Homicides and rivalries: the real story of Chippendales strippers on Disney+
Magic Mike is a success outside and inside movie theaters, but this success derives from its predecessor Chippendales, the real-life strippers who wore little more than a bow. Disney+ went back in time and plunged into the unusual history of these American strippers.
This series has eight episodes, where actor Kumail Nanjiani plays the founder of Chippendales Somen "Steve" Banerjee. The cast is also part of actors Murray Bartlett, Dan Stevens or Nicola Peltz Beckham. The story is based on true facts, as revealed by TIME magazine, based on the book "Deadly Dance: The Chippendales Murders", published in 2014, which reports the sinister and crime stories around these strip shows, in addition to reporting the rise and fall of its founder.
This Indian immigrant moved to the US in the 1960s. He bought a decadent nightclub in Los Angeles in 1975. It was named Destiny II, but despite all the changes, the club never prospered. Four years later, with the help of a partner, Banerjee changed the name of the space to Chippendales and turned it into a male striptease space, thus aimed at the female audience.
It must have been Paul Snider's girlfriend, a pimp, Playboy Dorothy Stratten, to suggest that the strippers wear the bow, in a reference to Playboy's bunnies. The owner of the men's magazine, Hugh Hefner, will have given permission for the strippers to use these Playboy references. From here the success was great and thunderous.
The crimes associated with the Chippendales brand began in 1980, when Paul Snider killed Playboy Dorothy Stratten. Banerjee hired, a year after this scandal, choreographer Nick De Noia. In 1985, Nick moved to New York and started the show Chippendales in the city, which would later start the Chippendales Universal tours. This was a company apart from the Chippendales strippers, but Banerjee received half the profits for being the owner of the brand. The success of the brand was associated with Nick and Banerjee began to have more and more grudge against the choreographer, since the strippers began to have calendars and appear on live television programs. A success that didn't seem to end.
Banerjee hired Ray Colon, a former policeman and stripper, and ordered him to murder Nick. The choreographer was found dead in his apartment in New York in 1987 and the case remained unresolved for a few years. In this period of time, Banerjee bought the rights that were held by Nick in the Chippendales. In 1990, Banerjee again hired Ray to eliminate Michael Fullington, a former stripper and choreographer of the Chippendales. All this because Michael had formed a rival group called Adonis: Men of Hollywood. The crime did not happen and Ray reported to the authorities that he had been hired to assassinate Michael.
Ray was used by the U.S. authorities to get closer to Banerjee and with costs to withdraw evidence and evidence of the crimes committed by the owner of the Chippendales. He was arrested and sentenced to 26 years in prison, but Banerjee did not serve his sentence because he committed suicide in the cell.
The successful empire of the Chippendales did not end with the death of its founder. This group today has a notorious residence in Las Vegas and continues to give several shows. In 2020, Banerjee's son, Christian, founded his company of male strippers Strippendales. This story is all available on Disney+.
