I was a working girl.
- Working girl.
- Working girl.
- Courtesan.
- Escort.
- Escort girl.
- Former adult film star.
I'm a sex trade survivor.
If I could talk to
my 11-year-old me,
watching Cathouse...
I need a minute...
I would definitely
tell little me that...
not everything you see
on TV is a reality.
HBO put us in
the living rooms
of America,
with Cathouse.
[News] The Bunny Ranch
bills itself as one of Nevada's
most upscale brothels,
and the program shows
the inner workings
of the business
behind the brothel.
Cathouse was one of the most
watched HBO documentaries
in the history
of the network.
At first, I thought it was
the sequel to
the Cat in the Hat movie.
I was not even close.
prostit*tes on TV.
Who thought that was
gonna sell? Dennis did.
It's just sex.
Relax, it's just sex.
We felt like we were stars.
[News] Joining us now live
is the owner of the
Bunny Ranch himself,
the legendary...
[laughing]
Dennis Hof.
Dennis changed the system.
Dennis made it a business.
He made the women
businesswomen.
[Dennis]
It's not going away.
Sex for sale is
here to stay.
He was a marketing,
media genius.
But Dennis Hof's legacy
is extremely mixed.
Look.
Dennis's world was buying
and selling people.
That's how he thought of us.
He thought of us as
objects that he owned.
He made us feel like [beep]
on the bottom of his feet.
[sobs] And I remember
saying, "Okay..."
[inhaling]
"Just do it."
I was scared.
But HBO wanted
to sell a show.
They just didn't want to
show the ugly side of it.
I really had no idea that
people were being
drawn in by the show, itself.
Women watched Cathouse
as young girls.
And then decided that they
wanted to go to that place.
[Dennis] Chrissie is
the reason why you use
parental controls on your TV.
because at 15,
she was
watching Cathouse,
and here we are.
They made it seem so
fun on the show, and...
what was really
happening was force.
- r*pe.
- Coercion.
- m*rder.
- Abuse.
- Overdose.
- Control.
If someone had told me,
I would've said no.
Is this something that we
want to beam into homes?
The place was about lying.
It was all lies.
It's important for us
to hold HBO accountable.
It's kind of hard to say
it was a documentary
when you have
a pimp directing scenes
in his own brothel.
♪ [moody pop] ♪
♪
♪ You put me
under the covers. ♪
♪ For all the world to see. ♪
♪ But I never recovered. ♪
♪ You never
cared about me. ♪
♪ So now you're
being uncovered. ♪
♪ I kept all the receipts. ♪
♪ You and
all of the others. ♪
♪ Under a fantasy. ♪
[rumbling thunder]
[sirens]
In 2003, a tornado
hit my house.
And, I had just
gotten a divorce.
♪
And when you have young
children to take care of...
I decided to go and work
at the Bunny Ranch.
I did what I had to do.
And that decision
altered my life.
Completely.
- I'm Shelly.
- Marker.
I was a working girl at the
Moonlite Bunny Ranch
in Nevada.
Owned by Dennis Hof.
I heard about the Moonlite
Bunny Ranch from a talk show.
[Tyra] Tucked away in a dusty
corner of the Nevada desert,
the world-famous Bunny Ranch
is a legal brothel...
where a man can
hire a prost*tute
to satisfy almost
any desire.
[Shelly] I remember
seeing Dennis Hof.
[Dennis] Men come to the
Ranch to do things
that their wives
can't or won't do.
We can fulfill almost any
fantasy at the Bunny Ranch.
It has to be safe, and most
of all, it has to be fun.
[Shelly] I think
Air Force Amy was
on the talk show
with Dennis.
[Host]
Air Force Amy.
[Amy] I orgasm for a living
at the Bunny Ranch.
[Audience] Woo!
And I was astounded.
I had no idea
that prostitution was legal
anywhere in the United States.
And so,
I sent an email
with a picture
of myself to the
Moonlite Bunny Ranch,
and Dennis Hof himself
called me back within
"I want you out here."
When I flew out to Nevada,
I was picked up by
Dennis Hof at the airport...
♪
And Dennis told me that
HBO was doing a show,
and he wanted me
to do that.
He walked me in.
♪
And there was
cameramen there
filming for the HBO show.
♪
Dennis took me out to the
bungalow behind the building,
and wanted sex.
And I had just
met this man.
I had flown there to work.
He was the boss.
He was the owner.
And he wanted to have sex
the very first day
I got there,
and he didn't want
to wear a condom.
So, I was absolutely
horrified.
That was my first day
at the Ranch.
I was afraid to
tell Dennis no.
I had no idea what
I was getting into.
Nobody seems to care if
a prost*tute gets r*ped.
[Dennis] I believe
in the product.
I love the product.
I use it daily.
[Shelly] I saw the
ugly side of Dennis.
[camera shutter clicking]
But the world,
on Cathouse,
only saw the
fun side of him.
[Dennis] Girls,
how about a toast here?
Here's a toast to
the best family,
the Bunny Ranch family.
[Shelly] Because they didn't
know the real Dennis.
♪
Dennis was all about...
being violent.
♪
♪
Dennis Hof was actually born
in Phoenix, Arizona
in 1946.
His parents were immigrants,
and they came to America
for a better place.
So, Dennis Hof actually grew
up with very little money,
and Dennis resented that,
which made him
want to be more of a
successful individual.
He started by sweeping
the gas station floor
and then ended up
buying a gas station.
After that, he decided to
get into timeshare sales.
[Shelly]
Dennis sold timeshares
before he owned
the Bunny Ranch,
and he used to
always say...
that he was still
selling timeshares,
it was just a
triangular-shaped...
piece of land.
Pretty terrible to say,
but uh, it was true.
He was still
selling timeshares,
just it happened
to be women.
♪
[Vernon] Dennis and his father
decide to travel cross-country,
and as they go
through Reno,
Dennis finds out about
these brothels.
He fell in love
with the idea of...
that type of business...
The rest is history.
[camera shutter clicking]
♪
Before Dennis,
the prostitution industry
was kind of like in the
shadows for decades.
But he mainstreamed it.
I'm the new breed
of brothel owner.
I'm a straight guy.
I pay my taxes,
I do the right things.
I come from, from a
business background.
I'm educated.
That's the new breed
of brothel owner.
The old school is over.
♪
Hello, I'm Air Force Amy.
I'm the most celebrated
courtesan of modern times.
[Crew] Air Force Amy interview.
Take one. Marker.
[Air Force Amy] Wait a minute.
I got hair in my mouth.
I worked for
Dennis Hof...
and helped put the famous
Moonlite Bunny Ranch
on the map.
♪
I left home at a
very, very early age,
and I started hitchhiking
around the country.
I learned real early
how to be resourceful.
And I learned also that
sex was a commodity.
So, my first 10 years
in the industry,
most of the brothels
were really, really bad.
The last place I worked
had one window
in the whole place
that big, okay?
On weekends, they would
lock up the payphones
because they didn't want you
calling home and talking,
and getting upset
and leaving.
It was awful.
We used to call it
[beep] Prison.
♪
So, when I first got
to the Bunny Ranch,
I just got catapulted-
Pew!- into the 20th century.
And everything was
upbeat, upbeat,
upbeat, upbeat, upbeat.
♪ [dance]
Fun, fun, fun, fun.
♪
Brothels are not, by law,
allowed to advertise,
but they can still
go in the media.
They can appear on TV shows,
they can talk about
their businesses,
but they can't put up
an ad in the newspaper.
So, Dennis was
very savvy.
He used the media.
"Oh, I can't put
an ad up? Great.
I'll go on CNN
and talk about it."
[Host] Dennis Hof.
Bunny Ranch owner.
[Amy] That was just a stroke
of genius right there.
And who would
have ever thought-
who had the ba*ls
to put prostit*tes on TV?
Who thought that
was gonna sell?
[Dennis] After the airline
sticks it to you...
Come stick it to us!
[Amy]
Dennis did, and it did!
We would go on
every talk show.
At the time, it was
talk shows, right?
There was Jenny Jones...
[Jenny] But what's the
right word for-
is prost*tute okay now?
[Amy] I got Most Outrageous
Guest of the Year
on Jenny Jones.
There was Tyra Banks.
[Tyra] Joining us also
is Dennis Hof.
He owns the
Moonlite Bunny Ranch.
[Amy] Oprah.
[Oprah] While she waited
for a client,
Brooke gave us a tour
of the Bunny Ranch.
[Brooke] There's
approximately 30 rooms,
and they're always full.
Dennis made himself the
authority on prostitution.
And he said
that's how it works.
He goes,
"Media begets media."
Once you do one story
on prostitution,
networks go,
"Let's interview that guy."
Pretty soon,
he's the guy.
[Dennis] I'm selling sex
like other people
are selling soda pop.
[Amy] And when Dennis
got into the industry,
it was really popular...
and cool to be a pimp.
You had Snoop Dogg,
you had Pimp My Ride,
you know, p*mps were really,
really glamorised,
so Dennis had his hat in the
ring at the exact right time
because it was
cool to be a pimp.
[cheering]
In the early 2000s,
it was a time that was
sort of selling itself
as being all about women's
sexual liberation.
There's Heidi Fleiss
whose job as a madame
is being talked about as the
ultimate success story
of an intendent woman
entrepreneur.
There's Paris Hilton's
leaked sex tape
becoming a
pop culture staple.
And then there's the
photoshoot of Britney Spears
that is clearly invoking
some kind of
Lolita fantasy for men.
And so, sex itself becomes
a thing to be celebrated.
[honking]
HBO at that time also
had this show called
Taxicab Confessions,
where they put
hidden cameras in a taxicab
and picked up people.
And it just dawned
on me, I said,
"Let's put hidden cameras
in a brothel and capture the
conversations of why men
and women go there."
So, I called the
Bunny Ranch, and I said,
"Dennis, can I
come do that?"
"Sure!" [chuckling]
"Come on out!"
♪
So, we drive to the
Bunny Ranch,
and Dennis says, "George,
you know what I want?"
I go, "What do you want,
Dennis?"
He says, "I want to be a
household name."
And I said,
"I'll do my best."
So, I show up at HBO's
Documentary Division,
and Sheila Nevins
was in charge of that,
and Patti Kaplan does
all their directing.
They had done Real Sex
together, that show,
and other documentaries.
And Sheila Nevins says,
"We think it's a
wonderful idea."
So, I turned the reins over
to the HBO folks,
you know, Sheila and Patti,
and they did the rest.
♪
[Amy] So, the genesis
of Cathouse
was it didn't seem
very much different than
all the TV and media
that we were
already doing.
♪
So, sex and entertainment
at that time
covered two sides.
One side was that all
porn denigrates women.
And then there was
another side that said
porn empowers women,
or-
and can empower women
if it's done correctly.
And in this kind of ferment,
this little show...
[laughs]
came onto HBO.
♪
[Shelly] Dennis wanted me
to be a big part of
the Cathouse show.
But I didn't know
that young girls
would come to work there
that probably would've
never even thought of
working at the
Bunny Ranch if they
hadn't seen the show.
So, looking back, I should've
never agreed to do it.
[Host] First, reality TV
took us inside the home
of the Osbournes.
Then there was
The Anna Nicole Show.
Now, a provocative new
HBO documentary is
showing viewers a very
different kind of house.
Cathouse was supposed to
be the first time ever
they filmed live negotiations
from inside a brothel.
A Pamper Party, we do,
um, lots of massage,
sensual music,
sensual massage.
Everything is totally
to pay attention to you.
It's all about you.
[Tom] I was the director
of photography.
- The gaffer.
- The coordinating producer.
One of the sound mixers
for HBO's Cathouse.
♪
I was contacted by
New York producers saying,
"Can you do this job,
can you be there?
It's going to be
very hands... on."
I didn't know anything
other than
there's going to be a lot of
sex workers in this sh**t,
and it's gonna be
odd and weird,
but they're paying,
so I will go.
[Tom] So, I was sh**ting
a lot of documentaries.
I had an old friend by
the name of Patti Kaplan,
who was the director,
producer of the show.
So, Patti thought of me
when she had to sh**t
in the Cathouse.
[Host] Why did you want to
make this documentary?
Was there some
sort of message
that you were
going after?
Was there some
sort of morality
that you wanted
to explore?
[Patti]
I think, actually,
the approach was
extremely nonjudgmental.
No, there wasn't a
morality to explore.
It was more like,
this is an environment
that people are
quite unfamiliar with.
So, let's get inside
and see how it works.
Honestly, when they
came to me and said
you're gonna be
spending months
at a brothel,
I'm like, "Great!"
And then,
I'm like, "What?"
You just think you go into a
brothel and you have sex.
[Client] Okay.
[Jill] But it was mostly
about the way the girls
worked with the men
and how they negotiate
and they come up,
you know, with a price.
On Cathouse,
we had a very
particular kind of task.
We wanted to make the
environment look natural.
We wanted it to feel like
that was what
you would experience
if you walked
into the room.
We also want the
faces to look good.
There's a certain
amount of glamor.
And, in order to
create that glamor,
we need to actually
use lights.
[Tom] Cathouse was a fascinating
little social experiment.
[Tom] That dealt with the way
people's sexuality
was being expressed.
[Client]
Ah. [laughing]
[Host] Cathouse premieres
tomorrow night on HBO
right after the season
finale of The Sopranos.
I think that programming
Cathouse right after
the season finale
of The Sopranos,
and season 4 of The Sopranos
so it already has, like,
this kind of robust,
built-in audience,
it says something about
the network's desire
to want this documentary
to do well.
[DeAnne] I remember
watching The Sopranos.
At the end of the show,
suddenly, like,
I'm in a brothel in Nevada
and there's
all this craziness
going on.
There was a lot of nudity
and a lot of sex.
[Client] Yeah, God damn!
[Deanne] It was like a
traffic accident
that you can't avert
your eyes from.
[Racquel] It very much sort of
focuses on the women,
but they're constantly
talking about how much
they love working at
the Bunny Ranch,
how much they love sex.
I would do this until
I was 60 if I could.
I really would.
It's just that fun.
[Racquel] And you sort of come
away from it thinking, oh,
what a lovely sort of place
for these young women
to find, you know,
economic empowerment.
[Host] What do you think people
will walk away from,
at the end of this,
watching this documentary?
[Patti] Uh...
[Host] Disgusted, intrigued?
Wanting to
sign up to be pros-
[Patti] I think
much less disgusted
than they may have been.
There's a perspective,
you know, that,
needless to say,
about selling sex
that doesn't make a lot of
people comfortable,
but I think the environment
is so pleasant.
[Racquel] The tone of
this documentary is...
it really just reads as,
like, a PR puff piece.
[Dennis] This is
compelling television.
Nobody's seen the
innerworkings of
a working girl...
[Patti] It is compelling.
[Dennis] ...and a client.
It's unbelievable television.
[Ted] Both Patti,
the director, and Dennis,
had a pretty clear idea of
what they wanted to do
before it happened.
They would really
plan it out together.
[Shelly] It wasn't
a documentary.
We were told what to do.
The Cathouse show
was set up.
♪
[Cathouse]
Who likes boobies?
[laughs]
[Shelly] This was
the first scene
that I ever filmed
for Cathouse.
[Cathouse] When it comes to
actual oral sex...
We had to teach
a class about sex
to a bunch
of men, and...
I just remember
being very nervous.
You know, sometimes
guys will just dig in,
and it may be painful,
the girl's not
worked up enough.
You got to start out slow.
[Shelly] That is not a client.
That is Jesse,
and he was a driver
and a bartender
at the Bunny Ranch.
[Jesse] There I am.
[Cathouse] Usually try
to get them to [beep]
beforehand,
and uh...
How?
Uh, just by uh, [beep]
and rubbing and touching.
Everyone in the scene that
was supposed to be customers
were actually
friends of Dennis
or people who worked at
the Bunny Ranch.
[Cathouse] What do you
like about boobs?
I like nibbling on them
a little bit.
[Jesse] This was
something that they
concocted for the show.
♪
[Ted] This was
definitely not
what I thought
it was gonna be.
The reason I wanted to work
on this series
was because...
of the people that
I was working with.
I knew that they were
serious documentarians,
and did, you know,
really quality work
and I could learn
a lot from them.
But here we had
documentary people
controlling who appears
on camera
and what's going to
happen when, and...
it was a constructed reality
that was for
entertainment purposes.
[Air Force Amy]
They want their scene.
They want
what they want.
They've got it in their head
what they want it to be,
and they're gonna
manipulate you to get it,
whether it's good
or bad for you.
[laughing]
[Amy] Regardless of
what it does to your image.
I'm madly in love
with Cathouse.
I'm just madly in love
with wh*res.
This is an interview
with Sheila Nevins,
head of the
documentary unit at HBO.
I love them,
they're honest.
They're great actresses.
The greatest actresses
in the business
are in this expensive
whorehouse.
I mean, to act like
this guy matters to you?
[beep], you got to
be really an actress,
studio actress to do that.
[Shelly]
Patti liked my look.
[Cathouse]
Hi, I'm Shelly Dushell.
[Shelly] She liked the fact that
I was tall, and thin,
and large-breasted,
and long blonde hair,
and she didn't
like my eyes.
At one point,
Patti Kaplan told me
I needed to have
my eyes done,
and the cameraman
got mad at her,
and pulled her out in
the hallway, and said,
"Don't you dare talk
to her that way."
"Don't you tell her she
needs plastic surgery."
[Cathouse] Alright, boys,
well, our time is up,
and we have to go [beep]
now because we're all horny.
[Jesse] Cathouse was basically
just promotional video
for the Bunny Ranch.
[Shelly] The fact that I was
a softcore porn actress
is humiliating.
But Dennis told me
I was gonna be a star,
that I...
needed to be on the show,
I'd make tons of money.
I would be famous.
It would make
everyone rich.
It didn't make me rich.
I was victimised...
and Dennis Hof was
the main victimiser.
I was very scared the
first time I was in a lineup.
I didn't know
what to expect.
[bell chiming]
This bell gets rung.
So, the bell would ring
when a person would
come to the door
and they'd run
down the hallway.
[Tom] The women would
come running down these
two long hallways in
their four-inch heels,
and they came in and
stood in this thing
called the "lineup,"
where they tried to
attract the attention of
the guy who came in.
[Shelly] I both felt pick me
and don't pick me,
because I was nervous.
[Robin] One of the
first things we did was
sh**t the lineup that Dennis
wanted women to do
when a new client
comes in.
And it's a
demeaning process.
You know,
pick your Barbie.
Do you want Disco Barbie?
Do you want this Barbie?
Do you want Sexy Barbie?
But Patti immediately said,
"Well, it's a stage.
Give them a spotlight and let
them show themselves off."
And what Tom
and I saw was,
no, this is not
showing off. This is...
human beings on sale.
[Tom] But if they did too much
to attract the attention,
that is if they talked...
beyond,
"Hello, my name is,"
or if they revealed
too much or they did
a little too much action,
it was dirty hustling.
[Crew] Marker.
[Amy] I remember one
episode of Cathouse,
it said there's no
moving in lineup.
And then they cut away to
a shot of me just moving,
doing all this stuff.
[Dennis] We don't
want them to do things
to give an unfair advantage.
You know, grind or
anything. [laughs]
[Amy] I could be the
brunt of a joke. It's okay.
But it became
more difficult for me
as I became more famous
because people
would think that, oh,
she's too famous,
she's gonna cost too much.
[laughing]
[Amy] Because when
we all say our names,
and they go,
"Air Force Amy!"
And I think I'm getting
picked, but I'm not.
They just recognize me.
So, not only do they
know who I am,
they didn't pick me.
[Shelly]
When I was picked,
I went to the horrible
little room I had.
I was new there,
so I just got
the worst room there was.
And, uh, negotiated.
When I had sex,
I didn't know if
I would be able to...
do what was expected
of me for the money.
I had just got there.
I had no idea
what I was doing.
♪
I had men that
did not want sex.
I had one that hired me
just to watch me smoke.
He had a smoking fetish.
And he wanted me to lay on
the bed in a seductive pose
in my lingerie and
just smoke cigarettes.
That's all he wanted to see.
But most of the time,
just regular clients
come in wanting sex.
And, there are repercussions
that came from that.
There are people
that judged me
for working there, and...
there were things that went
on that I would not
want a young girl
experiencing.
There are some really
sick guys out there that
really want some really
gross, disgusting things.
Men that want
to be peed on,
and pooped on,
and to be hurt,
and to be humiliated,
or they want to hurt
and humiliate you.
There were young girls that
were coming to work there
that probably would've
never even thought of
working there if they
hadn't seen the show.
I was 30 when
I worked there.
I had already been
married and divorced,
and had experienced
life and sex,
and it's just horrifying
to think that
girls so young would
want to do that.
[Tom] Over the weeks
that I worked there,
I realized that HBO
really never wanted
to dip further
than just below this first
public relations level.
♪
Dennis groping people.
I mean, that was a
daily occurrence.
And they were
supposed to like it.
And they pretended
to like it.
[Dennis]
I own the candy store.
I'm eating all the candy.
I love it.
[Tom] Nobody asked,
"Do you ever not want Dennis
to touch you?"
when he's touching people.
That was not part of the
agreement of Cathouse.
[cheering]
[Shelly] They wanted to
sell a show.
They wanted to make
money off of that show,
and they wanted to
make money off of the,
the girls having
a great time.
They just didn't want to
show the ugly side of it.
♪
Patti would tell us ahead of
time what we were going to do.
"Okay, there's going
to be a clown."
"He's gonna come
in the door."
"He's gonna
have balloons."
"He's going to pick Shelly."
"They're going to
sit at the bar."
"Talk to him for about
and then take him
to the room."
♪
I was expected to
sleep with the clown.
They thought that
it would be
interesting for the show.
[laughing]
What you see is
what you get. I mean,
we don't show-
[clapping]-
exactly, but we get
pretty close.
We're very tasteful even
when we're in a whorehouse.
♪
When I think about working
on the show, Cathouse,
I think of it as a job
that's not my favorite,
but I'm not ashamed of any
of the work that I did on it.
The show...
tried to replicate
that sort of sense
of silliness,
if you will, because
it's a fantasy world.
And I bought
into the fantasy,
but then so did Sheila
and so did Patti.
[Dennis] Enjoy yourself.
I know you will.
It's us projecting an image.
It's us promoting the girls.
It's us doing things like
we're doing right now
to let the world know
that the Bunny Ranch
is the party place
of America.
[Phillip] It's his business
to keep it
as attractive as possible.
But sometimes,
it was painful to watch.
Patti told me that I would
only get paid for sex scenes.
That I would not
get paid for
all the other scenes.
One of the reasons
that reality television
can be so successful is...
because you're dealing
with a lot of unpaid labor.
And yet, they make
tons of money
for the networks
that they air on.
And knowing that the
women in Cathouse
were not
compensated for...
really being the
heart of the show,
it's just another
form of exploitation.
[Shelly] HBO wasn't much
different than a pimp
because I was barely
paid anything.
I was recognised
everywhere I went
after the
show came out.
It would've been nice to
have a little bit of money
to show for it.
I was actually losing money
being on HBO
because I wasn't working
when I was doing
the filming for the show.
[Robin] Cathouse dealt with
an interesting set of specifics
in dealing with human beings,
and the fact that
you are selling a
human connection.
The working girl
is doing that.
But that is
between two people.
The fact that HBO is
monetizing that sexual
transaction in a way
that exploited the women,
it was making me regret my
involvement in Cathouse.
♪
As we were following
the action that happens,
we would end up
sometimes in the room.
And at one point,
we were with
Isabella Soprano
and her client at the time,
and we ended up
being in the room
while she was having sex
with the client.
♪
This is the first time
I'm watching this.
This should have been
the point where we
scooted out of that room.
♪
I was like, "I did not
sign up for this."
"I'm not here to sh**t porn."
"I'm here to sh**t
a documentary."
This is not what I would
normally be doing
at work, like...
I was expecting
softcore photo stuff.
Not full-on p*rn*graphy.
This is when you're like,
"Why did I take this job?"
♪
That first scene of me
cracking the whip
that opens every episode,
that was something
I did not want to do,
because I felt that
men were already
intimidated by me,
that I was too strong
of a personality.
That was the last thing
I wanted to do.
And it opened
every episode.
♪
[Shelly]
When the girls and I were
touching each other
in the parlor
or making out,
those were Dennis' ideas.
Dennis wanted to make it
look like we were all just
waiting to have sex
and we were nymphos.
So, Dennis somewhat became
the director because
he was coordinating
what he wanted to see
in the scenes.
And...
I didn't always see
Patti Kaplan around.
[laughing & chatter]
It's kind of hard to say
it was a documentary
when you have a pimp
directing scenes
in his own brothel.
Watching the show,
HBO definitely wanted it
to look like a
fun place to be,
and so I can see
where it would be
tempting for a young girl
to watch the Cathouse show
and think it would be
something fun,
but they don't understand
the reality of it.
They aren't seeing
what it really is like
behind closed doors
with Dennis.
♪
[Tom] In a brothel,
you don't have
HR lines to respect.
So, every interaction
with women was paternal.
It placed him in a
superior position to her.
He was her boss
and her "Daddy."
- Daddy.
- Daddy...
- Come and play with us!
- Alright, girls! Let's go.
- Daddy!
- Daddy!
Daddy!
[Shelly] It made me
uncomfortable to call him Daddy.
And it was weird to see the
other girls call him Daddy.
You're the coolest Daddy
I've ever had!
[laughing]
[Host] Why do your girls
have to call you Daddy,
for example?
[Dennis] They don't have
to call me Daddy.
My girlfriend
calls me that.
[Host] What, it's just a weird
coincidence that they all do?
[Dennis] My girlfriend
does that.
[Host] Well, the thing is,
you do treat women
like objects to an extent.
[Dennis] Not true.
[Host] They're commodities.
[Dennis]
The demand is there.
They want to
fulfill the demand.
[Phillip] Dennis always
used to say that
just like anybody
selling a product,
he has to know...
the value of the product.
But I don't recall
Patti ever asking
any of the women
who worked at
the Moonlite Bunny Ranch
how they felt about
sleeping with Dennis,
their boss.
[Shelly] I thought it was
absolutely revolting
that I was expected
to sleep with the boss,
and that the boss could
go around and just
sleep with anyone and it
was considered normal.
But I was afraid
to tell him no.
I was scared.
[rumbling thunder]
Dennis would promote you
if you slept with him.
He would brag about you.
♪
Dennis had a very
active sex life
with the
working girls.
And, a lot of the
working girls
would offer themselves
up to him.
There were girls
that slept with him that
didn't want to sleep with him,
but thatt they had to.
[Shelly] Dennis preyed
upon the women
that were most
easily victimised.
I was afraid to not
go along with
what he wanted.
I learned a long time ago
to not fight back...
because I, myself,
was sexually abused
as a child.
So, I learned to...
build a wall and
not think about it.
I literally visualised
putting brick by brick up.
I remember doing that
when I was around
It shaped me.
I probably would have never
thought about working
at the Bunny Ranch if
I hadn't had an old man
touching me when
I was a little bitty kid.
And so, whenever
I was in a situation
where I was having sex
and didn't want to,
I was doing it for money,
I was able to disassociate
from the situation and
build that wall up
and pretend that I...
I wasn't doing that.
So, that's what
I did with Dennis.
I didn't know
what else to do.
[Shonda] He had a
great presence on TV,
but behind closed doors,
Dennis was
a rattlesnake.
[Tom] After a while,
having shot there
for one ten-day period
and then
coming back again,
I realised that
I was becoming
more and more
repulsed by Dennis Hof.
[Robin] Dennis found it
very easy
to treat every woman
he came across
in that same demeaning
and sexualised way.
[Tom] I began to see
below the surface,
into the other layers of
what was going on there.
The darker side.
But as a documentarian,
if somebody is
in front of my camera,
my job is to find the
human being in the person
even though I may detest
what that person does.
He felt like he was
improving a girl's career.
And he actually used
that as a come on.
You know, "You need to
sleep with me
because it'll
help your career."
[Shelly]
And you got privileges.
He would take you
out to dinner.
He took me to the
Billboard Awards.
[Sonja] He gave 'em everything
he could possibly give 'em.
And the other girls were
envious of that.
Whoever was his
girlfriend at the time,
she'd be the one
going on the junket
and hitting all the shows.
So, for all the
advertising that I did get,
it wasn't handed to me.
Not by any means.
I worked, worked, worked,
worked, worked, and...
tried to make the most money
to get this spot,
this thing, this thing,
this thing.
But then his girlfriend
would get the same thing.
Did Dennis and I
ever date? No...
No.
[Shelly] It was kind of a sick,
twisted relationship
that I had with Dennis
because I wanted him
to like me,
but I did not want
to have sex with him.
[Robin] I don't think
that he had any idea
what these women
go through,
or how or why they
ended up working for him.
♪
[Shelly] Some days I feel a
little bit shaky, and I think,
"Oh my gosh,
what if he picks me?"
And since I've been here,
I found that just
having a couple of drinks...
relaxes me and lets me...
not be quite as,
uh, shaky.
♪
I didn't have the power
in the first few years
to say no to Dennis.
♪
I tried my best
to avoid him.
I would try to be busy.
I was glad when I was booked
and I was making money
rather than being
available for him,
and then he would
just grab another girl
and go out back.
♪
He liked that power,
that he had that control.
And Dennis was
very violent
when he had sex,
liking to slap and choke.
It was hard to
get him to stop.
[thudding impact]
♪
Once I finally quit going
along with what he wanted,
I was no longer in
his good graces.
He was no longer
referring me to
the big clients,
and he started to
talk bad about me.
He said I had an
alcohol problem.
He would turn against girls
that said no to him.
And after a few years,
I decided it was time
to leave the
Moonlite Bunny Ranch.
♪
I really had no idea
of the reach of
the Cathouse series
on HBO.
I mean,
it did really well.
And people were
being drawn in
by the show, itself.
[Dennis] Chrissie is the
reason why you use
parental controls on your
TV because at 15,
she was watching Cathouse,
and here we are.
If I could talk to my
watching Cathouse,
I would definitely
tell little me that...
not everything you see
on TV is a reality.
[Robin] The idea that an 11 or
"Oh, that looks
like fun,"
that's...
[sighing]
...disturbing that
young girls would do that.
But I also think that that
is the way society works,
is we emulate something
and we see something,
and then
we end up doing it.
[Host] How did you
find each other?
HBO.
The first HBO special
that aired, I watched it.
[Tom] The illusion
was always there.
Dennis kept the place
on a cheerful, glitzy,
happy level.
[Dennis] This is our family.
We are a family.
This is the best family a
person could have.
I love you all.
[Tom] So the darker side
was kept very private
and very much away
from the cameras.
[cheering]
[Tom] And that
became an image
that was then bought
and sold on television.
[Racquel] When I
watched Cathouse,
I wanted to believe
that there could be
such a thing as a happy,
well-adjusted sex worker.
And, rewatching it,
it's so clear
that's not the case.
But at the time,
I was willing to buy
whatever narrative
HBO was selling.
If someone had told me
that what you're
going to do is basically
create a narrative
television production
in the style of a
documentary
and try to sell people
on its reality,
even though
we're making it
as glamorous as possible,
I would've said no.
[Tom] It is important that
I feel my responsibility.
That if I denied
my responsibility,
it would still be there,
but I would be
lying about it.
So, the fact that
I feel guilty about is...
is there. I, I-
there's nothing
I can do about that.
When HBO first
aired the series,
I really
felt used
because I knew
Dennis was
making money off of it,
and I didn't realise
it would be so
focused on just sex.
I knew we worked
in a brothel,
but I was hoping it
would have more of the
relationships of
the girls and
how our lives were.
So, I did feel bothered by
the fact that Dennis
and the HBO show
used women as property
to make money.
[Promo] Tune into
the Bunny Ranch...
[Dennis]
Cathouse on HB-hoe!
♪
♪
[Tom]
The Cathouse series,
over the next season
or two began to attract
younger women
to the Bunny Ranch.
[Dolly] Around the time
that I
caught a glimpse
of Cathouse,
I'd say I was probably,
like, 11, 12.
I think I was probably,
maybe 11 or 12 maybe.
And I would watch with the
volume turned down low.
And I was like, if it's
that easy, then, you know...
I really want to think
I want to try it.
[DeAnne]
He loved young girls.
These girls did not
see what was coming.
HBO was
glamorizing this life.
Who's pimping
who here?
[Dolly] It isn't
this big sorority.
I didn't feel safe.
I've never, ever seen
anything like this before.
[Jennifer] There are people
that have died.
[DeAnne] She's dead.
She's been dead for hours.
[Jennifer] There are people
that have been m*rder*d.
[News]
One of them was
a prost*tute
and one of the stars of
HBO's Cathouse.
[Sonja] Dennis told me
that she was pregnant
with his child.
It just blew up
like an atomic b*mb.
I'm going to tell you
the real story
about the
Lamar Odom party.
He should've known
that stuff is not good,
but he wanted more.
I was like, "Lamar!"
And I tried to shake him
and he didn't do anything.
Lamar Odom overdosed,
and I didn't know
what to do.
[Jennifer] Prostitution,
it's not a job.
It is a nightmare.
[Rebekah]
I was literally having sex
with strangers,
for nothing.
[Jennifer] I was molested,
and beaten,
and r*ped by Dennis Hof.
And some girls
are still there.
♪
Dennis was in this
for Dennis.
Dennis was a
rat b*stard pimp.
[DeAnne]
He had no empathy.
[Dolly] He could be a real
piece of [beep].
Yeah, I believe
there was foul play. 100%.
Police!
Search warrant!
[Sonja] Dennis Hof was
running for office.
It was a powerplay.
[Jennifer]
I honestly feel
that Dennis Hof
was m*rder*d.
But I got no justice.
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