Playboy features Saipan’s ‘Clubmates’

Playboy, the largest selling men’s magazine in the United States, has featured some of the American male “Clubmates” at the Pacific Islands Club, touching on their activities that go beyond helping hotel guests with sports and other entertainment activities in the facility.

The article, titled “Paradise Lost,” is available online at http://www.playboy.com/articles/paradise-lost-saipan-clubmates-pic/index.html.

It is one of the investigative reports in the May 2009 edition of the magazine, its award-winning writer John Bowe confirmed with Saipan Tribune yesterday via email when asked about the publication date.

Kieran Daly, general manager of PIC, yesterday said majority of the story is not true, consisting of a lot of made-up characters.

“I would say 25 percent of the story is true and the rest is fictional. Clubmates help guests have a good time and enjoy their stay…It (story) is more fiction than fact,” Daly told Saipan Tribune over the phone when asked for comment.

In “Paradise Lost,” Bowe says the Clubmates aren’t hired specifically to have sex with the guests at Pacific Islands Club, more known as PIC, in San Antonio.

“Certainly, the management doesn’t instruct them to do anything other than help guests enjoy themselves,” Bowe says in the article, which changed some of the names of the interviewees.

One of the Clubmates interviewed says he first heard about PIC from some friends who had vacationed on Saipan.

Before the main article is a teaser that reads, “An island with more beautiful women than you can imagine—sounds like heaven, right? We sent our writer to investigate.”

The article starts with one of the interviewees’ first day at work after flying halfway around the world from Florida. At the end of his first shift, he was surprised by one of the hotel’s Japanese guests who kept him busy for three nights. The fourth night was with another Japanese guest, then a Korean, and so on. Other Clubmates interviewed for the article share almost the same experience with hotel guests.

“Most Clubmates sign up for six-month shifts. Several of the guys I meet signed on for the stint that runs from September to March—the holiday season,” Bowe writes.

One of the Clubmates says part of the job is to make sure the guests have a good time. “Our whole job here is to help people have a good time. Sometimes it’s a family that needs help. Sometimes it’s a young girl that needs help.”

Clubmates interviewed for the Playboy article say their lifestyle on Saipan “includes fun in the sun, low wages and long hours.”

The author, Bowe, who is based in New York, received in 2004 the J. Anthony Lukas Work-in-Progress Award, the Sydney Hillman Award for journalists, writers, and public figures who pursue social justice and public policy for the common good, and the Richard J. Margolis Award, dedicated to journalism that combines social concern and humor.

One of his books, “Nobodies,” is an exposé of modern labor practices in the U.S. which, in certain circumstances, have lent themselves to virtual enslavement. The book takes the readers to Saipan, Florida, and Oklahoma.