True Crime with Kendall Rae - The Dark Truth Behind Chippendales: Founder Organized Murder-For-Hire Plots?

Episode Date: October 20, 2022

In the 70s, people started to become aware of women’s need for adult entertainment, as men have always had the option. But behind the scenes of one of America’s most well-known male striptease shows is a dark history involving murders and secrets. This episode is sponsored by: Apostrophe - promo code: KENDALLRAE Check out Kendall's other podcasts: The Sesh & Mile Higher Follow Kendall! YouTube Twitter Instagram Facebook Mile Higher Zoo REQUESTS: General case suggestion form: https://bit.ly/32kwPly Form for people directly related/ close to the victim: https://bit.ly/3KqMZLj Discord: https://discord.com/invite/an4stY9BCN CONTACT: For Business Inquiries - [e-mail]

This episode is brought to you by Dr. Teals. When you need to relax and recharge, take a bath with Dr. Teals' pure epsom salt. It helps relax the body while the natural essential oils help calm your mind. Enhancer self-care ritual with Dr. Teals' foaming bath for long-lasting bubbles, and Dr. Teals' shey sugar scrubs for smooth glowing skin. Soak in Dr. Teals to recharge the body, mind, and spirit so you can soak in life's important moments. Find it at a Walmart near you, now available with a fresh new look. Hello everyone, and welcome back to my channel.

I am so happy to have you back for another video if you are new. Welcome. So I'm sure many of you have heard of the chip and nails and I'm not talking about chip and Dale Nope, something very different here. I'm talking about the chip and Dale's performances the tours and the chip and Dale's clubs I'm sure many of you have been to the chip and Dale show and let me know how it is I've never been myself But even if you know what the chip and Dale's are or if you've been to the Chip and Dale show, and let me know how it is. I've never been myself, but even if you know what the Chip and Dale's are,

or if you've been to a show before, there's a good chance you may not know the full story behind the Chip and Dale's about how it got started, and all the chaos that happened along the way, and the murders that were committed. And for those of you who aren't familiar with the Chip and Dale's,

maybe you have heard of or seen the movie Magic Mike, that's kind of the easiest thing to compare it to because it's based off of the Chip and Dales. The true story behind the Chip and Dales is very, very interesting and very dark. It's filled with greed, jealousy, and a murder for higher plot that took the FBI across the globe.

And while there are many people involved in this story, there are two kind of key players, if you will. And these two men are Steve Bannerjee and Nick Denoya. So let's start with Steve Bannerjee. He was born on October 8th, 1948, in Mumbai, India. His birth name was actually Shelman, which he changed when he first came to the United States in 1969. And he came here hoping to fulfill a dream. And that dream was to become a nightclub Impasario. I hope I'm saying that right. I had actually never heard this word before, but an impasario is someone that handles never heard this word before, but an impresario is someone that handles finances and kind of organizes and oversees the musical and theatrical performance within a nightclub. So Steve really came over here with the idea of achieving the classic American dream. And his life really was that he had

kind of the classic rags to riches story. His father was also a businessman himself and was pretty successful. He owned a printing company and he really looked up to his dad. But Steve really wanted to make a name for himself instead of working in his dad's printing company. He wanted to have his own success story. So he wanted to start his own business and really start from the bottom up. And when Steve first came to America, he stayed in Playa Del Rey in California. And when he first got there, he started working as a janitor

and he did this for a little while, but not too long because he ended up getting a loan from a friend and used it to start a business right away. He ended up actually becoming the owner of a few mobile gas stations. Now it's kind of unclear if he just got lucky or if he had some type of inside knowledge or was told to make these investments

in the mobile gas stations, but it ended up being a big jackpot for him. Gas prices started skyrocketing in the 70s and he came into a bunch of money very quickly. But even though this was life-changing for him and he was definitely successful, he wanted a different type of success. He wanted to be known for something.

Steve wanted to do something big in the world. Leave a mark on it. In fact, his two role models were Walt Disney and Hugh Hefner. So the success from the gas stations was great, but it is nowhere near what Steve was looking for. But Steve wasn't that typical, you know, go-getter success above all else, kind of power personality. He had those skills, but he was very reserved. He wasn't as confident in himself as you may think. He wanted this kind of larger than life style, but he was very socially awkward and timid and quiet.

Steve was also known to be incredibly private and would barely even talk about his childhood or his family. And as time went on, he became more and more about the money and really less about anything else in his life. He was very cutthroat and extremely competitive and all he really cared about was making as much money as he possibly could. Now the other kind of key player in this story is Nick DeNoia. So Nick was born on May 14th, 1941 in New Jersey and in his professional career Nick is best known for his talents as a producer and in New Jersey. And in his professional career, Nick is best known for his talents as a producer and in choreographer. One of his more famous productions was a show

called Unicorn Tales, which was an eight-part series of musical shows that were for kids. Unicorn Tales was produced and aired in the late 1970s in association with NBC. Fairy Tales, a marvelous, wonderful stories that were supposed to have happened a long time ago. Nick also produced a handful of other movies, including The Stowe Away, Ladies Night,

and The Magic Pony Ride. And there was never a doubt in anyone's mind, especially people that knew him growing up in his family, that Nick was destined for big things, that he was meant for show business. Nick, unlike Steve, was said to have a larger than life personality, and he was often the loudest and most noticeable person in the room, versus Steve, you know, would barely talk.

Nick was also a perfectionist, but even the people that knew him said that the perfection almost wasn't enough for him. He always wanted more better than perfection. That's what Steve expected from the people that he worked with, the people in his life. He had very high standards. So even though he was a very hard working, creative, very innovative person,

he was also known to be very pushy and rude to get what he wanted. He definitely fits that classic Hollywood stereotype of the successful creative director Who's also kind of a dick? He was from New York, so he had a strong accent and was very fast-talking He was the type of guy who just didn't care if he made enemies along the way like he could be really friendly to you but He was always prepared to do whatever needed to squash you if he needed to

Nick himself even said that he can be a nice guy as long as people do what he asks. But Nick doesn't really enter the story until a little bit later. So we're gonna go back in time a little bit to West Hollywood in 1975. So Steve Bannergy at this time has made quite a bit of money with these several mobile gas stations, but he

wants more, and eventually he has enough money to take the next step in his career. He and a business partner were able to go in together on this dumpy bar at 3795 Overland Avenue in West LA, and like I said earlier, Steve wanted to be involved in the nightclub scene. And so they decided to open a nightclub. So in 1975, the two of them purchased this space and they named their new club Destiny 2. Even though there had not been a Destiny 1, they just thought it would make it look more

successful. You know, cause a little more hype around it if people thought that it was the second version of a previously successful club that did not exist. Unfortunately, this did not work and the Destiny 2 was kind of a big flop. There was a lot of competition for clubs in that area. So getting people through the door just wasn't as easy as they thought it was gonna be.

So Steve kinda ended up throwing many different ideas against the wall, just waiting for something to stick. I mean, he tried disco dancing lessons, magic shows, mud wrestling nights, and a lot more. And he even would keep the Destiny 2 open until 4am, even though sometimes he would lose money by doing that, but he hoped that it would, you know,

kind of attract the later night party crowds. But it was his dream to open and run a successful nightclub. So he decided he had to make some changes. He felt like it might really be the name of the club that was causing it to not bring in as many people as they were hoping for. Destiny 2 just wasn't catching on like he hoped, so he decided to go with a new name, and that was Chip and Dales. Now the name Chip and Dales actually comes from a type of 18th century furniture, and Steve Decoried the club with some knock-off Chip and Dales style furniture to give off a nicer appearance. He was really hoping to attract kind of a classier crowd this time. And it definitely helped business a little bit, but it didn't boom like Steve was hoping for. And they didn't really have the big break in Chipendales until 1979, when a guy named Paul got involved.

Paul Snyder was an entrepreneur from Canada, who had come to Los Angeles with his wife Dorothy Hook Stratton, to try to make it big as a club promoter. Now Paul and Dorothy met in Canada when she was only 18 years old. She was beautiful, a very kind young girl, and Paul was a pimp at the time, and unfortunately he decided to take her under his wing. So basically he started grooming her. And not long after they met, meaning she was still very young, Paul decided to hire a photographer to take nude photos of her, and he sent them into playboy.

And the photos ended up catching the attention of the big man himself, Hugh Hefner. Dorothy ended up being selected for the 25th Great Playmate Hunt. And Paul took this opportunity to move them to America, where he could continue to groom Dorothy essentially and try to give her this big career as a Playboy bunny, and also find work for himself, possibly as a club promoter. Eventually, Dorothy became a full-time Playboy bunny, and even landed the title Miss August 1979. And Mr. Haffner took a particularly strong liking to Dorothy and would give her a lot of advice while they were working

together. At one point, he even convinced her to change her last name from Hugsstratton to just Stratton. He thought it was just easier to say, would help her career, and her career started taking off pretty quickly. Now with all the attention that Dorothy was getting from the public and just from other men, it caused a lot of relationship issues between her and Paul. He would even suggest to her many times that Dorothy should just end their relationship, because Paul had been very controlling and protective of her lately. Plus, Hugh just didn't think it looked good for her image as a playboy model. He wanted her to live in the spotlight and be part of every media appearance that she had.

And being married was just not ideal for Hugh, considering she was now a playmate. And being publicly married kind of took away from the allure that he was trying to create. So because of this and many other reasons Paul was not a well-legged person around the playboy world. Many people who knew him, actually a few people who knew him, describe him as being such a slimy type of person that you almost want to take a shower after being around him, which I feel like is a very strong way to describe someone but also really paints a picture. But even though his reputation wasn't too good, that didn't matter much to Steve Banerjee because all he really cared about was money, and not who was gonna make it for him or

their character, it was about who was gonna make him the most money. So in 1979, Paul walks into Steve's club and approaches him with an idea, and Steve is all ears. He tells Steve that he had seen shows in Canada where men would strip for other men for money and that it was very successful. Now obviously, stripping wasn't any type of revolutionary idea at the time. It's been around for a very long time. But for the most part, throughout time,

stripping has mainly been for men to be entertained by women. So Paul thought, you know, why shouldn't men strip for the pleasure of women? I mean, it's a whole untapped market for half the population. So he convinced his Steve that he should try something similar in his club. So Steve thinks it's a great idea and wants to see how it plays out. But his only condition is that Paul stays and MCs the shows. Paul actually really liked that idea and he agreed.

So to find guys for these shows, Paul and Steve literally go out on the beaches in Los Angeles and just start looking for hot guys. Any guy who is working out on the beach, running on the beach, has the body they're looking for, they just walk right up to them and tell them they're interested. Now these weren't the most cream of the crop men that you would find at a chip and nail show now. You know, the standards are really high now, but this is what they could work with at the time. They just needed, you know, pretty attractive guys who could listen, take orders, and weren't afraid to take off their clothes and perform for women. So the very first night that chip and nails has this new show featured,

quite a few women actually showed up, and it was such a success that they would go and tell their friends and words start getting around that this was an awesome show that it was really fun and so every night after that every single chip and Dale show going forward would just get a bigger and bigger audience. It was really the first time that a show like this was catering to women's needs and chip and Dale's kind of hit it out of the park from the very first night. But, you know, it's Paul and Steve that are in charge of all this, so it wasn't what it is today at all. There was almost no structure to these shows.

It was just kind of whatever goes goes. There was no choreography, no costumes, no real themes, but it still managed to attract a lot of attention and a lot of women. And week after week, the audience just continued to grow and so did the amount of excitement. I mean, people would just scream in the audience, people would go wild. Especially because around this time, women were just starting to really express themselves as sexual beings. And it was something very freeing, very cathartic. Women felt like they could just be themselves, be as sexual as they wanted to be.

Have fun with it, because it felt like there would really be no consequence to it all. This was something different than how a lot of them had been raised, you know, how they had seen their mothers raised. And it was a really exciting time. It all began in 1979, when the very first Chippendale's opened on the west side of LA.

The popularity I think was the first time that the equality door was kicked open for women to get the same kind of entertainment options that men have had for years. They could be rowdy, rude, vulgar even, like men. I think it's a great place for world reversal. The men are allowed to go wherever they want. Why can't ladies? God, I can't. The ventilating show for a lady's only little cell out.

It was so popular that they were selling out like night after night. And sometimes they were letting too many people in and overcrowding it. And so Steven Paul realized they really tapped into something special here, that this was gonna be a success. So since Paul had met a lot of people through Dorothy working for Playboy, he had a lot of connections.

And he ended up getting kind of a blessing from Hugh Heffner to sort of imitate the classic Playboy bunny look. They put all the men in collars and cuffs and created this kind of cohesive look that eventually would become nationally recognized when you think of a chip and nail. This is what you picture. And the thing that was also different about chip and nails is no men were allowed. And they said they did this because they thought it made women feel more safe to just go crazy.

Be themselves and let it all go for a night. But the only male that they would let in was Hugh Hefner, who loved Chippendales. The Chippendales and the Playboy Mansion became very intertwined. Like the women from the Playboy Mansion were always just hanging out there. He would be there just hanging out. And remember, this is one of Steve Banner G's idols. He loves Hugh Heffner. So to have him coming to his club on the regular, he just felt on top of the world. So Chippendale's was doing very well by this point.

They were packed out every single night. And obviously there are rules about how many people you can have in your club, maximum capacities, fire codes, but Steve really didn't care about any of this. All Steve cared about was money. Even though the club had a max capacity of $2.99, he would often fill the club with 500 to 600 women, double the maximum capacity. And he was constantly getting in trouble with law enforcement for overcrowding, but he truly did not care. Even when the police would show up and respond to the overcrowding, which obviously is a serious hazard, it only seemed to draw more attention to the club. I mean,

women would hear, wow, it sounds like this is the place to be, and it would just draw in more and more people. So it was working for him. And so it's actually rumored, this isn't confirmed, but it's rumored that Steve Banerjee would sometimes call the police on himself for overcrowding, because to him, all PR was good PR even if it was bad. But as the Chippennails really started to grow more and more in popularity throughout the first year, Paul became a bigger liability. For starters, Paul ended up being a terrible MC. It was just not working.

He was said to have pretty much zero ability to connect with the audience. I mean, it was really all the dancers that carried the show and brought on the excitement. He was kind of just there. He was drinking a lot at the time, more and more every night that went on. And one report said that he started doing drugs as well, but I'm not completely sure on that. Steve eventually thought Paul was gonna jeopardize what he had going for him. So in 1980, he told him to leave Chippendales and to not come back. And around the same time that he had been fired

from Chippendales, his relationship with Dorothy was really struggling. And Dorothy was actually becoming really successful. She was playing native of the year in 1980 and had also started a career as an actress. He thought she had so much potential and really said he cared about her, so he tried to keep Paul as far away from her

as possible and just did not want their relationship to continue. Eventually it worked out for him because Dorothy ended up leaving Paul for a film director named Peter Bogdanovich. So now Paul had nothing. I mean, he felt like he was really part of the reason that Chip and Dale's became so successful and he had lost that.

And he also took a lot of credit for Dorothy's career and her success. And so he just felt like he had nothing left. So Paul decided to seek revenge. On August 13, 1980, Paul bought a used 12-gauge shotgun that he found in a classified ad in the newspaper. So at 11.45 the next day, he drives over to the house that he and Dorothy used to share to meet with Dorothy and go over their financial settlement. At least, that's what he told Dorothy he was there to do but he had a different plan. That afternoon Paul shot Dorothy in the face in a jealous rage

and then right after he turned the gun on himself and ended his own life as well. There are two bodies were found naked side by side on the floor of her bedroom. Now even though Dorothy's murder is incredibly sad and it is connected to the overall Chippendale's murder, it is not the main murder that we're gonna be focusing on today. But Dorothy's murder was the start of a lot of continued toxicity within the Chippendale's franchise. So meanwhile, the Chippendales franchise is still going strong. They didn't miss Paul at all, they got a new MC, he was much better

and they were moving forward. Steve was constantly thinking of ways to make the show, even bigger and better, and of course, bring him in more money. And this can't be stressed enough. I mean, all Steve's energy cared about was money, making more money, and being the biggest and best club in the area, and eventually

taking over with as many locations as he could. And with the club doing so well, Steve decided that he wanted to expand the club beyond the Los Angeles scene. And of course, New York was the next market that he wanted to tap into. He knew that the club would be just as successful in the city that never sleeps, and to him, less sleep means people can stay later. They'll be more dancing and more dancing means more money. So that's where Nick DeNoia comes into the story. In 1981, Steve hired famous TV producer Nick DeNoia to take chip and nails to the next level. One day I get to chip and nails. I knock on the door to Steve's office and there's

someone else in the room and Steve says, uh, Richard, this is Nick DeNoia. He's a producer, choreographer, he's won some awards and he's going to be producing the show. Yeah, let's figure out what the women want and let's give it to them. And Nick really put stars in Steve's eyes. He painted a picture of how successful Chip and Dale's could be in the future, how he could make things even more glamorous, even more luxurious, even more professional. He even told him that he thought he could get

Chip and Dale's to Broadway one day. And Steve was seeing the dollar signs. He knew that this would bring more attention and more attention meant more money. Now, Nick's vision for Chip and Dale's was a little different. It was more about the performance factor of it all than it was about the stripping.

Now, don't get me wrong, there's still plenty of stripping in Nick's choreography, but he just added a higher level of performance and skill. He wanted there to be much more choreography, more organization to the show, and he also wanted there to be storylines and characters that audience members could follow and really connect with. He brought in more dancing, more lighting, and better wardrobes than they had ever had before. And it was all really working. Everything that Nick was adding to the Chip and Dale's really helped them to grow and become more recognizable.

But Steve continued to push the limits and break the laws even as the success was coming in. He just flat out didn't care about maximum capacity laws and he also didn't care much about nudity regulations. To him, at the end of the day, if it was exponentially making money, he was cool with anything. He was so willing to bend the rules that he would allow pretty much any behavior in the early days. And eventually it got absolutely insane. People started just openly having sex

in the middle of these shows, in the back of the theater, in the stairways, in the bathrooms. Some people were actually just going outside doing it right on the front lawn. And Steve didn't care. Didn't care at all. This episode is brought to you by Dr. Teals. When you need to relax and recharge, take a bath with Dr. Teals' pure epsom salt. It helps relax the body while the natural essential oils help calm your mind.

Enhance yourself care ritual with Dr. Teal's foaming bath for long-lasting bubbles, and Dr. Teal's shea sugar scrubs for smooth glowing skin. Soak in Dr. Teal's to recharge the body, mind, and spirit so you can soak in life's important moments. Find it at a Walmart near you, now available with a fresh new look. From joyful occasions to the unexpected, first Franklin financial makes loans for living, offering fixed rates and flexible terms on loans up to $15,000. The next time you're looking for some extra cash to help make ends meet, come see the friendly Franklin folks, or visit us at 1ffc.com to learn more.

All loan terms and APRs depend on meeting or underwriting an income criteria and may require collateral. First Franklin financial corporation is licensed by the Virginia State Corporation Commission CFI-215. Georgia Residential Mortgage Licency 5656, MMLS, N-141414, not available in North Carolina. Because the club was doing so well, there was so much success and a lot of this new success was coming directly from the work that Nick DeNoia was putting in. What was the reaction from the work that Nick DeNoia was putting in. So Chippin Nails started getting more and more media attention. Nick ended up being the person that would really face the media, be a face of Chippin Nails.

And it worked really well because he had a way bigger personality than Steve that really worked to his advantage. Nick lived for the spotlight and Steve hated it, so it was kind of a good mix. But then people started calling Nick the founder of chip and nails, which in reality he had only been hired to do choreography and take up the entertainment value. And of course, because Steve Bannergy had such a fragile ego, the idea that Nick was getting the attention for Chippendale's really started to eat at him.

He felt like he wasn't getting the attention that he deserved, wasn't getting the credit for the phenomenon that was the Chippendale's. So that's where the tension between Nick and Steve really started to boil. There had always been a little bit of competition and like slight disagreements on things along the way, but at this point their relationship became toxic. Because the more Nick would take the spotlight, the angrier Steve would become.

And eventually Steve really was kind of invisible in the public eyes when it came to Chippendales. Chippendales became known as Nick's show, and eventually he made it pretty clear that he thought it was his show too. There was also major disagreements between the two of them about how they should go about hiring their talent. Nick really wanted people who were skilled in dance could follow choreography and perform well, while Steve was much more focused on just getting the hottest dudes that he could find.

To him, it didn't really matter if they could dance that well, or had a good stage presence, or could build up a character to him, he just wanted them to look good in a thong. So eventually, it was really no secret within the chip and nails that Nick and Steve hated each other. They saw things differently. Nick came from what's best for the production. Steve came from what pretty boy's gonna sell more calendars. I don't care if he can't dance.

And on top of all this tension and drama between Steve and Nick, the club itself had drawn some very negative attention in the early 80s when it became very clear that the Chippendales was radically discriminating against guests. So as I mentioned earlier, initially the Chipendales was a female only club. However, eventually Steve ended up opening the bar during after hours to both men and women, because the bar sales were a great source of revenue. But Steve was absolutely ruthless and straight discriminatory when deciding who was allowed in as far as men go.

It became very obvious, very quickly, that Steve was only allowing in white men. It turns out he actually thought that people of color could scare the women. Yeah. And Steve knew this was racist, and he didn't care. He didn't care about anything, but money. That is until he got caught doing it. Don Gibson, who is a second year lost to net UCLA, wanted to check out chip and nails during the after hour, so he and a friend in Barry went there. But when they got there, they were told by security that they had been denied entry because they didn't have a membership card. They said that this was apparently required for entry. Now it's important to note that Don is black and his friend Barry is white. So the bouncer tells

them that if they want to get into the club, they're going to have to go to this other building like down the street and get a membership card, which was a couple hundred dollars each. So essentially, he made it seem kind of impossible to get this membership card. And initially, Don didn't think too much of this encounter. All he knew is he was not going to pay a couple hundred dollars for a membership card, so we just kind of let it go and went on with his night. It wasn't until a few weeks later that he runs into Barry, who had actually gotten into Chip and Dale's on his own without a membership card,

and that's when it all clicked. It wasn't about a membership card. Don and Barry were initially denied entrance to Chipendale's because Don is black. So he ended up devising a plan with two of his white friends, and the three of them got all dressed up to attend Chipendale's for the night. And when they got to the club, Don, yet again, was denied entry because he didn't have the membership card. But then after that, he watched his friends get let right in without their membership card. So just a few minutes after that, his friends obviously come back out

and they meet outside to discuss. His friends had gone their hand stamps, they had proof that they had been let in, and the three of them ended up getting back in the line and going right back up to the bouncer and confronting him saying you didn't let me in because I'm black and you let my two white friends in. Of course the bouncer was quick to deny it. He said it wasn't because of his skin color. It was because he didn't have a membership card. But he was there with his two white friends who had just been let in with stamps on their hands and they did not have this card. So the bouncer was caught in a lie and now Don had what he needed for a discrimination case.

So Don filed his complaint that Chippendale's was racially discriminating against men of color and an investigation was started. But Steve and Chippendale's lawyers continuously denied these allegations even though Don had proof and many others had come forward with similar stories. But in the weeks that Don was waiting to hear back from state agencies about the investigation, he ended up getting a call from a car rental company. They called him because they found a file in one of their rental cars, and it mentioned Don's name in it. And after he went in and picked up the papers, he realized that they were left behind in the rental car by a private investigator, which

Good job, dude. But this investigator had been hired by Chippendales to follow Don and not only were they following Don Steve had also set up a sex worker to meet up with Don and frame him with drugs. He was hoping this would work as blackmail, that he could pressure Don into dropping all the claims about racism at Chippendales and kind of clear their name. And if that wasn't enough to freak him out, then Don gets a call from a dancer at Chippendales. His name was Hadari, and he was the only black dancer to work at Chip and Dales. And Hadari told Don that he felt like he needed to tell him that his life may be in danger. Hadari said that he actually heard Steve say that it would be in his best interest if Don was gone. Now he didn't specifically say what he meant by gone, but Hadari just knew by the type of guy that Steve was that he meant dead.

It sort of became the norm that Steve would threaten anyone who dared to cross him or challenge the chip and Dale's and all the success and money he was bringing in. So Don and his lawyer end up suing Steve in a federal class action lawsuit. And in the end, Steve ended up having to pay Don $10,000 and also pay out $85,000 in damages to other people that he discriminated against. And also at this time he agreed to hire more black dancers. Now I think he got off way too easily here. But let's continue because it

just gets worse. So yes, there were a lot of legal battles being fought in the early 80s for Chippendales But the club was still bringing in tons of money and in 1983 Steve was raking in eight million dollars a year from the club So at this point Steve decided it was time to take Chippendales to New York City Finally the way he would always wanted to and he was gonna have Nick do this sending Sending Nick to New York was supposed to help grow the business and bring Steven more money. But it was actually going to get Nick out of his face as well, which he wanted. The fighting between the two of them was just starting to get out of hand. They disagreed on everything. They had completely different visions and different goals.

But despite all of their disagreements, Chip and Dale's in New York was an overnight success. All the buzz from the West Coast had made its way to the east and women were already lined up that first night to see the Chipendale dancers perform in the New York club. New York also brought in a lot of celebrities, which really boosted the media attention dramatically. Nick had been workshopping the show so that when the dancers started in New York, they were performing all new acts this time that were bigger and better than his previous work in LA, and he was super excited about it.

The Chip and Dale men also started getting featured on some of the biggest daytime talk shows as well, and they had them perform, right, on daytime live TV, and people loved it. And of course, Nick, who was really seen as the founder of Chip and Dale's at this point, and the attention was always there for whatever appearance they had standing by proud. And anytime he could get camera time or be part of the interviews, he would jump for that chance. He really took ownership, he really acted like he was proud of his work and his creation, so anyone watching just figured he was the founder. And he never really hesitated to claim responsibility for the success and the birth of Chip and Nails,

even though it was really Steve Banerjee who had started it all. And of course, this made Steve really pissed. So just because they were on two different sides of the country now, did not mean that the fighting between them ever stopped. And eventually it got to the point where the two of them were just barely speaking

unless they had to for business reasons because it just became so hostile. And then there was one event that really drove the final wedge between Nick and Steve. And this was something known as the napkin deal, which happened in 1984. Steve and Nick decided to meet a better restaurant, see if they could kind of work on their differences, kind of ease the tension a little bit, and see if they could continue working together as business partners long-term. So they met up at this restaurant and they were joined by another chip and Dale's dancer, Dan Peterson. And apparently as soon as they sat down, they were at each other's throats. First of all, Nick wanted more compensation because he felt like he had been a huge part

of the new found success of Chip and Dales and making it really what it was today. He wanted to be recognized for all of the hard work that he had put in and the success that he had brought to the brand, but Steve was not into that. Giving up some of his profits to Nick, just wasn't gonna fly for him. So the

Nick comes up with a plan and he convinces Steve to sign the famous napkin deal. He told Steve that he would give him 50% of the profits from the New York Club but that he has the right to take chip and nails on the road and he also wrote, I own this in perpetuity. Nick just knew that if he took the Chippendale's on tour, it would be incredibly profitable. And when he proposed this idea to Steve, he just knew that that success was going to be there. So he literally writes down this deal on a cocktail napkin.

And Steve ends up signing it because he does not think that Chippendale's on tour will do well at all. He doesn't care. And also, he didn't know at the time what in perpetuity actually meant, which it means forever. And he didn't know this, but he had just legally signed a binding document that grants Nick half of the profits from the New York Club and all of the profits for Chipendale's on tour forever. And so Nick gets the tour going, and it doesn't take long for the word to get out that Chipendale's

is going on tour. The first show took place in Philadelphia, followed by Atlantic City, and it was even more successful than Nick had imagined, because instead of performing for a few hundred women, they were able to secure venues for thousands of women. So as you'd expect, a lot of money started coming in through these tours. And the touring Chippendale dancers were performing twice a night with only one day off. And as soon as he saw the success and money that was coming from the tours, Steve started to feel like Nick had betrayed him, taken what was rightfully his.

And he also started believing that Nick was with holding profits from him as well. And by the mid 80s, the touring profits were reaching up to $80,000 a week. But Steve really had one saving grace on his side. And that was the Chip and Dale's calendar. The first Chip and Dale's calendar came out in 1981, and pretty much every year since it gained insane popularity and got bigger and bigger every year. The first year they printed 100,000 copies and eventually they would start printing up to more than a million copies a year.

And even though Steve was producing these calendars and making insane amounts of money doing it, he was still just fuming every day at the idea that Nick had tricked him into signing over the profits for the Chippenales tour. And then in 1986 Steve really fucked up. You see Steve was in charge of taking a look at the final draft of the calendar, seeing if there were any mistakes before it was sent off to printing. And if you remember, he had actually grown up in a family printing business. So it was a big part of his life. And so he wanted to be the one to approve the final version.

However, in 1986, he did a really rushed job looking things over and there were quite a few mistakes. Their huge shipment of calendars comes in, and some kid actually comes flying into Steve's office and tells him there's a mistake. and some kid actually comes flying into Steve's office and tells him there's a mistake. Right off the bat, when he looks, there are 31 days in February.

Now, we all know February has only 28 days, so you can't sell a calendar that has the wrong amount of days in a month. I mean, you just can't do it. But Steve had an absolute panic because this was all out of his pocket and he was going to lose $700,000 over it. So he tried everything he could think of to see if there was a way they could still sell

these calendars. He even at one point wanted to get stickers and kind of replace the numbers and make it work because May also had the incorrect number of days as well. But none of that was going to work. They realized that these calendars could not be sold. So at this point, his anger was at an all-time high. I mean, he had just made this massively expensive mistake. And meanwhile, Nick is just raking it in.

He's on top of the world. And Steve feels like all of that really belongs to him. So Steve decides that he is just gonna go ahead and start his own tour. So he gets his own group of dancers and they hit the road. He was hoping that this could help him make the money back from the calendar fiasco and make even more in the future.

But based on the original napkin deal, Nick was the only one who was allowed to take the Chippenale show on tour. He found out pretty much right away what Steve was doing and he ended up going to court and getting an order that would forever shut down Steve's rival, Chip and Dale's tour. And I'm sure we can all guess how Steve's energy felt about this. He had lost major profits from this napkin deal, he had lost thousands of dollars from the calendar, mistakes, and now Nick had made sure that Steve would never

take chip and nails on the road. So that's when Steve Bannerjee finally hit his breaking point. He was fed up with Nick stealing the spotlight on what he felt like he had truly created. He was mad that he was getting all the attention and credit for it, and he was mad that he was making money off what he thought was rightfully his.

So on the morning of April 7, 1987, Steve was in LA, per usual, and Nick was in his office in New York. Nick and his two co-workers, Will and Robin were at the office at 9am. There was a client meeting that was scheduled for later that morning in a different office that Will was supposed to attend, but he wasn't feeling well, so Robin decided to go. And not long after she left, a man came into their office on the 15th floor. This man was described as Hispanic around 5'8", 35 years old, wearing jeans and a brown tan-ish jacket.

First, he walks in and spots Will, and he goes up to him and asks if he is Nick DeNoia. And he says no, but he's right over there. He points over to Nick's office, which is over in the back. This man walks back to Nick's office, walks in, and a few seconds later Will hears a gunshot. And then the door just quietly opening and closing once again, and the man left. He ran into Nick's office and found him with a gunshot to the head, and he was just slumped over in his office chair. Nick was pronounced dead that same morning, and the investigation into who killed him began. At first, police started trying to figure out a motive for this crime. I mean, it's pretty to figure out a motive for this crime.

I mean, it's pretty obvious this was a direct personal hit that was done very quickly and in an organized way. I mean, it just didn't make sense for it to be like a robbery or something random like that since this guy had gone up 15 floors and asked for Nick by name. I mean, it was clearly a personal hit. Now, keep in mind, Nick had a lot of people who just didn't like him.

A lot of the people that worked at Chippendales, I mean, he could be really, really tough on them. So when police came in to interview that Chippendale's dancers, they asked them who they thought would, you know, wanna kill Nick DeNoia and why? And a lot of them kind of said that who wouldn't want to kill Nick.

I know it sounds awful, but I mean person after person just told the police that he had pushed so many people so hard and it'd been rude to several people along the way. And he wasn't well liked. But of course the police have to figure out who exactly it was. They have to do their due diligence and go through everybody and figure out who has it out for Nick the most And so the investigation kind of jumped from one motive to the next at first. They actually thought it was some type of Crime of passion like a lovers Triangle something like that then they started thinking that maybe this crime was entirely related to the mob and when it came time for them to look at Steve Bannergy as a potential suspect, he was actually cleared really fast. He was actually at a restaurant across the country when Nick was shot, giving him a rock solid alibi.

And so for a while, the case just kind of went cold. Now that Nick was dead, Steve was able to buy back the touring rights. So he finally had what he wanted, and one was gonna stand in his way now, plus no one knew that he was the one responsible for Nick's death. Seriously, for a while, nobody really suspected that he could have been involved in anyway. So the first few months after Nick's death,

Steve was kinda right in the high. The clubs, the touring, the calendars, everything was making so much money, and now it was all going back to hit. But then things started to get a little rocky at the original Los Angeles club. If you remember earlier, I mentioned the story of Don Gibson, who was discriminated against while trying to get into chip and dales. The issues with that case were starting to resurface, and the fire department was really on their ass because they were constantly breaking the maximum capacity lots. Eventually got so bad that the department of alcoholic beverage control ended up revoking their liquor license and in

1988 the original chip and dales officially closed. So with the LA club shut down now all that Steve has is the New York club the calendars and the touring But it's all making plenty of money, so he's really not that concerned. But with Steve being Steve, he decided that it wasn't enough. He wanted to take Chip and Dale's overseas. So in 1991, he meets with Carl Layton Pope,

who is a well-known music agent that would have the capacity to make Chip and Dale's a success in London. And just like the New York Club and the touring show, Chippendales was an instant success in London. So much so that the show started selling out in less than three weeks. It wasn't long before Chippendales was on tour in Europe and performing in places like France, Belgium, Holland, Denmark, and Sweden.

Women all across the globe wanted a piece of the chip nails. And now with worldwide recognition and growing popularity, they started getting a lot of competitors. There were now other male dancer groups that were performing for crowds of women, and these groups were in no way associated with chip and nails. And Steve, of course, who was a very greedy and jealous person, did not like this. In fact, he saw it as the ultimate threat. And he got especially mad when Chip and Dale dancers actually started leaving Chip and Dale's to go work for some of these other companies.

There was one group in particular called Adonis that was started by former Chip and Dale dancers and it became a huge target of Steve. One of the dancers that had left Chip and Dale's to start at Donnis was this man named Reed Scott. And at one point he had been sort of the it guy for Steve. Because women loved him, they loved his performances, and he was known to bring in a ton of money. So him leaving Chippendale's to go dance for a Donnis, really put a target on his back. So in 1991, a Donnis had booked A Performance in Blackpool,

England. Blackpool is actually a resort town, so they had booked a large venue with a high earning potential. But on the night of the performance, just as the dancers are getting going, they are all told to stop. This was right after the show began

and everyone was really confused. But it turned out a detective from the FBI was there, and he informed the dancers that there had been a threat made against them. They had actually intercepted a call that said there was a contract put on their lives. Specifically, the contract mentioned three men, including Reed Scott, that were set to be killed that night via cyanide injection. And even after they were told this, and they were all horrified, the show went on. The whole Adonis group continued to perform that night, knowing that their

lives were in danger. Reed said from the beginning he knew that this was being orchestrated by Steve Bannerjee, and he ended up starting to sleep with a knife next to his bedside, because he was so scared. So it wasn't long after this incident in Blackpool that another FBI agent received a call from one of his informants who was named Strawberry. And he tells them that he had actually been hired by a man named Ray Cologne to go to Blackpool to poison three exotic male dancers with cyanide. Now, Ray Cologne was associated with the Mafia, and he met Steve in 1978. And after meeting, Ray sort of became Steve's go-to guy for anything he needed. And this could be something as simple as changing out studio equipment, but he was willing

to do much more, including murdering anyone that got in the way of Steve's business. He gave him an eye dropper bottle full of cyanide and he told him this is what you do you follow him into the men's room you hit him on the head with a hammer and then you inject him with the cyanide so this person strawberry took all this he flew over there got cold feet and he comes back to the United States and he goes into our office and that's how we get involved. So the FBI raid this guy's house in July of 1981 and they find a ton of cyanide. They found 46 grams, which is actually enough to kill 230 people. So obviously, Ray was arrested and after sitting in jail for just seven months, he decided that he

wants to cooperate with law enforcement. The case was being led by FBI agent Scott Garriola, and Ray told Scott and his team about his hit against the Adonis dancers, as well as crucial information about Nick DeNoia's murder. He explained that it was Steve who hired him to take out the Adonis dancers, and it was also Steve who asked him to find someone else to kill Nick DeNoia. So while Ray hadn't been the one to actually pull the to kill Nick De Noia. So while Rey hadn't been the one to actually pull the trigger on Nick De Noia, he was the one who hired Gilberto Rivera Lopez to do the job. They also learned that at this point Gilberto had already gone to prison on an unrelated charge,

so he was kind of a lesser concern for that moment. Their main focus was going after Steve and getting a confession on tape. So in order to get this, they decide that they are going to temporarily release Ray Cologne so that he can be an undercover informant for them. But obviously Steve was very wary about what he would say and getting him to admit casually would be very difficult. He was insanely paranoid and they just knew that there was no way he was going to talk about it or admit anything over the phone. So they ended up setting up an in-person meeting on June 23rd, 1992, Steven Ray set up a meeting at an iHOP in Santa Monica. And of course, to catch the admission on tape, Ray had to wear a wire that the FBI fastened to his underwear,

making it undetectable. However, this meeting was a giant fail. But because of Steve's extreme paranoia, I mean, he felt like the walls were kind of closing in on him, he ended up taking Rey into the bathroom to talk, and he made him strip off all his clothes. So the wire was useless. And then in the bathroom,

Steve only communicated with Rey via post-it notes. And anytime Rey would ask a question, Steve would write the answer down, show it to him, then rip it up and flush it right down the toilet. And obviously, there is just no way of recovering these notes, so the investigation team was kind of left with nothing. So their next step was to get Ray to meet with Steve again, but this time to keep Steve from being suspicious, which was going to be very hard to do. The issue now was that Steve knew that Ray had been arrested and released. So they kind of had to devise an entirely new story that would put

Steve at ease about talking to Ray. His idea was for Ray to pretend that he was released from prison, not to help them out, but to actually get treatments for a terminal issue related to his kidneys. And Ray had actually had issues with his kidneys in the past. So this was especially believable. Then their plan was to have Ray call Steve and tell him that he had escaped from these treatments and was now a fugitive on the run.

And in the call, he would tell Steve to meet him overseas in Europe. And surprisingly, this whole thing worked. Steve actually agreed to meet Ray all the way at a hotel in Zurich, Switzerland. And they actually put Ray in a disguise so that it would further the narrative that he was on the run. When Steve showed up at the hotel, he meets Ray at the room that he had rented. But what he didn't know is there was actually FBI agents on either side of that room, listening to everything.

But obviously it's a difficult thing. Ray can't just bring up the murders casually right off the bat. He's got to figure out a way to do it casually so that Steve doesn't get suspicious. So he starts just talking about basically anything else and he is hoping that Steve will just bring it up on his own. So hours go by, the FBI is just listening and recording the whole time, but nothing of importance is said. And the FBI agents were starting to feel a little panicked because at this point it had been three hours and they hadn't gone anything out of him. And to make things even harder, Steve actually at one point said that

he didn't trust Ray, and at one point he got up and banged on the hotel walls and said that they were so thin that someone could just be listening to him. So it seemed like he was kind of catching on. But just when they were about to give up, after four hours of talking, Steve gave the FBI exactly what they were looking for. He starts talking to Rey about how, when he had been arrested, he was curious if they had brought up Nick DeNoia, at all, at what she called him D.

That was their code name for Nick, so that just in case anyone was listening, you know, they wouldn't be able to connect it back, even though it's very obvious. He keeps asking Rey about, you know, what they had asked him regarding D, and specifically, he wants to know if the FBI knew that he was the one who gave Ray the money to buy the gun to Kill Nick.

So now with this conversation recorded, the FBI had gotten enough on tape to learn about Steve's complicity in hiring Ray and attempting to kill the Adonis dancers. And that is what stunk Steve Bannerj's ship. He was officially rested and put behind bars on September 2nd, 1993, where he faced life in prison in addition to a $1.75 million fine. Now considering how much he makes, this is clearly a low payout, but it was all that they

asked for. He was charged on eight different counts and immediately denied bail because he was considered a flight risk. Steve sat in jail for a few months and eventually decided to make a plea deal with the courts. Steve's friends said that he wanted his freedom more than anything, more than his success, more than the money, more than the chip and dill's franchise that he had started, so he said that he would plead guilty to murder and give up his shares in Chipendales in exchange for a lesser sentence. This was a big deal for him. I mean, he was going to be giving up ownership of the Chipendales and the greater parent company, EZB Enterprises,

Incorporated. But this deal would still require him to serve 26 years in prison. And of course, when people found out about this plea, they were rightfully angry. I mean, he got up very easy. I mean, he had killed someone and plotted to kill many more. But the courts had already agreed to accept his plea and his sentencing hearing was set to take place in October 24th, 1994. Now, the morning of his sentencing,

a lot of people showed up to see this. A lot of people who are very angry with Steve and wanted to see the karma finally hit him. A lot of them were people who were part of the Chippenails family, whether that's just people who worked there or dancers themselves, who had felt, you know, victimized by him. They wanted to see him handcuffed and sentenced,

even though they felt like the plea was not true justice. So they all arrive at the courthouse waiting for what feels like hours when a man suddenly comes out and tells them casually that there will be no hearing. Everyone was angry, everyone was confused, but then they quickly found out it was because that morning they had discovered Steve Bannerj's body hung in his jail cell by his bed sheet and a coat hanger. Instead of facing the consequences of his actions, Steve took the cowardly way out. He had committed suicide at age 47.

There are a few theories about why Steve killed himself. Many people think that the guilt got to him, some think that he just didn't feel like he could handle prison, and some people think that he just didn't feel like he could handle prison. And some people think that he just wanted rights to the Chippendale's name from the grave, even, you know, in death. And that's how it went. I mean, because Steve killed himself, his assets went to his family instead of the government. And now his family had complete control of the Chippendale's empire. So many people think that that's the reason why he did it. Many people think that he was just so desperate

for control of the Chipendales that he would rather be dead than see the government take what he had built. So although Chipendales was inherited by the Banerjee family, they ended up selling it off and relinquishing themselves of the responsibility and shame that came along with it. Gilberto Rivera Lopez, who had shot and killed Nick De Noya on behalf of Steve, was eventually convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to an additional 25 years to live for that crime.

Ray Cologne, who had actively aided in the FBI's investigation of Steve's energy, ended up pleading guilty to conspiracy and murder for hire, but was given a reduced sentence and served two years, because he had helped them out with the Steve. Ray was released in 1996, but remained on house arrest for a while. But even though Chip and Dale's went through a lot of turmoil and a lot of horrific events, the shows themselves have never stopped. It's now owned by someone else else and it still remains very popular. People love the Chip and Dale show. But I think it's pretty interesting that, you know, most people that go to those shows don't really know the history,

don't know all the toxicity that led to the Chip and Dale's being what it is today. That is going to be it for me today, guys. Thank you for joining me for another episode. And make sure you follow the show on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. It really does help me out. If you want to watch the video version of this show, you can find it on my YouTube channel, which will be linked, or you can just search Kendall Ray. I will be back with another episode soon,

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