A Macabre Tale of Love and Violent Death

Since I saw Harris Fishman’s film Cat Dancers on More 4 on Tuesday night I haven’t been able to get it out of my head so I hope you don’t mind my passing it on. Ron Holiday was eleven when he met Joy aged seven, at ballet school in the fifties. Joy was a plain, skinny little girl but gradually under Ron’s influence she bleached her hair white blonde, had breast implants and together they became exotic dancers and eventually married.

Aged 32 Ron decided his dancing days were over and when William Holden offered them a baby leopard as a pet they decided to bring big cats into their act – tigers and jaguars included. Previously they had merely trained poodles. They were a big success in Las Vegas and then in 1980 they took Chuck – a young man into the act.

‘Look what I’ve found,’ Joy told Ron.

They trained Chuck until the three of them were working as equals with the animals. They would get a new cub and with the three of then sitting in chairs see where the cub settled and then he or she would be the ‘parent ‘of the cub. The three were increasingly very close and became a ménage a trois.

Then Ron decided they should get a white Bengal tiger in 1998 to spice up the act. Joy was against it as she said they were inbred and thus dangerous and unpredictable. Ron prevailed and Jupiter entered their lives and chose Chuck as his ‘Dad’.

By now they had an animal farm where they lived with the cats. One day Chuck was tired so went to his room whilst the other two worked with animals. Jupiter sat and refused to move so Chuck was sent for. Work was being done and the place was littered with wires and cages. Chuck – wearing moccasins tripped and fell and Jupiter sank his giant teeth in his throat and killed him.

Throughout the film there was home movie footage which made it seem one was an onlooker as the story was happening. The tragedy had a devastating effect on both husband and wife but whilst Ron said they would get through it together Joy said she just wanted to die. She took to her bed and refused to eat and wouldn’t leave her bed to shower and change.

Ron was told if she didn’t eat she would die so he told her ‘the babies’ were fretting and needed her. In the cage with Jupiter, Ron was glad it was very sandy as he hoped this would make her want to shower. She was very weak and was trembling and Jupiter attacked and killed her as he had done Chuck. It was just 5 weeks since Chuck had been killed. SWAT teams came and Jupiter was shot.

At the beginning of the film Ron was a sad, fit 70 year old man with a selection of wigs. He taught dancing and his remaining animals were housed in an animal park where he visited and fed them. Towards the end of the film he was given a day’s notice to remove his animals and as a result they were put down. Ron said that when he was 80 he would go to Thailand and live with monks where wild animals roamed free. At this point he was overcome with emotion and tears flowed through his hands covering his face.

See photo below.