The Cat Dancers: The true life story of Ron and Joy Holiday

"Like a hyperbolic tale ripped from the cover of Weekly World News, the documentary film “Cat Dancers” is steeped in exotic animal fur, nude portraits, a love triangle, spandex, headbands and rhinestones ..."

~ From the HBO documentary, "Cat Dancers"

The following is the true life story of Ron Holiday (his stage name; real name Ron Guay) and his wife Joy Holiday (her stage name; married name Doris Guay; birth name Doris Gagnon) and their jaguar, panther and tiger show. I will do my best to condense their incredible journey as best I can (in other words ,the short version). 

Ron and Joy both studied ballet/dancing when they were very young. In fact, they grew up together. They performed Las Vegas shows as a couple before they became "The Cat Dancers". And, before "Siegfried and Roy", there was Ron and Joy Holiday, the husband and wife team who became the world’s first exotic cat entertainers in the 1960’s. Chuck Lizza, also an animal trainer and an attractive younger man, was asked to join their act in the 1980's.  The three of them eventually got involved in a love triangle. Needless to say, Ron and Joy had a rather unconventional marital relationship to say the least.

Their tigers were not only their act, they were also their beloved pets whom they raised and trained when they were just cubs and also lived on the cat ranch located at their home ...

At home with the "cats".

A publicity photo of Ron, Joy, and Chuck.

So, what went horribly wrong? Well, Chuck was attacked and killed by their one and only white Bengal tiger, Jupiter, whom they had since he was a cub, while at their home. White Bengal tigers are known to be even more dangerous than any other breed of tiger - they are far more aggressive and their temperament is extremely unpredictable! The main reason for this is because White Bengal tigers are inbred by humans - messing with their DNA. With that, comes both physical and mental abnormalities such as crossed eyes, deformed lips, and, of course, mental instability.

After Chuck's death, Joy became so distraught that she fell into a deep depression. She refused to eat and lost even more weight making her terribly frail and weak. Ron, at a loss as to how to help her, and, in an effort to cheer up, asked her to come help him feed the babies because they missed her. So Joy and Ron walked out and when it was Jupiter's turn, she, in her weakened physical state was shaking and began to lose her balance while trying to feed him. THEN IT HAPPENED! Jupiter reacted by taking Joy's body into his mouth and threw her full force into the ceiling - as if he were tossing around a rag doll! She died immediately. 

Such an intriguing, yet very tragic story indeed. I came across an HBO Documentary about "The Cat Dancers" which was filmed back in 2007. As I was watching it, my eyes could not help but to be glued to every interview - every show clip - every detail. If you would like to learn a bit more about their fascinating story, please check out sites such as Amazon, etc.

It was well worth the watch!!