Who was Somen ‘Steve’ Banerjee? Chippendales boss who gave male strippers fame tried to get all rivals killed
A new Discovery+ four-part true-crime series, ‘Curse of the Chippendales’, will explore the dark side of a 1980s all-male striptease dance troupe. The series tells the story of how the dance troupe took the LA nightclub scene by storm, ended up with international fame and ultimately, got tangled up in murder and deceit.
“The Chippendales achieved a coveted and rare goal: becoming an iconic, household name around the world,” the official description for the series reads. “Their trademark style of barely-there costumes briefly sported by perfectly-chiseled men would be forever recognized, often emulated, and famously parodied. Their brand became a multi-million-dollar global venture, successful beyond their wildest dreams. But of three unlikely dreamers who were there at the beginning, only one would make it out alive.”
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Not just Discovery+, this story will find a separate adaptation on Hulu as well. ‘Silicon Valley’ and ‘The Big Sick’ actor Kumail Nanjiani will star as Chippendales founder Somen ‘Steve’ Banerjee in the upcoming Hulu series ‘Immigrant’. The eight-episode limited series will, as per its official description, tell the "insane, darkly comedic, crime-ridden story behind the unique male revue that became a cultural phenomenon."
Who was Somen ‘Steve’ Banerjee?
Born on October 8, 1946, in Mumbai, India, Banerjee moved to Southern California in 1969. In 1971, he reportedly bought a gas station and capitalized on the oil shortages to hike prices, using the profits to rent a nightclub in West LA. There, he struck gold.
The club, Chippendales, opened in 1979. And it featured something decidedly unique. Muscled, baby-oil-slicked male dancers, wearing collars, cuffs, black Spandex pants, and little else. The ‘Women only” shows proved to be a success. At the time, Banerjee told the Los Angeles Times: “I wanted to package an all-American, Ivy-league look and sell it to the American women. The minute the lady walks in here, she feels it’s something different.”
Of course, with success comes problems. In 1981, Banerjee brought Nick De Noia, an Emmy-award-winning television director on board and let him hire the talent, choreograph the routines and run the show. The Chippendales soon became one of the hottest acts in LA. "Nick also adored the spotlight, so when interviewers lavished praise on him, he tended to beam rather than share the credit with Steve,” said Natalia Petrzela, historian and host of ‘Welcome To Your Fantasy’ podcast. “This only stoked the resentment between them.”
The clashes between Banerjee and De Noia only intensified over the years — even going so far as to become a legal dispute in courts. On April 7, 1987, Nick De Noia was shot in the face with a large caliber pistol while sitting at his 15th-floor office desk at 264 West 40th Street, Manhattan. Six years later, in 1993, a federal grand jury indicted Banerjee for allegedly orchestrating the murder. The indictment alleged that Banerjee asked Augustine Ralph Angel Colon to kill De Noia and that the two men offered a third, unidentified individual an undisclosed sum to carry out the murder.
Banerjee was first arrested the same year and was charged with hiring a man in 1990 to kill three of his former Chippendale’s associates who were then affiliated with a rival male dance group called Adonis. Banerjee, as per the indictment, allegedly plotted in 1990 and 1991 to kill Mike Fullington, Read Scot and Steve White, his former associates who at the time were affiliated with Adonis, the rival dance group. Banerjee also is accused of attempting to orchestrate the murder of Dr Jagjit Sehdeva of Marina del Rey in 1990. Those murders were never carried out.
Banerjee was also accused of violating the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) through a pattern of racketeering activity — including murder, murder for hire, solicitation to commit murder, and arson. “The basic theme of the new indictment is that anybody or anything that got in Banerjee’s way, he would hire somebody to kill or burn the competitor,” said Charlie Parsons, special agent in charge of the Los Angeles FBI office.
Banerjee was accused of orchestrating attempted arsons at Moody’s Disco in Santa Monica in 1979, and the Red Onion Restaurant & Bar in Marina del Rey in 1985. Neither arson was consummated, as per the LA Times.
On July 29, Banerjee pleaded guilty in federal court to the racketeering charge, which included arranging DeNoia’s murder and attempted arson. Banerjee also agreed to forfeit his interest in Chippendale’s parent company, Easebe Enterprises Inc. Under terms of the plea bargain, Banerjee would have likely been sentenced to 26 years in prison.
On October 23, 1994, Banerjee committed suicide in his jail cell, just hours before he was scheduled to be sentenced to a lengthy prison term. “Mr Banerjee tied a piece of bedsheet around his neck, placed it on a wall-mounted jacket hanger, and pulled down on it while he kneeled, causing the flow of air to be cut off; that caused his death,” said Reonard McFadden, then-executive to the warden at the detention center. McFadden also said that although Banerjee had been suffering from depression, there was no hint that he might take his own life.