The incredible (and violent) story of the Chippendales, the first women’s strip club in the United States

Muscular men dressed only in bow ties and thongs to entertain women in smoky clubs is not a throwback often associated with a naturalized American immigrant from India.

But that’s what Bombay native Steve Banerjee did when he broke out of the mold of the traditional American dream they had in South Asia by founding The club of striptease Male Chippendales in Los Angeles in 1979.

The rest is history. Banerjee made a fortune from what turned out to be a hugely successful franchise. If we add sex, drugs and murder, Banerjee’s story becomes a sensational legend.

In India, Banerjee and his work are hardly known. In America, the Chippendales brand seems to have eclipsed the reputation of its controversial founder. This is changing.

reserved and calculating

Nearly three decades after his death, a podcast and a wide variety of television shows – including the latest Hulu drama series, Welcome to Chippendales (“Welcome to Chippendale”), starring Kumail Nanjiani, remember Banerjee’s story.

“Most people would think the Chippendales founder was an outgoing party animal who chased women, took drugs and drank to excess,” says Scott MacDonald, co-author of the 2014 book. Deadly Dance: The Chippendale Murders (“Death Dance: The Chippendales Murders”).

“Steve was a reserved and calculating man with the clear goal of creating a global brand to rival Disney, Playboy or Polo.”

He is “an exceptional part of history,” says historian Natalia Mehlman Petrzela, whose podcast, welcome to your fantasyrenewed interest in the legacy of the Chippendales.

Spectacled, dark and stocky, Banerjee stood in stark contrast to the fantasy of the “white, blonde, and California man” who sold his franchise.

Coming from a family of printers, Banerjee left India for Canada in his late twenties, late sixties. Soon after, he came to California, where he owned a gas station in Los Angeles.

But Banerjee had bigger ambitions. “I want to drive that car,” he used to say when people came to fill up his luxury vehicles, says Petrzela.

the first dance

In the 1970s, Banerjee used his life savings to buy a seedy bar in Los Angeles, which he called Destiny II, and went to great lengths to draw crowds: backgammonmagic shows and mud wrestling between women.

In 1979, Paul Snider, a nightclub promoter, suggested that we look for Banerjee strippers men – normally only seen in gay clubs – for a show aimed at women.

By then the bar had already been renamed Chippendales to suggest it was a more upscale place.

The performances of striptease They were advertised everywhere women gathered in West Los Angeles, from nail salons to bathroomsPetrzela tells in his podcast.

Chippendales was an instant success and soon attracted large numbers of women every night.

Disneyland for adults

Inspired by Hugh Hefner’s Playboy Bunnies, the dancers wore cuffs on their wrists and ties with form-fitting black pants.

For 1980s America, “this was shocking,” says Petrzela.

But Banerjee’s Chippendales also came at an opportune time, right in the wake of the sexual revolution of the 1970s, when women’s empowerment and sexual liberation could be commodified, the historian explains.

women needed a place where they could “have fun and be acquitted”Barbara Ligeti, promoter of the club, told the documentary series Secrets of the Chippendale Murders from A&E.

“They could see each other, have a few drinks, squeeze a buttock, put $20 in a handsome man’s thong,” she added.

Banerjee wanted to create a kind of “Disneyland for adults”, a brand big enough to rival that of his heroes: Hugh Hefner and Walt Disney.

The show must go on

He met in the early eighties Nick DeNoiaEmmy-winning director and choreographer, who convinced him the show needed an update.

Chippendales dancers and producers credit De Noia with running the show in an interactive theatrical production with characters and plots.

De Noia helped bring the Chippendales production to New York and expand to the United States through a successful tour.

But the tension between the two men quickly rose as the charismatic choreographer became the face of the brand to the point of The nickname “Mr. Chippendale” in the media.

Banerjee, for his part, remained in the background, directing the operation from Los Angeles.

As the differences and clashes between the two deepened, De Noia and Banerjee dissolved their association, revealing the choreographer’s plans to form his own company, US Male.

That was the last straw for Banerjee, a former Chippendales associate producer who helped De Noia on his new venture, said in the A&E documentary.

fatal outcome

Many who knew Banerjee described him as a “paranoid” man for whom success It was a game that only one could win. “He believed that if others succeeded, it would take away his success,” Petrzela said.

When strip clubs emerged as competition, Banerjee hired Ray Colon, a friend turned thug, to sabotage his rivals.

For example, in 1987, on orders from Banerjee, Colon recruited an accomplice who shot De Noia dead in his office.

Although friends and associates suspected Banerjee’s hand in the crime, it took FBI investigators a few years to make the link.

Banerjee’s lawyer Bruce Nahin stated that “the murder had not affected the brand at all”.

In 1991, while in the UK with the Chippendales tour, Banerjee asked Colon to eliminate members of a rival company made by former dancers of his club.

According to FBI evidence, the plan involved injecting them with cyanide, which Colon gave to an accomplice strawberry.

But strawberryRestless, he reported Colon to the FBI.

distorted mirror

Colon was arrested and charged with conspiracy and contract killing. According to the American intelligence service, 46 grams of cyanide were found during a raid on his house.

However, Colon pleaded not guilty and remained loyal to Banerjee for months during his detention.

“It was only after Steve refused to help him by paying a lawyer that Ray finally broke up with him,” MacDonald said.

In 1993, the FBI finally managed to gather enough evidence against Banerjee by using Colon to secretly record a conversation. Banerjee was arrested for racketeering, conspiracy and murder-for-hire, among other costs. He pleaded not guilty.

But after a several months trial, Banerjee accepted a deal of 26 years in prison and the forfeiture of the Chippendales property to the US government.

Petrzela claims that the lawyers of the businessman tried with all means to prevent the confiscation of the company, but in vain. In October 1994, a day before he was due to be sentenced, Banerjee committed suicide in his cell.

“Very few Indian Americans know their history”says Anirvan Chatterjee, organizer of a walking tour that talks about the historical legacy of Berkeley’s South Asian community.

Banerjee’s life was “a twisted mirror version of your typical 1990s California and India business story,” he says, and it contradicted every stereotype about the community.

During his research, Petrzela found that Banerjee had worked hard to assimilate and become a real California businessman, but his Indian accent always stood out in the memories of his interviewees.

“Obviously others always saw him as very foreign and very Indian,” he says. “Even when he’s dead, the first thing people do when they comment on him is mimic his accent.”