do some things that I don't know how we survive sometimes, really. Like, it's unbelievable.

ECHO JOHNSON (51:27.281)
Yes.

Corinna Harney-Jones (51:49.742)
NNNN

ECHO JOHNSON (51:50.087)
You know that when you said Jennifer Wolcott she she was so much fun to work with I always loved working with Jennifer She was a wild child and just like the most perfect body like she was so little and she was just ripped and she was just Funky and she was yeah, she was a really good shape. And so it was the 50th anniversary For Playboy and we were all in New York and we were staying at I forget which hotel it was

Corinna Harney-Jones (51:54.612)
Yeah, me too.

Ajay (52:04.763)
Oh, rip, do you re- I- she was in shape.

Corinna Harney-Jones (52:07.084)
Yeah.

ECHO JOHNSON (52:17.745)
but Jennifer went and pulled the fire alarm on our floor. OMG. Lacey was fa-y-er-ee-as. Were you there? Yeah, does she? who knew? So yeah.

Ajay (52:25.103)
No way!

Ajay (52:28.697)
that was the 50th she has a thing for fire alarms yes well once you wait were you in Boston with me with did she pulled it there the fire alarm and we had Red Sox players with us everything and she pulled the fire alarm and I had to sneak him out the back get him out of there because I go they're gonna know it's you let's go let's get

Corinna Harney-Jones (52:33.088)
funny.

ECHO JOHNSON (52:42.256)
Okay.

Ajay (52:57.317)
get out of here and then she got in a fight with like Johnny Damon's girlfriend out in the middle, yeah.

ECHO JOHNSON (53:02.439)
my god.

Ajay (53:05.295)
Yeah, and they were pouring

Corinna Harney-Jones (53:06.189)
We have some different wall cut on. Yeah.

ECHO JOHNSON (53:09.905)
Yeah, yeah, she did.

Ajay (53:10.329)
Yeah, and Jennifer, and then they were pouring champagne all over my wife. They were dancing with her and pouring champagne, and I think licking the champagne off of her. My poor wife was with them over there and she did it all the time. She had a thing for fire. She's pulling them, there's no doubt.

ECHO JOHNSON (53:33.669)
Yeah, I don't think Lacey found out who did it either. I think we all were like hush hush on it. We were like, I'm not going to say anything. we all came one step further. Yeah, in New York.

Ajay (53:41.307)
Was that the 50th anniversary, right? Was that when, yeah, when you guys were there, was Miriam running down the road yelling too or something like out of the bus? I think that was the same. Yeah, yeah.

ECHO JOHNSON (53:54.885)
Maybe. Maybe.

Corinna Harney-Jones (53:57.23)
What year was that, Echo? What year was that?

ECHO JOHNSON (54:00.263)
Well, so the 60th anniversary was in what, 2014, I believe. So 2004, maybe. Trump was there with Melania.

Ajay (54:07.535)
Yeah, maybe.

Corinna Harney-Jones (54:08.846)
I wish I had gone. was asked and I I forget I couldn't couldn't I couldn't attend I was so sad

ECHO JOHNSON (54:14.181)
Yeah, it was cool.

ECHO JOHNSON (54:19.877)
Yeah, I got to dress as the Jet Bunny. And again, I didn't even know that they had Jet Bunnies. That was like totally...

Corinna Harney-Jones (54:25.268)
I would jet bunny here in Vegas at one of the events at home and I love that costume.

ECHO JOHNSON (54:28.347)
Were you? Yeah, it was so cool. I know I auctioned mine off. I wish I would have kept that thing. It was so cool.

Corinna Harney-Jones (54:34.158)
Oh, they let you keep it? I didn't even get to keep mine. Oh, wow. I love that.

ECHO JOHNSON (54:37.529)
Yeah, yeah, we all kept it. We had those beautiful scarves and everything. Yeah.

Ajay (54:41.423)
That's what Lacey was. She was a Jet Bunny.

Corinna Harney-Jones (54:44.364)
Yeah, everybody.

ECHO JOHNSON (54:44.399)
Yeah, yeah. She was everything bunny. She was Jet Bunny. She was Club Bunny. She was Training Bunny, International Training. I mean, and then, yeah. And I mean, the consumate bunny mom. mean, yeah. Like, so 55 years is how long Lacey was at that company. And she takes the cake for the longest running employee.

Ajay (54:46.18)
Yep.

Corinna Harney-Jones (54:52.0)
I'm mother mumbling.

Ajay (55:03.739)
Did she ever tell you the story, I don't know if I should repeat this story, but she told the story when Hef was on the airplane. Did she ever tell you this about like Hef had a button of like you can come in or you can't come in if he was back there with somebody?

ECHO JOHNSON (55:20.903)
Oh, I think so, but.

Ajay (55:25.435)
So, HEP was, I think it was with Barbie Benton. I'm like, I don't know if I should say, I almost fell off. I was laughing so hard, but he had instructions. Don't anybody bother us. Like, you know, we just, we need some time.

ECHO JOHNSON (55:29.573)
Okay.

Go ahead.

Ajay (55:45.731)
And so that there was a button thing that they had, green light, red light or something. She was telling the story. I guess Hef was back there with her and had a ball that in his mouth, but he started choking. And he's hitting the button and nobody's paying attention to it because he had instructions. Don't anybody interrupt. And right, yes.

ECHO JOHNSON (56:00.266)
my god.

Corinna Harney-Jones (56:08.277)
my god!

ECHO JOHNSON (56:08.817)
Ajay (56:10.649)
And he almost choked. They actually finally came in because they were like, what should we do? What should we do? Right? And then he realized he was choking and they had to get him out, but he had instructions not to go. But when Lacey told me that story, I go, this is gonna be one of the funniest things I've ever heard because he almost died. Yeah.

ECHO JOHNSON (56:18.027)
my god.

Corinna Harney-Jones (56:31.214)
Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh. I never heard that. No. That's funny. Wow. That's funny.

ECHO JOHNSON (56:31.527)
That's wild. That's cool. What a cool story. Thanks for sharing.

Ajay (56:35.737)
Yeah. Yeah. So.

ECHO JOHNSON (56:37.479)
Never. That's awesome.

Ajay (56:41.435)
I mean, for me, I've had, you know, not only, you know, hearing all that funny stuff too, but I've had such cherished moments like, you know, I walked Stephanie Glass down the aisle when she got married. I gave her away. And Jennifer Pershing's wedding, I officiated the wedding. And so to me, yeah, to me, you know, it's like really family, you know, that you can have something like that. so.

ECHO JOHNSON (56:57.438)
wow.

ECHO JOHNSON (57:07.985)
Yeah, yeah, forever. And it's just, it's so fun that Corinna and I and Brian and Victoria are now doing their podcast too. And just reuniting with everybody, AJ, has just been, gosh, just so fulfilling. And then also we've met a lot of people that we never had like met or had worked with from the Chicago offices, like going back into the seventies, even like butlers and whatnot from the seventies.

And it's just, it's, it's just, I mean, it just goes on and on and on and yeah.

Corinna Harney-Jones (57:42.86)
consistent with

Ajay (57:44.197)
You know, you guys interviewed Arnie, right? Arnie Freytag So when I saw that, go, gotta call. Arnie was one of the, he used to love golf events and he was always one of the nicest person that you can meet that way too. Yeah.

ECHO JOHNSON (57:47.207)
Mm-hmm

Corinna Harney-Jones (58:00.706)
Why are we human beings? That's what everyone and I just, that's been the consistent, good humans. You know, people that are really, just really solid character, you know. Honorable people.

Ajay (58:09.232)
Yeah.

Ajay (58:16.955)
I was talking with, I don't remember, Lou Moan, he was the publisher at the magazine for, and I had to find out what the publisher, I always thought when you publish something, you gotta be involved with something like with printing in the magazine. The publishers, they had a sales at the magazine. I was like, oh, okay, that's what that person does, right? But him and I were talking about this. He was on the phone with me and we're just recalling old memories and stuff like that.

But part of that was how there were a lot of great people there. I was truly fortunate to meet them. like Arnie is one. And you know with Victoria and what she's been trying to do. I always chime in when Victoria, and if some of the girls want, I'll try to remember to get right on on their cast with that.

ECHO JOHNSON (59:13.883)
The discord? Yeah.

Ajay (59:16.955)
And so then I'll throw a story or two about the whoever the play mate is I'll have a story or two about them and you know, they're always like, uh-oh. what's he gonna say about me? But Yeah, yeah Yeah

ECHO JOHNSON (59:27.783)
What is he gonna pull out? Yeah, exactly.

You know, one of my, a quote that just came to mind was from Jim Peterson, who was the Playboy advisor, right? And worked in Chicago for, gosh, close to 30 years, I wanna say. He was one of our first interviews in the first season and one of my favorites, cause it was just fascinating. It was just that time as a sexual revolution and just how he even, you know, came to work at Playboy and the freedom that he had and whatnot. But he said,

He said it was like going to work every day at a college campus. And it was so exciting. And it was like, what's going to happen today? And what are we going to create today? And it's like, just loved working there and being there. And it's a testament to the company because at the end of the day, when you talk to people, mean, there's people that were there for decades. mean, very rare was somebody there just for a couple of years, you know?

Ajay (01:00:30.383)
Yeah.

ECHO JOHNSON (01:00:30.503)
It's like, Pat Lacey in 55 years, other people 20, 30. I mean, it's wild.

Ajay (01:00:35.771)
You hit on it. You know what's so amazing? And sometimes, I always say sometimes Playboy was run, like in the eyes of people, it was a huge corporation, right? But the reality of it, it was sometimes run like a dysfunctional family, like in this sense, right? Yeah? And what happened was there were a lot of people who got nervous, they'd get worried about getting fired at Playboy, HEF never fired anybody.

ECHO JOHNSON (01:00:47.963)
Yeah.

ECHO JOHNSON (01:00:52.666)
Yeah, right.

Corinna Harney-Jones (01:00:54.761)
Ha ha!

ECHO JOHNSON (01:01:03.783)
Mm-mm.

Ajay (01:01:03.917)
If you look like it's a rarity, if people ever left, they were there for many, many years. So it was a weird dynamic that somehow got instilled in there like just over the years, but it never happened. It never happened. I just had a friend of our family talk about one, like the woman who'd been there for years, treacherous, was one of the treacherous and stuff. She was there for years. And you just knew mutual people and.

ECHO JOHNSON (01:01:18.043)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Ajay (01:01:33.699)
and so forth. think you guys have interviewed Bill Farley. When I first came there, Bill was instrumental in helping me just figuring out like how to get around and stuff. He helped me tremendously.

ECHO JOHNSON (01:01:39.451)
yeah, of course, yeah.

ECHO JOHNSON (01:01:47.461)
I believe that, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. He was a vital component of that of that company. I mean, I think he was there for 30 years, something. Yeah.

Ajay (01:01:58.439)
And he didn't act like, you know, he was a big shot. He always took the time to like offer and say, hey, try this person or, you know, contact this one and so forth. And...

ECHO JOHNSON (01:02:07.719)
He was actually really helpful. He was a great resource when I first started doing my research and conducting interviews. And he gave me names and numbers of so many people to talk to that I would have had no idea about. He was a huge resource in that regard. So yeah, that makes sense. And because of that, we've...

Corinna Harney-Jones (01:02:08.824)
Yes.

ECHO JOHNSON (01:02:34.777)
met all these people that we would have never met and their stories are fascinating because they're going back into the 60s and the 70s and it's like it's just endless the history.

Ajay (01:02:39.225)
It's

Corinna Harney-Jones (01:02:43.06)
And sadly, you know, everyone's getting so up in age, you just want to capture their stories because it really is pieces of history and, you know, it

Ajay (01:02:52.079)
Yeah.

Corinna Harney-Jones (01:02:56.462)
like to your point of him never firing anyone, he delegated the right jobs to the right people. We always talk about that, that he knew who to put, you know, each player where they went on the team. And so I don't think that it was an issue because he was a very good judge of character and, you know, recognizing people's talents and abilities.

Ajay (01:03:22.661)
think you hit it right on the mark. His ability to recognize talent was like, if you just think about the people that wrote for him, and you know what I was always amazed? His, I asked, I talked to him about this one time about how do you recognize that potential in a woman like that's gonna pop in the magazine, right? Because you know, like, you know,

ECHO JOHNSON (01:03:33.927)
Mm-hmm.

Ajay (01:03:51.427)
You guys don't age. I'm looking at you two like, I'm like, this is what Hef is able to do, right? Like, it's just incredible. But when I used to sit there and go, how does HEF all of a sudden look at images and say, this is the one that's going to be in the centerfold? And I'd sit there and I realized this, that we were at a golf tournament and one of the girls, one of the playmates,

took a photo, you know, I haven't taken with every group and everything like that, right? And then I looked at all the photos, right? There wasn't a bad photo of her. I was like, my God, this is how, like he can see how photogenic a woman is, like way beyond like somebody's ability to see that. And I was stunned at that, like how, and like Marilyn used to do the same, like they'd be able to pick.

the girl from just several photos.

Corinna Harney-Jones (01:04:50.638)
It's like dead.

It's a gift, yeah. I'll tell, I'll just, from personal experience, I cried when I saw my photos because I didn't ever think I was beautiful at all. I just didn't. just, and then in the images, also the photographers, but they knew how to capture these women too. And I remember crying when I, I thought, I did not know that's what I looked like. You know what I mean? Not, not the sound.

Ajay (01:05:11.899)
It's unbelievable.

Ajay (01:05:20.794)
Right?

Corinna Harney-Jones (01:05:23.37)
I don't know if that sounds conceited, but I felt like for the first time, I'm like, my gosh, I look, you know, of course I was a baby too, but I'm like, I look beautiful. I cried. I was like, this is me? Because, you know, I think also he could see things that we couldn't see as playmates, you know? And, confidence. I know Pamela Henderson says it too.

Ajay (01:05:42.907)
Absolutely. Absolutely. I was stunned at that. I used to ask him, how do you do this? Yeah.

Corinna Harney-Jones (01:05:50.966)
Yeah, Pamela Anderson, I've heard her say it just recently that it gave her confidence she didn't know she had. It's so true. It's like, wait a minute. Wow. You know, I have this? So he gave us all kind of a gift in our own right.

ECHO JOHNSON (01:06:04.071)
Yeah.

Ajay (01:06:07.643)
That's why I believed in that the girl next door could be appearing in that centerfold. To me, that was a tremendous concept. You wouldn't know that. You might be sitting at a counter next door and you can be attractive, but that same girl in the magazine, I was amazed at that.

Corinna Harney-Jones (01:06:32.013)
Yeah.

Corinna Harney-Jones (01:06:36.288)
Yeah, yes, I think so too.

ECHO JOHNSON (01:06:37.829)
Yeah, he certainly knew how to choose them. That's for sure. Awesome.

Ajay (01:06:41.211)
Yeah. And to me it was, you know, just watching that and learning and you you pick up a little on it and you do that and then, you know, and the one good thing is, you know, you never get, you treat people like humans. You know, we used to have so many girls that wanted to become playmates and you'd always have, you know, you don't want to be kind and knowing the fact that, listen, there's only going be 12 a year, number one, right? So that's how special that is, right?

Out of the thousands and thousands, there's only gonna be 12, right? But I was very fortunate with our golf event so that women could have fun together. It was a huge deal for me. because I always knew if you have women having fun, guys will always have fun. They will.

Corinna Harney-Jones (01:07:30.444)
Yeah, so you probably brought a lot of women that became fans of Playboy because a lot of women that don't, they think a playmate might be a certain thing. So I'm sure at your event, there were a lot of, you know, successful women that thought, well, these girls aren't what I thought. I'm sure you opened a lot of people's eyes with that event. That's so cool.

Ajay (01:07:53.339)
That's exactly it. Corrina, you hit it right on the mark. was absolutely the truth that it put them to be able to see that they're human beings. It's not stuck up, know, that they're real people that have fun, that will be, you know, go out and have fun with you. And that was something I took really pride in, that so many girls started following Playboy through us.

Corinna Harney-Jones (01:08:22.638)
That's awesome.

Ajay (01:08:22.693)
They were the biggest fans of it. They were the biggest fans of the Playmates. To this day, still are.

Corinna Harney-Jones (01:08:27.982)
Wow.

ECHO JOHNSON (01:08:28.059)
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, there's a big female base that are fans and I love that. I appreciate it. And again, just feel like so blessed that we had that moment in time. There's very few of us and we were hand selected by HEF and just, no, absolutely.

Corinna Harney-Jones (01:08:38.207)
Ajay (01:08:43.291)
It truly special. Yeah.

Corinna Harney-Jones (01:08:44.15)
And we're so happy to have been a part of your golf tournaments. I'm glad I only did a few here in Vegas at probably the beginning. But I'm so grateful for that opportunity. So I want to tell you thanks, AJ, because I had so much fun. And then when we close our podcast, always ask our guests if there were two questions. Well, I'll let you do it, Echo.

ECHO JOHNSON (01:08:58.811)
Yeah.

ECHO JOHNSON (01:09:08.737)
questions.

ECHO JOHNSON (01:09:14.191)
Yeah, you can ask. Three words.

Corinna Harney-Jones (01:09:15.328)
Well, I mean, we ask people to three words to describe who Hugh Hefner was to you. And if there's anything that you could have said to him, because we're also using this kind of as a memorial, because we didn't get to go to his memorial service, what message would you give?

ECHO JOHNSON (01:09:41.745)
upset to him if you had the chance, if you saw him.

Ajay (01:09:45.423)
Well, from me.

I would want to have the ability to thank him for changing my life, right? Because, and it really would be from the sincere part, my life was changed, right? Because he allowed it. You it was a business deal and all that. But I never want people ever to forget the fact that it's because of him that the opportunity existed, right?

ECHO JOHNSON (01:10:17.233)
Mm-hmm.

Ajay (01:10:19.631)
But those were the greatest moments, really, in my life. was, you know what? He gave me the job that every man wanted, right? I had the greatest job in the world. Golf, women, celebrities. And I did that with the belief that I would represent him right at all times.

Corinna Harney-Jones (01:10:30.126)
Thank

Corinna Harney-Jones (01:10:36.354)
haha

Ajay (01:10:47.461)
that I would represent him right at all times. And we wouldn't stand for anything less than that.

ECHO JOHNSON (01:10:47.675)
Yeah.

ECHO JOHNSON (01:10:51.399)
That's all.

Corinna Harney-Jones (01:10:53.673)
And start the interview.

ECHO JOHNSON (01:10:54.055)
Yeah, that's the general consensus when people say what, when we ask, what would you say? And they all just say like, thank you. Thank you for including me on this journey. Thank you for what you did to my life, all of that. All right, so then three words that define Hugh Hefner to you.

Corinna Harney-Jones (01:11:01.006)
And three.

Corinna Harney-Jones (01:11:05.909)
Yes.

Ajay (01:11:12.277)
Well, I'll use from a male perspective, iconic.

Ajay (01:11:18.981)
behind.

Ajay (01:11:24.411)
trying to describe the word that...

Ajay (01:11:29.208)
it would be.

Ajay (01:11:33.591)
a mentor. And even though it wasn't as personal, he would take the time to answer questions for me.

ECHO JOHNSON (01:11:35.576)
Mmm.

ECHO JOHNSON (01:11:44.567)
Mm-hmm. No, we haven't. I love that.

Corinna Harney-Jones (01:11:45.676)
Wow, we haven't heard that one mentor that is that

Ajay (01:11:48.493)
Yeah, and that's from a business perspective.

Corinna Harney-Jones (01:11:52.558)
Yeah, well that's beautiful.

ECHO JOHNSON (01:11:53.475)
I mean, that's fair. That's a huge compliment. And I love that you said mentor. Absolutely. Because I think all of us have that sort of feeling in some regard that he absolutely was a mentor. We all learned so much from him. Everything that I'm doing today is a direct reflection of Playboy and what I learned from that company, my business acumen, mean, everything. So yeah, that's a good one, H.

Corinna Harney-Jones (01:12:07.438)
100%.

Ajay (01:12:20.666)
Yeah.

Corinna Harney-Jones (01:12:21.762)
Thank you so much AJ, thanks so much. So good to see you.

Ajay (01:12:23.863)
my pleasure. It's so good to see you guys.

ECHO JOHNSON (01:12:27.193)
Yeah, it's a joy. Thank you, Le.

Ajay (01:12:28.761)
And you know I'll do anything for you anytime. You just give a shout out anytime.

ECHO JOHNSON (01:12:33.933)
Okay, I appreciate it. If you if you if you do have any like great pictures, obviously, I can always find stuff online. But if you have any personal pictures, because I like to throw up pictures in the slideshow. Share them with me.

Ajay (01:12:45.411)
You want me to ask? I'll send them to you with one of my favorite. So this is where I always say that. I had a unique relationship. I always like they used to always take a photo and they do it with half would have to do it and then I would do it because you know when I hired all the girls at the mansion, it was like 20 some odd. You rarely see that many in one sitting. But I'd always have the we'd have our golf table. I'd be in the middle. And they were all surrounding, you know, in the photo and I go.

I'll never forget these photos for the rest of my life like that. And it was really a family photo. But to everybody else, it's like, wow, pimping ain't easy or something. know I mean? And only half, was the funny thing, I think at the anniversary, was the photo we did was we created them, half had all of them in white. Do remember those white outfits with the bunny ears? So we used to have them where they were dressed like white shirts and bunny outfits. I'll send it to you.

Corinna Harney-Jones (01:13:26.691)
Thank

ECHO JOHNSON (01:13:27.953)
Right?

ECHO JOHNSON (01:13:46.407)
Okay, yeah, for sure. All right, well thank you so much for tuning in. Hope you all enjoyed the show. Please follow us on Instagram and Facebook at Bunny Chronicles Podcast, and please subscribe to our YouTube channel, also Bunny Chronicles Podcast. And just stay tuned, we have a lot of great new things coming up for you, or interviews rather. Okay, we'll see you soon. All right.

Corinna Harney-Jones (01:13:46.648)
No, no, no.

Corinna Harney-Jones (01:14:11.214)
Bye.

Ajay (01:14:12.217)
Love you guys. Take care.

ECHO JOHNSON (01:14:14.247)
So AJ, don't hang up yet because I need to. This will say 100%. Let me just stop the interview. And then we have to say till it's 100 % uploaded.

Corinna Harney-Jones (01:14:27.566)
Mine says 99 and I have to work my heart out. so sorry. I can't end mine either.

Ajay (01:14:29.211)
99, yep.

ECHO JOHNSON (01:14:38.429)
What's going on here?

Corinna Harney-Jones (01:14:40.014)
Mine says 99 % uploading.

Ajay (01:14:43.685)
I love that logo. The bunny chronicles in the back.

ECHO JOHNSON (01:14:46.363)
Thank you very much. yeah, we're, we're, we really need to do some merch. And so that's why I have it up there. so we can like talk about that and start doing some merch, but yeah, I absolutely love, love, love the logo and what we were able to do with it.

Corinna Harney-Jones (01:14:46.958)
Isn't it awesome? Awesome.

Corinna Harney-Jones (01:15:04.202)
I have to run, I just leave every-

ECHO JOHNSON (01:15:06.191)
Yeah, just go ahead.