By: debbie lynn elias
Making its world premiere at the 2007 Los Angeles Film Festival is one of the most fascinating stories ever brought to the screen – CAT DANCERS, the true story of former dancers Ron and Joy Holiday who dominated the Great White Way for 40 years.
Inspired by a dream where he envisioned Joy turning into a an exotic cat during one of their performances, Ron told actor William Holden about the dream. An animal activist with his own game preserve in Kenya (now run by his long time love Stephanie Powers), Holden bestowed a gift on the couple – a leopard cub born on his preserve. The love that the two had for that leopard, named Adonis, turned into a full fledged family act with the addition of a jaguar, tigers and other exotic cats, as well as a young man named Chuck who joined the act and the family in 1988 as both a surrogate son and lover to Ron and Joy.
Long before Siegfried & Roy this animal family was making headlines. And headlines they did make when in 1998, after 10 years of cohabitative romanticized and perhaps even slightly perverse, familial bliss, Jupiter, a Bengal tiger all three had raised since birth, turned on Chuck, killing him, only to then turn on Joy two weeks later, killing her…or did he. After Chuck and Joy were killed, the authorities had no choice but to kill Jupiter. Heartbroken and alone, Ron was left to deal with his heartbreak and figure out the rest of his life and that of his remaining four-footed children.
Thanks to restored 8mm film footage, news coverage, photos and interviews with colleagues, friends and Ron, we are privy to the unusual lifestyle and love of this unique family unit. This is a story of love, death and survival of the fittest – a classic example of Darwinian and Freudian philosophies. Most interestingly, questions are asked and possibly answered as to the who, what, where, when, why and how of all 3 deaths, the act itself, and the very uniquely exotic and even erotic lives of Ron, Joy and Chuck.
Directed by Harris Fishman. Featuring Ron Holiday.
