Original subtitles

['80s music playing]

[audience cheering]

[Candace] We were travelling all around the east coast

and by April, we landed in Indianapolis.

Nick De Noia.

We played at a club downtown called Don't Ask.

It was a wonderful city, a wonderful club.

We were doing very, very well there. We were...

excited!

Tonight. Tonight we open at Don't Ask.

[crowd cheering]

[Candace] But I remember that Nick had to leave in the middle of the run.

He told me that he was going to New York.

And the night before he was to leave we had dinner together.

I have a picture of us together that night.

We toasted one another with wine.

He left me in charge.

And he went to New York

in April of 1987.

[line ringing]

[man speaking 1]

[woman speaking]

[man 1 speaking]

[man 2 speaking]

[man 1 speaking]

[man 2 speaking]

[man 1 speaking]

[woman speaking]

[man 1 speaking]

[woman] Oh, wow.

[phone ringing]

[Geddes] I was at my desk, and I received a phone call.

That there's been a shooting, at West 40th Street.

And it appears to be a homicide,

and they need the detectives over there forthwith.

So me and my partners get up rushed out, jumped in our car,

and proceeded to go to the scene of the crime.

We turned the corner, onto 40th Street

you could see there was a police presence there already.

One of the officers told us there's someone shot up on the 15th floor.

We got on the elevator and went up to the 15th floor.

We were met by some uniformed officers,

who directed us to the office, where the shooting occurred.

The victim was laying on the floor with a bullet hole in his head.

And the gentleman was dead.

I was informed that he was one of the owners of Chippendales.

[Candace] Nick is in New York.

And I get a phone call,

from a good friend of Nick's

and tells me...

that Nick had been

shot in the head,

in his office.

That a man had walked into the office and shot him dead.

I don't remember hanging up the call.

I just...

was dead.

My world came to an end.

This was incomprehensible.

New York City Police are trying to determine the motive

in the murder of an award-winning television producer and choreographer.

The victim, Nicholas De Noia, was shot to death in his office.

Investigators say there was no sign of a robbery or struggle.

Steve called me on the phone and told me,

that Nick had been shot and killed.

My mouth was hanging open...

just shocked.

I couldn't believe that

tragedy struck again.

I didn't wanna...

believe that, that it really happened. I thought it was a joke at first.

[reporter on TV] De Noia staged the original dance routines

of the Chippendale male strippers.

It was devastating to, you know, to have a friend...

get shot like that. That was just, you know...

That was shameful. It was just sad.

[Geddes] One of the officers introduced us to a gentleman by the name of Will Mott.

He was the only witness that we had

at the scene when Mr. De Noia was killed.

You could see he was upset.

He said that a gentleman came into the office,

male, Hispanic, around 5'9" or so.

And said, "Are you Nick?"

He said, "No, Nick is in the other office."

Then Mr. Mott went to the bathroom,

which was located right down the end of the hall.

And he said, "I heard what appeared to be a gunshot."

Like a loud bang.

Then he hears the exit door, open and close.

He ran into the office,

and found Nick, lying on the floor with a gunshot wound.

And immediately called 911.

[Candace] That night...

I decided

the show would go on.

There's no question, this is what Nick would want.

They are scheduled to perform and they will perform. As you can see,

the ladies are already lined up.

They go down this line and then down...

There's a moment in the show however...

when the Perfect Man,

is revealed...

[audience cheering]

[Candace] ...and I was in the back of the house

and that moment my mouth dropped open.

And I just started to scream

and howl.

Like a dying, wounded animal.

It was just primal.

And nobody heard me.

I walked the club like a zombie.

Immediately after the show,

the press was descending upon the club.

Our thoughts are with his family right now.

And that's about all we are able to think about at this moment

are his parents...

and his brother, and his sister-in-law and the rest of his extended family.

[Candace] I felt like I was bleeding from my pores.

All the air is knocked out of me.

Nick is my friend, he's my mentor, he's my companion.

And he's...

snatched.

And gone.

And the flashbulbs are in your eyes.

And they're asking...

"Do you know who did it?"

And I was convinced

that it was Steve Banerjee.

But of course I answer, "I don't know."

"I don't know." "I don't know."

[Dan] That was not Steve at all.

That was not him.

And people who say it was him, didn't know him.

Steve was blackmailed by one of the guys at the club.

And instead of making a stink about it

and suing and doing all this stuff

Steve paid him off and let him stay at the club.

Come on, that's not an aggressive person.

[Read] I couldn't envision him being that person.

He was too mousy.

He let Nick De Noia berate him in front of every employee all the time.

And he didn't do anything about it.

That's not who I would think from those interactions, would do it.

[Bruce] When Steve told me Nick had been shot,

he said to me, "I wonder who did this."

Was it someone personal to Nick?

Was it something tied with Chippendales?

An altercation he had with a club owner?

We just didn't know at that moment.

[Roger] Everybody had their own ideas of who could have done this.

It could have been anyone.

Especially in New York City

the way the crime rate was very high.

Police said De Noia was killed by a large-caliber gun, perhaps a .45.

They're looking for a possible suspect who was seen in the vicinity

following the shooting.

He's described as about 35 years old, 5'6", 145 pounds. Wearing jeans,

and a brown and tan jacket.

[siren wailing]

[Geddes] We looked into Banerjee's criminal history

and there was nothing there.

People would say,

"You know, they were always arguing in the business and everything."

You know, you have to take that with a grain of salt too because,

you know, business owners argue.

Banerjee wasn't the only person,

that Nick De Noia had

business confrontations with.

[Michael] I gotta tell you, a lot of people had the potential

of murdering Nick because,

he was really hard to work with.

And I don't know many people he rubbed the wrong way.

You know, he was very, very strict,

and you know, very a control freak and he was getting worse.

[Geddes] We interviewed the manager of the club here in New York.

We interviewed the dancers.

We interviewed some friends that he was associated with.

But there was nothing to tie them together at all.

We found out that his family relationships were very good.

Nick got along with everybody in the family,

everybody in the family got along with Nick.

They were just devastated.

It was gonna be a tough case and we knew that.

[Candace] Nick was a private person.

And so if there were someone in his past

that he's done wrong,

I didn't know anything about it.

I thought Steve wanted Nick's touring rights.

I felt this was Banerjee's motive.

That was my personal opinion.

[reporter] Shortly after the shooting

witnesses say they saw a man leaving the building

A man who had no reason to be there.

And so far that is the only lead police have.

[Geddes] This investigation,

was basically built on people's opinions.

There was no gun evidence,

no fingerprint evidence,

no picture evidence.

There was no evidence whatsoever.

All we had was a description of a man who came into the office.

And that's all we had.

We were just...

brick-walled.

I have no idea how the New York Police Department investigated Nick's death.

They didn't contact one person that was on the road with Nick. Not me,

none of the dancers.

Nobody.

The whole thing of Nick's murder and who did it became very frustrating to me.

So, we started a reward fund

'cause detective Geddes was telling us that he hadn't been getting enough tips.

And when I called Steve to get a contribution, he said,

"I'm not giving anything, I should pay the guy who did it. He did me a favor."

[Geddes] After a certain period of time,

there's only so much you can do.

You can't work on a case forever.

You feel terrible.

You feel like, "Can I do more?"

"Is there something else here I'm missing."

But at that point, our case was what you would call a cold case.

The only hope that we had was that,

somebody would flip and lead us to the killer.

There's only three Chippendales in the country. In New York City,

in Los Angeles and this one, the best by far.

This is the best by far.

[audience cheering]

[Candace] When Nick died, he did not have a will.

And under law, everything then passed to his siblings

since he also did not have a spouse or children.

And they sold the rights that Nick had...

to Steve Banerjee.

So I knew my time with Chippendales was over.

[Bruce] After Nick was murdered,

Steve took over managing the show himself.

I wasn't sure that he had the charisma necessary,

as Nick did.

But, you know...

the show must go on.

[news anchor speaking]

[emcee] Put your hands together for the men of Chippendales!

Roger Menache!

♪ Chippendales The place to meet Uh-huh! ♪

♪ Ladies in The driver's seat... ♪

[Roger] After being a full time dancer for many many years

I felt like my time was maybe starting to...

come to an end.

And I noticed Steve hiring fresher, younger guys, new looks.

And I had a talk with him one day

and I said, "Steve I'm getting a little older I feel that it's my time

to pursue different endeavors and opportunities."

And he totally respected that.

And he says you're gonna be the new manager.

I said, "Steve, I don't know anything about managing."

He says, "You'll learn. The guys respect you, you were one of the dancers.

And you know what it takes to be a manager."

So, here I was now on the business side of Chippendales.

[crowd cheering]

By 1988 we had both clubs running at full capacity and two touring groups.

We were in every major city in the US, including Canada.

Give yourselves a round of applause.

We became huge.

[crowd cheering]

We love Philly!

We'll see you soon.

We were expanding, we knew what we were doing, we were having our tours.

But Steve wasn't satisfied.

Many entrepreneurs are like that. He wanted more.

So, once we conquered America extensively, we went overseas.

We were well-received everywhere, everywhere!

Women all over the world loved Chippendales.

I don't see it as a strip show it's just art and pure lust and smashing. [laughs]

[speaking other language]

Yes.

Good evening, ladies, and welcome. We're gonna lock those doors

and nobody gets out of here until...

I was in Hawaii, Australia, Philippines and New Zealand.

And it was just packed houses after packed houses.

I mean it was just money after money after money. Selling out merchandise...

They went crazy over-- I mean they just literally went crazy over the tour.

[Roger] Things had evolved from a small club in west LA, to this huge empire.

And Steve was sitting at the helm of a multi-million dollar operation.

It was amazing to me knowing how we'd started back in '79

and this is where it was at now, it was worldwide,

it was performing for 3,000 women a night.

But it was the first time in my life that I'd seen

women going to a strip club with binoculars.

They're so far away, they had to watch the show through binoculars

And as far as the intimacy and quality of the experience for the women

I think was better in the old days when Nick was in charge of it.

It was more special.

[Bruce] We were bigger than ever.

But after Nick died the electricity was gone.

And it became more of a routine.

Now it felt factory. We were punching out franchises.

Doing touring shows. No longer experimenting.

We were institutionalized.

Just seemed like the energy had disappeared.

Even though he hated him, De Noia's death

had some kind of effect on Steve.

One day, I was sitting in my office which was exactly next door to Steve's office.

And I had the door closed and Steve opens the door and comes in.

And, he said, "I can't believe Nick is gone."

And I said, "Yeah." He goes, "I really miss the guy."

And then turns around and walks out the door.

His name is Michael Rapp and he is so hot

that he does a number every night entitled "The Perfect Man."

Well, we checked out his claim.

You know this guy, he's the man who's become the ultimate Chippendale.

The man who has the style in a show that's sold-out, Michael Rapp.

Which of the Chippendale men is your favorite?

Michael.

- [crowd cheering] - Why?

Just look at him.

I was the star of the show New York city during the '80s.

I mean it was the Wild Wild West.

I mean, you just had fun.

♪ Relax, don't do it When you want to go to it ♪

♪ Relax, don't do it... ♪

I just wanted to ask what your wives or girlfriends think of this?

Do they mind?

Actually it gives me a pretty secure ego,

so I don't have any jealousy problems with that.

And my wife she's a beautiful woman, she's a model herself,

so she's understanding of the whole thing.

[Michael on video] There is my beautiful wife. Nice legs.

But as time went on, Chippendales became my identity.

Pretty soon the Michael Rapp, that quiet kid, you know,

and the guy onstage started to blur.

There wasn't that separation anymore. I started losing the real person

and becoming the stage person.

There was something about stepping up on that stage

that cured everything, that made all my worries all my problems go away

for those five minutes that I was performing.

You know, yeah, that was my safe place.

That was the only place that I had control over.

Because after about two years in New York, I was completely out of control.

[Nancy] This was the era of drugs and craziness, partying all night.

You know, after we had our son,

I wasn't partying like he was,

[child speaking]

Maybe, once on a weekend I would go out and party a little bit

For him, it was everyday.

He started lying about doing it. Like, one night he came home and

I go, "You've been doing blow, haven't you?" And he said, "No, I haven't."

And he had a big white ring around his nose.

So then it started becoming a problem.

I begged him all the time to "Please stop, don't do any blow tonight.

Please come home." I constantly begged him.

I would call Chippendales when he wasn't home by, say, midnight.

And sometimes they'd go and find him in the club

and sometimes they'd tell me he left.

The night times became the nightmare, you know.

I would lay in bed and cry, cry all night.

I would lay there and think about getting a can of gasoline,

pouring it around the whole club.

I wanted to burn the place down. I hated it.

I hated it.

[crowd clapping]

When I was at Chippendales I would forget all about my responsibilities.

I would forget all about, you know, the people that I loved and cared for,

the people who were expecting me to be home and to be there for them.

Say, "Hi, Daddy."

- Daddy. - Daddy. Say, "I love you!"

But, yet, from the outside, you know, people would probably look at it

and say, "Wow, what a great marriage, beautiful couple, happy family."

We were living that lie of happiness and the perfect couple

[man] What about infidelity?

You want to remain...

Absolutely.

- Absolutely, for you? - [Michael] Yeah.

Okay, you're married for how long, Mike?

- Five years. - Five years.

- And you have-- - And we lived together three years before that.

And you have no desire

- to ever be with any other woman? - No.

Well, I mean, I love to look, don't get me wrong. I'm in the business of flirting.

[Nancy] I started feeling like he was cheating.

I would see girls at the club, the way they looked at me and him,

it was just an intuition, I knew he probably had been with them.

I wanted to hear him deny it.

To just make myself try to believe it.

Because he still acted like he loved me.

But one time I'd found a phone number in his pocket and I called it.

And the girl answered and I told her, "I found your phone number in my husband's pocket.

I know he's cheating on me with you."

And she finally owned up to it

I mean, it was the ultimate betrayal.

[Michael] I'm the star of the biggest male show that there is

and people are just giving you things, people are just throwing themselves at you,

you know, and you've never had this before.

To turn it down would be ridiculous, you know? I mean, it would be crazy.

So, I would do the drugs,

that would lead to the women and then the moment that I climaxed

the guilt just come over me.

I couldn't get dressed fast enough. I remember coming home,

you know, the sun coming up, people going to work and feeling just like...

And I was gonna have to lie.

And the very next day I would do it all over again.

[Nancy] It just got to the point where I couldn't take it anymore.

And I told him, "You know I have to. I can't stay here anymore.

I can't live this anymore."

[inaudible]

I knew that I loved her and she would probably be better off without me, you know?

[Nancy, voice breaking] We sat down and told our son.

We told him it wasn't his fault, he had nothing to do with it.

And our son cried and it was just a really horrible time.

[Michael on video] Say Merry Christmas to everybody.

- Come on, Daddy. - Say Merry Christmas.

[Michael] I lost my family.

I had chosen Chippendales over my family.

And it took me to a dark place and probably

started giving me a perfect excuse to start doing more drugs and to go drinking.

[reporter] What goes on inside Chippendales makes for some hot conversation,

almost as hot as the legal problems that seem to engulf the nightclub.

But sometimes showbusiness isn't all it's cracked up to be.

[Bruce] From the outside, we were a hugely successful multi-million dollar business,

but the bigger we got the more the problems piled up.

[man] In spite of repeatedly being fined and brought into court

and being put on probation and being notified by my people with notices and

being shut down for the night. They have repeatedly not paid any attention to that.

Whether it was something that happened through a government agency,

the fire department or the police department.

The Los Angeles Fire Department is threatening now to take action

to try and shut down Chippendales...

There was also one occasion where a gender discrimination lawsuit was filed.

We're seeking general damages, according to proof, for trial,

attorney's fees and a permanent injunction preventing Chippendales

from refusing to admit men to the male strip shows based on their sex.

[Bruce] In the past we were able to shrug all these things off.

But now our LA club faced real threats of closure and that really frustrated Steve.

The city thinks a male revue for women is immoral.

Various city agencies have been trying to close us down the past nine years.

And I think they are trying to legislate morality.

And I'm sure once this goes to court our legal counsel...

[Roger] When I wasn't on tour, I was in the LA office mounting the next show.

I could feel the tension and Steve being stressed out.

And that's when I noticed the big change in his personality.

It was always about money and lawsuits.

Steve was not the happy-going guy anymore.

[Bruce] Steve had achieved the American dream.

But it was really built on shaky foundations.

And there was one lawsuit in particular

that was becoming problematic for Chippendales.

These people will be given notice

of their right to file a claim...

[Bruce] What happened was, after the show was over

Steve would open the doors to men

and Chippendales would become a regular nightclub.

One night, a young man, well-dressed,

tried to get into the club and the doorman found

some excuse not to allow him in.

Even though he saw

less well-dressed, less well-behaved men come in.

The problem with this young individual

was he was also a law clerk for the head judge

of the US District Court.

A discrimination lawsuit was filed.

Except this wasn't a gender discrimination case.

Steve did not let this young man in

'cause he was Black.

[interviewer speaking]

[interviewer] Young...

[Bruce] Steve and I were as close as Steve would allow intimacy.

He just wasn't really a deep person,

as far as talking about

his issues and his problems.

We talked business most of the time

when we got together.

But over time,

little tidbits of information allowed me to get

a more total outlook of who Steve was.

You don't know the ways,

[Eric] We'd spend a lot of time together

if we were driving somewhere he would talk,

you know, occasionally about his father.

He was very careful about who he opened that door with.

The only time I actually,

in the eight years I worked for him,

got a feeling of a personal connection was...

when I saw that interview video of him.

[interviewer speaking]

[Bruce] Steve's real name is Somen.

He called himself Steve instead of Somen,

because it made him sound American.

From what I understand, Steve came from a middle-class family.

His father earned a good living.

[interviewer speaking]

[Steve] Yeah, but my father always told me,

"Get the hell out of here.

Find somewhere better to work."

[Bruce] I think Steve always wanted his father's approval.

To have his father think his decision to come to America

was a wise decision.

[interviewer speaking]

My mother said, "Go ahead and be a doctor."

My father would say, "Why do you wanna be a doctor?

You can buy a damn hospital, have a hundred of them working for you."

In Steve's mind it wasn't about a nightclub,

it was to be the next Hugh Hefner.

It was always Hugh Hefner.

[interviewer speaking]

[Bruce] But Steve believed, that while he can have the money and the control,

he couldn't be the Hugh Hefner public image.

[Eric] I was hired to focus on the after 10:00 market.

So we advertised for schlubs like me,

to bring in guys to the club, to meet the hot-looking girls.

And Banerjee would stand at the door after the show.

To see the kind of men coming in the door

and if a guy was Black,

he would just give a nod to the doorman.

And the doorman would come up with some excuse

to not let the guy in, like "We have a dress code here."

And then a white guy that wasn't well-dressed at all

who was just a total jerk, would be allowed right in.

He believed, as a fact,

that Black men drove out white women.

My recollection is that there was probably never more than one Black dancer at a time.

Maybe there was one Black calendar person.

Maybe not even.

But I think that Steve wanted Chippendales to be a white brand.

[Eric] The calendars were scrubbed to just have mostly white guys.

His view was a legitimate sex symbol would be white.

And so, Banerjee was scared to death

of being seen as the head of Chippendales.

He would say, "Look, if we had to sell Chippendales with me, we'd be out of business.

No one's going to pay to see me."

He studied the culture of America.

And then comes here and figures us out as Americans.

How to sell to American women, male sexuality.

His whole goal was to monetize sex in the most optimum way.

And he saw that through racial...

You know, discrimination.

He was perpetuating an image of white America.

And he capitalized on it.

I think we've proved that there's still illegal conduct

being carried on by businesses.

That society hasn't risen to the level

where everyone is able to recognize

that everyone should be treated equally and with dignity.

[Bruce] As a result of the numerous lawsuits we had against us,

we lost our liquor license.

And we were unable to continue to operate the club in LA.

Steve was angry,

and I wasn't about to tell him it's his own fault.

[reporter] Steve Banerjee is pouring his last drink here

because last week, the state revoked his liquor license.

I think they should pick up their business and find another place,

move it elsewhere, because this is a great place for a lot of fun and crazy women.

[Bruce] We had lost our Los Angeles club,

which was the heart of Chippendales.

And this, basically, was a foretelling of our future.

It was the beginning of the end.

[Read] When the LA club finally got closed down,

Banerjee had to find places that the show could go on.

We found a theatre on Wilshire Avenue.

An old theatre they turned into a nightclub.

And then we moved to a restaurant

called Carlos' N Charlie's right off of Sunset Avenue.

And literally, we were

changing back in the old kitchen.

You know, it was sad.

The morale was low, it wasn't like the days of,

"Hey, we're the hottest thing in town."

It almost became

kind of laughable.

Every night was like a battle, "Oh, I'm going to Chippendales

and dance for 50 ladies instead of 500.

Or 2,000," I mean, it got difficult.

Tonight's show, ladies and gentlemen,

male strippers.

And at that time, knockoff groups started happening.

Those started popping up everywhere.

And a lot of them would try to take the name of Chippendales.

And if Steve Banerjee found out,

oh, you would have hell to pay.

It got crazy.

[Roger] While I was in the LA office,

I overheard a few conversations.

These copycat shows, nightclubs stealing his ideas.

I told them Chippendales was the Rolls-Royce

of male dancing.

And all these other clubs will probably not make it.

But one of these copycats

were former Chippendale dancers and choreographers that branched out

and started their own group. And they called it Adonis.

Adonis was the newest, freshest

hippest show, you know, with the most incredible cast of talented singers and dancers.

[upbeat pop music playing]

[Read] I didn't know who was behind the show

but I knew that they had already sold out

more than 500,000 seats.

They raked in tons of money. Almost 200 shows sold out.

So it was huge competition for the first time.

[Bruce] Steve got very angry.

But I kept explaining to him, he doesn't own the idea.

We can't stop other people from having male dancing.

[Eric] His personality became more manic

and he was really difficult to talk to.

I mean, he would call me at night,

like at midnight, to talk business

and I would have to play the,

"Hello, the line's a little weak here.

Hello? Can you hear me, Steve?"

And hang up.

It was just getting wilder and wilder and, I think,

a lot of it was driven by coke.

[Bruce] It made him paranoiac.

Made him more untrustworthy, if you can imagine.

Very hyper.

And there were times that, it took over.

[Eric] In the morning he'd come in, really clogged up.

And he'd be bitchy.

Like yelling about stuff,

you know, "I'm not gonna pay this or that."

I really believe that cocaine pushed him to a point where, he didn't give a fuck.

The fun things about the job were evaporating.

It became more of a Mr. Toad's Wild Ride

in paranoia land with Steve Banerjee.

So, I just faxed in my resignation.

And that was the end of it.

[Bruce] It was increasingly more and more lawyers around,

that Steve was talking to and both my professional and personal relationship

with Steve became estranged.

And I was no longer involved.

[man] 5, 6, 7, 8. And 1, 2, 3, 4...

[Read] I got a call from one of the producers and promoters of Adonis.

And they said, "Hey, would you be interested in taking on a role in the show?"

And I said, "Yeah, I would love that, but I wanna move to the next level.

I wanna be part of the show.

I wanna direct, I wanna create."

He said, "Well, you could do that."

So we kind of agreed on becoming a partner of the show, Adonis.

I flew over to England.

To join the Adonis group and start the next phase

of, hopefully, my career as a director and producer of the next Chippendales.

And that's where it got a little interesting.

I was in Blackpool with Adonis

doing a show at the Winter Gardens for three to four weeks.

you ladies think you could go for something like that

right now, right here, with American Adonis?

I got one or two shows under my belt as the emcee.

We are gonna show you things you have never seen...

[Read] One night, I was just getting into the show

and all of a sudden, the producer and the promoter of the show

comes over and he asks me to step down off the stage.

He said, "You need to come down, we got to talk."

We walk into this little office space.

And there are two gentlemen and they're in plainclothes,

suits and ties very professional-looking.

They introduced themselves as detectives for the Blackpool area.

And they said, "We've been notified

that there is a plot.

That men have been sent over here

to assassinate you."

Wait, what?

[theme music playing]