Shelly Dushell and Dolly Hart: What Happened to Them at the Bunny Ranch?

A&E’s ‘Secrets of the Bunny Ranch’ explores the dark secrets of the Moonlite Bunny Ranch brothel and its owner, Dennis Hof, with the help of his former employees. For nearly a decade, the ranch was the subject of an HBO unscripted show titled ‘Cathouse,’ which painted a false picture of what life was like inside the brothel. The inaccuracy and harsh realities are talked about by several former employees associated with the ranch, including Shelly Dushell and Dolly Hart.

Shelly Dushell and Dolly Hart Were Unaware of the Dark Truths of Dennis Hof’s Brothels

Shelly Dushell and Dolly Hart worked at the Bunny Ranch brothel, where they went through a series of unfair and dark experiences. The former opened up about how she was sexually abused as a child by an old man, which indirectly led her to become a sex worker at the Bunny Ranch. After getting divorced from her husband, Shelly decided to take a chance at the ranch and sent Dennis Hof her photo. Thus, began her journey as a sex worker, who also went on to feature in HBO’s ‘Cathouse.’ On the other hand, Dolly Hart was around 11 or 12 when she first got a glimpse of the controversial unscripted show. Around the same time, she used to get bullied for her Mexican origin.

Dolly was fascinated by what she saw, stating, “I think what got me the most was, like, the camaraderie between the women. Just that. Seeing how you can make friends there.” As she didn’t come from a privileged background, she worked about 17 hours, six days a week, to get by. Tired of living this way, she applied to get a job at the Kit Kat Ranch, which was also run by Dennis Hof. However, when she began working as a sex worker under Dennis, she soon realized that her job was more than just tickle fights and pool parties, as she saw in the HBO show.

Shelly Dushell and Dolly Hart Were Not Paid Fairly For Their Jobs in the Brothels

After Shelly Dushell was hired, Dennis Hof picked her up personally at the airport and accompanied her to a bungalow near one of his brothels. She claimed that on the very first day, he asked her for sex without protection. She told the New York Post, “I didn’t say no to him, so I wasn’t raped, but I was put in a position where I felt like I could not say no to him…So I just went along with it and I thought, ‘OK, well, maybe he makes all the girls do this,’ and I was right.” She also alleged that Dennis used to prey on “women who were the most easily victimized.” Shelly claimed that Dennis even directed what happened on ‘Cathouse’ as he would instruct his employees to get physical with each other.

Claiming that it was far from a documentary, she stated, “Dennis wanted to make it so it looked like we were always waiting for 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.” Once, she was also reportedly asked to sleep with a clown for the sake of making the show interesting. Shelly said that Dennis had made false promises to her and told her that “I was going to be a star, that I needed to be on the show, that I’d make tonnes of money, I would be famous, it would make everyone rich.” According to Shelly, she was unfairly compensated for featuring on ‘Cathouse’ as she only got paid when she serviced a customer outside of the show. “I was actually losing money when I was on HBO because I wasn’t working when I was doing the filming for the show,” she claimed.

She revealed that she only received a few thousand dollars for featuring on the show. She told the New York Post, “I made between $300 and $350 per sex scene. And that was all they paid me for.” Not only that, she claimed that the sex workers, including her and Dolly Hart, were responsible for purchasing additional products required for the job, including clothing, protection, lube, and sex toys. When she had had enough of it all, Shelly quit the Moonlite Bunny Ranch. Talking about her salary and how much she earned during her stint at the Kit Kat Ranch, Dolly stated, “Dennis does the run down of how we split it, he’s doing the 50/50, and I’m like, ‘Okay that’s fine’ and he’s like, ‘Well, that includes tips,’ and I’m like, ‘That’s horses–t’, and then he’s like, ‘That includes gifts.'” When she wasn’t getting paid enough, Dolly parted ways with the brothel and Dennis.