The Art of the Pimp: One Man's Search for Love, Sex, and Money by Dennis Hof

Author:Dennis Hof [Hof, Dennis]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Regan Arts.
Published: 2015-03-17T00:00:00+00:00

Nine

CATHOUSE: THE SERIES

LATE IN 2001, PATTI KAPLAN, the director, showed up at the BunnyRanch with her film crew and for the next six weeks, as part of America Undercover, the cameras rolled every day. Cathouse aired the following year and became the highest rated nonfiction show in HBO’s history. It would ultimately air in forty-nine countries, dubbed and subtitled in twenty-seven languages, and I was making $50,000 an episode.

Howard Stern was one of the show’s early champions. He really helped us. He would get on the air and say, “You need to watch this show tonight because my show tomorrow is going to be all about Cathouse.” He was there for us every season, looking for ways to promote the show, and I think he was a big part of our success.

The show was part documentary, part soap opera, and part reality television. We had cameras in the parlor, at the bar, and we had modified one of the rooms at the end of the hallway and put four hidden cameras in there, too. As soon as the client walked in, we would begin filming. We would then film the lineup, watch as he made his choice, and continue filming when he and the girl went off to the room to negotiate the party. Once the negotiation was over, the girl would summon Madam Suzette, who would come in and close the deal. (That was the only theatrical part of the show; the girl generally returns to the office with a credit card or cash when the deal has closed.) With the negotiation out of the way, Suzette would tell the client that cameras were rolling and that we wanted to keep them rolling, and she would ask the client if he might want to be part of the show. Amazingly, out of forty-five clients, forty agreed to let themselves be filmed. Part of it was that my girls loved being on camera and they pleaded with them. But the deciding factor seemed to be that they were going to get to party for free.

We had a lot of great times filming that first season, but there were bumps along the way. For one thing, we didn’t know anything about the business, and we had absolutely no idea how much work it took to create a show. Patti had a fifteen-person crew at the ranch and sometimes it took them half a day to discuss a single shot. I kept asking myself, How do people in Hollywood get anything done?

Patti was also a bit of a drill sergeant, pushing too hard, and it got to a point where she was acting as if the girls worked for her. One day I stopped production and she had to get on the phone to the people at HBO and ask them to get involved. We managed to get beyond our differences, but it wasn’t always smooth sailing. I felt she was mean to my girls and I won’t take that from anyone.

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