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Claudia Jennings: The Best That Never Was

Page history last edited by Archer844 13 years, 1 month ago

Posted by Boxing World Online on 3/6/2011, 3:07 pm

Hugh Hefner stared out the window for a moment before turning back to the interviewer, his eyes still far away. "When you get to be my age, you don't play the 'What If' game very often. But, Claudia..."

Hefner was referring, of course, to former Playmate Of The Year Claudia Jennings, an auburn-haired stunner who first appeared in Playboy in 1969 and became the Playmate Of The Year in 1970.

"You know, she was a secretary in our Chicago office," he continued, "before we convinced her to try out. We knew how athletic she was. She'd come to some of the parties and picnics. She was great at all the sports and games. She could run faster than any of the Playmates. We knew she'd win her month," he said, smiling, before explaining that, in those days, four candidates were chosen as potential Playmate Of The Month each month.

"We'd let them sort it out in the ring. That's why we chose them so early. Six months before the issue came out. It gave the winner plenty of time to heal up before the photo shoot. Claudia was..." His voice trailed off and he turned to look out the window again. "She was fantastic. The first girl quit on her stool after two rounds. The second lasted five, and if she'd have won, we wouldn't have been able to use her for a year after the beating she took. But, there was no way she was going to win."

Hefner smiled knowing smile and said, "Of course, we wouldn't even CONSIDER doing something like that today...why, we even ended the practice of holding a tournament to determine Playmate Of The Year and replaced it with a fan vote," he continued, making air quotes around the words "fan vote". "But, in those days, the 12 ladies decided things with the gloves on."

He paused, eyes far away, seeing the events of four decades ago. "We always start...I mean 'started'...the tournament Labor Day. All the ladies for the year were chosen and photographed by then. We'd randomly draw the match ups, with the four girls not chosen getting a bye to the quarterfinals. Those took place in October. The semis were just before Thanksgiving, and the finals are...WERE...the week between Christmas and New Year's Day. Some of those fights..."

Hefner rose from his chair and walked across the room to the window. He looked out and continued speaking. "I remember in '86. What a semi-final between Fabian and Austin! They tore into each other for ten rounds and God knew who was winning when Austin went down. Fabian barely made it back to her corner. And in the finals Ava was out-boxing Donna Edmondson before Donna's power got to her. She was still ahead on the cards when Edmondson knocked her down three times in the eighth. There were several girls who could have won that year. Nobody really knew who'd end up with the crown. We could have fought that ten times and come up with five different winners."

Hefner shook his head and returned to his chair. He picked up his pipe and placed it in his mouth. "Some years are like that. Others, someone surprises you. In '85, Cher Butler was knocking everyone out with that big right hand of hers. We all thought Devin Devasquez had the best shot at her, and Cher demolished her in three in the semis. And weren't we all surprised when Kathy Shower, at 32, took her apart in the final? Won every round. Cher was still standing at the end, but that was about all she could do. Kathy became the oldest PMOY. There were other surprises, too. We all favored Pam Anderson to win in '90 She was so athletic and physical. I remember when Lisa Matthews knocked her out in the semis, we were pretty surprised."

Hefner shifted his weight in the chair and smiled. "Other years, you just know. 1993 was like that with Jenny. She was just so far above all the other girls, just like Claudia. If I look at that wall there long enough," he said, pointing across the room, "I can still see her fighting in that '69 tournament. She didn't get a first round bye, but it didn't matter. Her first three fights went a total of four rounds. In the final, she got Leslie Bianchini, who was 5'7", 130, a big, rangy girl. And after the first round, Bianchini was a mess. She lasted until midway through the third. Just crumpled at Claudia's feet and stayed there. We had something special and we all knew it."

"Of course," he continued. "It was a different time then. The pecking order was much more rigid. The movie stars were on top, with the lower-level film people, TV actresses and singers mostly a rung below. And, of course, our girls were a rung below that. Now, I'm sure you've heard stories about how TV stars like Eden and Louise had to fight hard to earn enough respect to get fights with the movie stars. Imagine the hurdles we were facing with Claudia! But, she was beautiful and talented and we managed to get her some film roles. It was B-level stuff, but it opened the door. And, God did she bust through it."

Hefner shook his head, staring at the wall again, remembering. "The first fight we got her was with Dyan Cannon. They'd done a movie together called 'The Love Machine' and Cannon knew Claudia had won the PMOY tournament and asked her to do some sparring during filming. Now, I knew Claudia well, and I'm telling you that she did NOT sandbag Cannon! She did what Diane asked. Gave her a nice workout. She wasn't there to humiliate the woman, who was doing Claudia a favor by working witrh her. A few months later, Cannon was looking for a stay-busy and called me asking to fight Claudia. Jennings had two weeks to train and the fight almost ended her career. She shut Cannon out for three straight rounds and knocked her out in the fourth. Cannon's people were furious, of course, and, let's just say that we didn't have a line of starlets outside waiting to get some of what Dyan got."

"We were creative, though," he said, "We kept her busy with work against other Playmates. We had our first ever PMOY showdown and she knocked out Connie Kreski, the 1969 Playmate Of The Year. We matched her up with B-movie actresses like Roberta Collins, who looked a lot like Marilyn, and Claudia carried her a few rounds before putting her down and out. We fought her against Sherry Boucher, who was a beauty queen and an athlete and had built a little name doing TV guest spots. Boucher was good and won a couple of rounds, but Claudia took her out in the seventh."

"See," he said, holding up his index finger for emphasis, "We were getting her publicity, making her someone the wanted to see, and that helped us get a few more fights. We got Deborah Raffin just as she started getting some nice roles. She wanted the publicity as much as we did. Claudia took her out in two. Lee Meriwether was in her mid-30s by then and when her people called, we jumped on it. Lee needed a win that would get her some notice and figured being the woman to derail Claudia would do that for her. Claudia was being talked about by then. People knew who she was. Lee could have gotten some good fights on that win, except Claudia battered her for six rounds and left her lying in the middle of the ring in tears."

Hefner laughed and shook his head. "Now, that stopped the phone ringing, as you might imagine. So, we went back to Playboy. We had another PMOY showdown and she knocked out Liv Lindeland, the 1972 PMOY and Sharon Clark, who won in 1971. And then we had her fight Marilyn Cole, the 1973 Playmate Of The Year. Marilyn caught her in the third and knocked her down. First time she'd been off her feet. Cole was all over her the rest of that round, but Claudia hung on and made Marilyn pay. Five rounds, she beat Marilyn's rack until the referee finally stopped it in the eighth with Cole in tears and jug shock. We could have kept on like that, but what we needed was something bigger. Something to make people really take notice. But nobody with any kind of name would fight her at that point. And that's when, I'm almost ashamed to say, I came up with an idea..."

"Of course," he said smiling, "There was one woman with a fairly big name I knew would fight Claudia. In fact, she bugged me about doing it every night when I went to sleep beside her. Barbi. And, I say I'm ALMOST ashamed only because Barbi DID want to fight Claudia. Now, you know Barbi could fight. And she fought some big names and beat most of them. She had power. She was tough. She was gorgeous. I knew the fans would eat this up. And I thought Barbi had at least an even shot to win."

He removed the pipe from his lap, placed it on his chairside table, took a drink from his cup and continued. "But the Claudia that came out for that fight was the very best Claudia we'd ever seen. And she'd learned something from Marilyn Cole. She went right after Barbi's rack from the bell. Barbi was in jug shock by the third, but too proud to stop. Nine rounds, it went. Getting worse and worse. Damn referee was afraid to stop it, I think. Finally, she actually knocked Barbi out in the chest. Landed a combination there and Barbi went down and couldn't move. It was 1975. And Claudia had finally broken through. We thought."

Hefner picked up the pipe and put it in his mouth again. "Here's where the 'what ifs' start. We were getting nibbles from some bigger names at that point, in the wake of Barbi. And the one we really wanted was Lindsay Wagner. She was tall and athletic and hot and had a hit TV show. She was a big winner in the ring, but we knew Claudia was better. And that win would have jumped her right into the big time. This was late '75, and we were almost there on the contract when Wagner's people pulled out. See, the 'Wonder Woman' TV show with Lynda Carter had premiered and it was a hit. Carter had a nice little ring resume by then and Wagner's people didn't have to be geniuses to know that 'Wonder Woman' vs. 'The Bionic Woman' would be a huge fight. They decided to build Lindsay toward that, and risking her against Claudia wasn't part of the plan. So we're left without a partner. We went back to some of the other folks who'd been interested, like Olivia Newton-John, but they were all tied up."

Hefner stopped, took a deep breath, let it out, then shook his head. "So, we took a fight against Judy Norton-Taylor. I had a relationship with Judy and knew we could get her. She had a name, but not as big a name as we wanted. And, at the same time all of this was happening, Claudia was breaking up with her long-time boyfriend. She was down over that, down over the fact that she STILL couldn't get the big fight she wanted, and I think she just stopped caring, really. She went through the motions against Judy. She won a few rounds, went the distance, but she lost the decision. And that hurt us. Now, folks like Wagner and Carter wanted no part of Claudia, of course, and she was back to fighting lower-level fighters. She beat almost all of them. Girls like Robyn Hilton, an aging Barbara Steele, Camille Keaton, Linnea Quigley. Sometimes she looked great doing it. Other times, you could see her heart wasn't in it. She lost a couple. Sybil Danning knocked her out in the fifth, but she stopped Sybil in the rematch, and she had two wars with Pam Grier. Both went the distance and neither girl could have gone much longer in either. Pam won the first, Claudia the second, but both could have gone either way."

Hefner paused again, took another sip from his cup and continued. "That went on for a few years, and then came the next 'what if'. Kate Jackson was leaving 'Charlie's Angels' and Claudia was a finalist for the part. Get that and it all changes. She was 28, in her prime. When she was interested and trained hard, she was the best I'd ever seen her. And they went with Shelley Hack, who couldn't act a lick and wasn't half as hot as Claudia because the network was afraid of how fans of the show would view Claudia's work with us. The ratings plummeted with Hack and she was kicked to the curb after one season, but..."

He pauses again, shaking his head. "I'm getting ahead of myself. The role would have been her breakthrough, but she'd gotten close and it revitalized her. And folks in TV noticed. Remember that era of television. What they called the 'jiggle show' was king. And everyone figured Claudia, as gorgeous as she was, would get that breakout part sooner or later. So we got some fights at the TV level. Pam Dawber, Suzanne Somers. She won them impressively. We even did a rematch with Norton-Taylor and Claudia was ready, interested, and deadly. Judy was taken apart inside of four. Her personal life was turning around, too. She dumped a boyfriend who'd been poison for her."

He shook his head, stood, and walked back to the window. "What if. What if she gets that part? Then she's shooting Charlie's Angels like Hack was on October 3rd, not driving over there to get her stuff from his apartment. Fell asleep at the wheel. Never knew what hit her. She was close. Closer than people knew. She was the best there ever was here at Playboy, but she's pretty much forgotten now. What if? What if she gets that Wagner fight? What if we'd gone with Newton-John initially instead? What if she beats Norton-Taylor? What if she'd never done Playboy and gotten that damn part? She would have been the best. Right up there with Welch and all the rest. The best there ever was..."

He stood shaking his head looking out the window and said quietly, "Are we all done here?" He seemed not to notice when the reporter answered in the affirmative, thanked him, and said he'd see himself out. He just continued staring out that window, his eyes seeing fights from more than three decades ago featuring a redhead who may just have been the best that never was.