The story behind the founder of Chippendales, Somen Banerjee.
 This is the story of a Bengali immigrant to the US - an amazing entrepreneur.
A self made man, building perhaps the best known brand name that any Bengali has ever created.
His controversial life has turned him into a subject of gossip, and while we may question whether or not we identify with him, he chose to identify with us. The time has come for us to reclaim the story of Somen Banerjee.
Born in Bombay in 1947 - he was a fourth generation printer. While he later went by his name Steve, he retained his name "Somen," even after immigration; perhaps the coincidence of his given name, pronounced as "show-men") did not escape him.
Somen loved to travel and left India sometime by the early 1970s, spending some time in Canada, before settling in Playa Del Rey, California, near LA. An entrepreneur from the beginning, he owned and operated a Mobil gas station for some time, and dabbled in other ventures, but was burned in a failed backgammon club.
Steve bought a failing Los Angeles rock and roll bar called Destiny II in 1975, turning it into a disco with jazz and street-dance performers. Four years later, inspired by word of a Canadian male strip club, Steve renamed the club "Chippendales," and launched a "Male Exotic Dance Night for Ladies Only" it was the first American troupe of its kind.
By the early 1980s, Chippendales was the best known male strip club in America, driven to amazing heights by his professionalism and marketing skills. In the 1980s, Chippendales were a household name, with over a million copies of their calendar sold every year. At its height, Steve controlled an $8 million a year business.
Steve was a family man, and observers noted him to be a sharp dresser, a self-made man, going from pumping gas, to ownership of an entertainment empire. To the outside world he was the poster child for hard working immigrant entrepreneurs, building up their dreams in their newly adopted land.
However, such success did not come without a price. Capitalism is not a game for the weak, and Steve understood that his chances for success were based on his ability to contend with the competition.
Taking it to extremes, in March 1979, Steve attempted to have Moody's Disco, a competing nightclub, burned down; minor damage was sustained to the premises. Again, in 1984, he attempted to have someone burn down the competing Red Onion restaurant and bar in Marina del Rey; no major damage was caused.
The mid-1980s had been a difficult period for the Chippendales organisation. A series of major lawsuits - personal injury, as well as suits alleging discrimination against patrons, both African-American, and male - had hurt the bottom line. In January of 1987 Chippendales' parent company filed for bankruptcy protection.
The organisation survived, but not all those affiliated with it were so lucky. Nick DeNoia, an Emmy-winning director of children's TV shows, became the Chippendales choreographer, and was a major reason for the success of the dancers.
Initially promised a large share of the then-low touring revenues, he later exchanged his interests in the clubs for control of all touring, and half the generated. As touring became a significantly larger proportions of the income, Steve and Nick had a falling out; in 1987, Nick sued Steve for violating their agreement by taking his own Chippendales revue on the road.
In April that year, Nick DeNoia was shot in the face in New York by hired gun Ray Colon. Rumours connected Steve to the killings, but the case remained unsolved and he bought back the Chippendales' touring rights from the DeNoia family, for $1.3 million. In 1988, the original Chippendales club closed, after losing its liquor license and fire permit. The group turned into a solely touring revue, under Steve's new control.
In 1990 Steve tried to have former Chippendales choreographer Mike Fullington, then working for the competing male dance group Adonis, killed. Ray Colon was also set to murder two former Chippendales dancers, who had also joined the rival Adonis group, then touring Britain. Ray hired a hitman - an FBI informant - to do the deed.
The hitman confessed to the American Embassy. The conversation between Ray and the hitman was recorded. Some time later, Steve flew to Zurich to meet Ray to discuss the planned killings, but didn't realise that the police had ensured that Ray was wired for sound. By 1990, the FBI had begun to build the evidence for what would eventually lead to its case against the founder of the Chippendales.
On September 2, 1993, Steve Banerjee was charged with conspiring to kill three business associates, the former club choreographer and two dancers who had joined Adonis. He was indicted and held without bail on six counts, including conspiracy to commit murder for hire.
The denial of bail was based on his having earlier told Ray Colon that were he to be apprehended, he'd either kill himself, or return to India and raise a new family there (by paying a pilot $25,000 to get him out of the country without a passport).
One month later, the charges against Steve Banerjee were expanded to include the killing of Nick DeNoia. The grand jury also charged him with racketeering and arson, as well as the 1990 planned murder of Jagjit Sehdeva, over a business dispute. If convicted, Steve faced life in prison, and a fine of up to $1.75 million.
On July 29, 1994, Steve pled guilty to racketeering, attempting to burn down a competing nightclub, and arranging the murder of Nick DeNoia. He faced 26 years in jail, as part of a plea bargain that would drop his other murder for hire charges; he would also have to forfeit his interest in the Chippendales' parent company.
He was to be sentenced in three months, on October 24. Steve had been treated for mild bouts of depression in the time he was in jail; he was particularly concerned about the impact that being imprisoned and fined would have on his family.
Sometime between 3 and 4 am on the night of October 23, 1994, just hours before he was to be sentenced, Steve Banerjee took his own life; he hung himself using a torn bed sheet on a coat hook, in his tiny cell in Metropolitan Detention Centre in downtown Los Angeles. He died at age 48.
The police found a note left in his cell - written in an Indian language, that they couldn't decipher. A family man until the end, Steve may have ended his own life to ensure that his estate went to his family, rather than being confiscated by the government.
|
bar stars 
