Inside sordid history of Chippendales show - from brutal murders to arson attempts & assassination p -

TO the female fans roaring “take it off” as the Chippendales get down to their bow ties and cuffs, the raunchy male strip show is just a bit of fun.

But the history of the ground-breaking American troupe is a sordid tale of murders, arson, jealousy, lawsuits and an assassination plot . . . in Blackpool.

Somen “Steve” Banerjee, the mastermind behind Chippendales, was so determined that no one would grab a slice of his empire that he hired hitmen to travel to England to take out three of his former employees.

The murder plot involved injecting the men, then affiliated with rival UK-based dance group Adonis, with lethal cyanide.

Now eight-part Disney+ series, Welcome To Chippendales, looks at power-hungry Banerjee’s extra-ordinary downfall.

In the first episode Brooklyn Beckham’s wife Nicola Peltz portrays tragic Playboy model Dorothy Stratten, as she appears to spark the business venture by suggesting to her husband Paul Snider and Banerjee that they launch a male strip night because “women get horny”.

‘We want meat’

Banerjee, born in Bombay, India, was a Mobil petrol station owner in Los Angeles until he hustled his way into the nightclub business.

He bought failing club Destiny II in the city, turning it into a backgammon establishment and then a female mud-wrestling and exotic dance venue.

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His fortunes changed in 1979, when he advertised a “male exotic dance night for ladies only” — the first of its kind in America — selling tickets for the equivalent of £16.

While the Disney+ series depicts Banerjee as a reasonably honest entrepreneur during his early days, the truth is more sinister.

Within five years of founding Chippendales he twice tried to burn down competitors’ venues fearing they stood in the way of him expanding his £7million-a-year empire. The arson only caused minor damage.

A power struggle with his business partner Nick De Noia also turned deadly.

The Emmy-winning choreographer — best known for his children’s TV series Unicorn Tales — had been tasked with creating Vegas-worthy routines for the muscled, G-string- wearing dancers.

The slick shows became so popular that the club had to close briefly due to overcrowding, with wild audience members demanding “we want meat”.

In the TV series, at least, the venue is portrayed as a den of iniquity, where cocaine was snorted openly and the dancers had backstage sex with female groupies.

But business boomed and Banerjee and De Noia were able to open a second club in New York. Yet creative tensions led to them cutting ties.

De Noia gave up his share of both clubs in return for 50 per cent of the profits of the highly-lucrative Chippendales tours.
In the following years, Banerjee had to fight off legal cases from men who said it was wrong to exclude them from attending the performances and allegations that the club discriminated against black people.

Meanwhile, the mogul boosted his wealth with Chippendales merchandise, most notably calendars.

But he resented sharing his fortune with his former associate and planned his first kill.

On April 7, 1987, De Noia, 45, who was divorced from Hollywood actress Jennifer O’Neill, was sitting at his desk in his 15th floor office in New York when a man posing as a messenger shot him in the face.

For six years the murder remained unsolved, despite De Noia’s relatives suspecting Banerjee.

The club owner might have got away with it if his greed had not led him to plot more assassinations of former employees.

He offered £21,000 per head for the murders of dancers Read Scot and Michael Fullington and producer Steve White, who were now working for rival group Adonis.

Banerjee hired former Florida police officer Ray Colon to find the men for the job. Colon got hold of enough cyanide to kill 2,300 people and asked Lynn Bressler to travel to England to commit the murders.

But Bressler was an FBI informant and their phone conversations were secretly being recorded by the security services.

During a transatlantic call in July 1991, Colon told Bressler that the would-be assassin had arrived in Blackpool and could attack his first victim during a stroll on the beach.

Colon said: “You could whack him on the back of the head, man. That f***in’ dog gonna go down. Then you could stick him, you know?”

To make sure the intended targets would not survive the hit, Bressler was instructed to inject the poison. Fortunately, the men had been tipped off by the British police.

While he was working in London, Scot was warned by two officers: “There is a contract out for your life. It’s going to be a cyanide injection . . . someone will get close to you and inject you with a needle.”

The dancer, who had left Chippendales just a month before the planned attempt on his life, later admitted to sleeping “with the lights on” for years out of fear.

Colon and a co-conspirator, Billy Barnes, who had travelled to the UK to plot the hit, made a plea bargain with the FBI. In return for heavily reduced jail terms they pointed the finger at Banerjee.

The investigation revealed Colon had also hired hitman Gilberto Rivera Lopez to kill De Noia. Banerjee pleaded guilty in 1994 to murder-for-hire, as well as arson and racketeering.

Federal agents also suspected he had been planning to bump off long-time business partner and lawyer Bruce Nahin. He accepted a plea bargain that would have seen him serve 26 years in prison and the loss of his share in Chippendales.

But hours before he was due to be sentenced the married father-of-two took his own life in his prison cell. He was 48.
A separate high-profile murder was also linked to Chippendales.

In the year the troupe launched, the mogul’s associate Snider — played in the series by Downton Abbey’s Dan Stevens — married 19-year-old Dorothy Stratten in Las Vegas.

‘Inject you with cyanide’

Snider, then 28, who had a small stake in Banerjee’s first club, is said to have come up with the idea of the oiled-up dancers stripping down to cuffs and collars.

Yet his involvement with Chippendales was brief — as his obsession with his Canadian wife cost both their lives.

It had been the nightclub promoter’s idea to take nude photos of Dorothy in the hope late Playboy boss Hugh Hefner would feature her in his magazine.

His money making scheme worked, and Dorothy was named Miss August 1979 and Playmate of the Year in 1980. Small acting roles followed, bringing her to the attention of Oscar-nominated director Peter Bogdanovich, who cast her in romantic comedy They All Laughed, alongside Audrey Hepburn.

Like so many who had met the sweet-natured model before, Bogdanovich became besotted.

The pair began an affair during production and, after several months of heated arguments with her husband, Dorothy announced she wanted to separate.

On August 13, 1980, the actress arrived at Snider’s home in Los Angeles to discuss their divorce.

But he raped Dorothy, killed her with a single round from his shotgun and, an hour later, turned the weapon on himself. The pair were discovered naked in Snider’s bedroom by his flatmate.

Witness Patti Laurman said: “It looked like it was a horror movie, a staged horror movie, like mannequins and fake blood.”

Though not even murders and arson could spell the end of Chippendales.

Banerjee’s wife Irene inherited the business then sold it in 2000 for £2million. She died a year later from breast cancer. While the LA nightclub closed to become . . . a furniture store, the saucy franchise is still going strong.

The troupe currently have a residency at a casino in Las Vegas and tour globally. Chippendales also inspired the hit 1997 Brit movie The Full Monty and 2012’s Magic Mike, starring Channing Tatum, which returns next month with the third and final instalment, Magic Mike’s Last Dance.

In an unlikely turn of events, Banerjee’s orphaned son Christian set up his own male strip act, called the Strippendales, two years ago.

The 31-year-old, who also dances in the troupe, has defended his dad, claiming “he was a good guy”.

He said: “I’ve always had this connection with my dad, even though he wasn’t living, through Chippendales. He’d want to push me in this direction. He’d want to continue his legacy through his son.”

Inside sordid history of Chippendales show - from brutal murders to arson attempts & assassination p

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