BEEFCAKE GONE BAD!
Untold story of murder, arson & greed behind Chippendales jiggle joints
THE nearly naked, fully oiled and muscled macho men of Chippendales writhed and flexed for swooning suburban ladies and breathless bachelorette parties in the 1980s — but beneath the booming new business plan was a sleazy sinkhole of greed, arson, murder, suicide and scandal!
“Chippendales wasn’t just pecs and mullets and G-strings stuffed with dollar bills,” according to Natalia Petrzela, host of the new true-crime podcast Welcome to Your Fantasy, dedicated to taking the pants off the illusion of frisky fun and bare the dark underbelly of the all-male revue!
“It was a sordid world of greed, arson, hired hitmen, a years-long FBI manhunt, and a feud that would leave two business partners dead!”
Natalia, a historian and fitness scholar, says she created this oral history of the company’s unsavory early days and fatal grudge matches among its founders by interviewing more than 60 people — including investigators and former dancers and patrons.
The concept for the hunkheavy stripfest came from Paul Snider — a self-described “Jewish pimp” from Canada whose later claim to infamy was his horrific murder of Playboy Playmate wife Dorothy Stratten in a jealous rage in August 1980, before turning the gun on himself.
The 1983 movie Star 80 was made about that murder-suicide, starring Mariel Hemingway and Eric Roberts as the illfated couple.
Dorothy also contributed to the Chippendales enterprise
before her death by suggesting the male dancers wear signature bow ties and cuffs along with their padded thongs.
Chippendales co-founder Somen “Steve” Banerjee took Snider’s idea in 1979 and ran with it — but fame and fortune seems to have had a twisted effect on him.
Along with business partner
Bruce Nahin, L.A. bar owner Banerjee — a former janitor and gas station owner — found quick success with the concept, and renamed the bar Chippendales to make it sound classy, like the furniture style.
The co-owners opened more branches in New York, Dallas and Denver — and giggling gaggles of females formed lines around the block to get up close and personal with the dancing musclemen, some of whom Snider found at gyms and on beaches.
But with success came imitators — and Natalia says when rivals tried to horn in on the business, Banerjee attempted to burn down or vandalize competing clubs!
At the same time, he was seething with jealousy over the success of Emmy-winning producer Nick De Noia, whom he hired in 1981 to choreograph the beefcake troupe’s tour. He allegedly began plotting to have De Noia AND his partner Nahin murdered — but an FBI sting nailed him!
Banerjee was indicted for orchestrating De Noia’s 1987 murder, and he eventually pleaded guilty in a plea bargain to attempted arson, racketeering and murder for hire.
On Oct. 23, 1994, he hanged himself with a bedsheet while in prison serving a 26-year sentence.
Chippendales closed its doors after the deaths of De Noia and Banerjee.
But new owners revived the brand — and today the stunning studs of Chippendales are stripping down for cheering audiences in a $10 million Las Vegas theater!