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Deadly Dance: The Chippendales Murders
Sex, Money and Murder in 1980s Los Angeles and Manhattan. Basis for the Hulu series, Welcome to Chippendales, starring Kumail Nanjiani, Murray Bartlett, Annaleigh Ashford, Dan Stevens, and Juliette Lewis. In 1987 a heroin addict murdered an Emmy Award-winning choreographer in Manhattan. Then a wealthy LA surgeon and his teenaged son were targeted. In 1991, an out-of-work redneck flew to London with cyanide to poison three members of a male exotic dance review. If the poison didn’t work, he was told to use a hammer to beat them to death. Who was behind these seemingly unrelated horrific crimes? Deadly Dance tells the fascinating story of Steve Banerjee, founder and owner of Chippendales. In the post-pill, pre-AIDS, sex-filled LA club scene of the 1980s, celebrities, desperate housewives and wild bachelorettes converged on one Chippendales—and behind it all was arson, the Mob and murder. The true story behind the Hulu/Twentieth Century Fox TV 8-part series, "Welcome to Chippendales," as well as a 20/20 and Nightline episodes (Oct. 2021) and several other shows.
245 pages, Kindle Edition
First published June 10, 2014
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191 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
August 26, 2016
Deadly Dance: The Chippendales Murder by Scot MacDonald Chippendales Murders
3 stars
I thought the history of Chippendale's was very interesting. Once it got into the murder it kind of dragged for me and I ended up skimming. It was far too detailed for me.
3 stars
I thought the history of Chippendale's was very interesting. Once it got into the murder it kind of dragged for me and I ended up skimming. It was far too detailed for me.
November 19, 2014
An interesting story, but the writing wasn't particularly skillful and the typos were distracting.
March 10, 2023
Interesting story; terrible book!
November 26, 2023
Good story, well researched, not as well told. Honestly, the Hulu series took some dramatic license and oversimplified things, but told the story in a much more human, engaging way.
If you haven't seen the Hulu series here's the basic facts. "Steve" Bannerjee, an Indian immigrant rose from very poor circumstances by starting a male strip club in Los Angeles, and though the club closed long ago, the Chippendales brand and name is still known all over the world. However, though Steve owned the club and the dancers, he had little talent or imagination or showmanship. Nick DeNoia, who Steve brought in as a choreographer, made the Chippendales the iconic, well oiled machine it is today by hiring guys who could actually dance, creating well choreographed routines with real production values and generally making Chippendales a professional entertainment act, rather than just another sleazy strip joint. And people loved it. When the money started rolling in Steve was at first delighted but quickly came to be jealous and fearful of DeNoia's talent and to hate splitting Chippendales earnings with him. So he hired a hit man and had him murdered.
The story has the makings of a great series, which Hulu capitalized on. Unfortunately, this author only really captured the drama and kept the pages turning in a few of the chapters. Once the murder has been covered, the book fizzles as the long investigation and pursuit of Steve by the FBI covers the second half of the book. Repeated games of cat and mouse between the hit man, Ray, who was now working with the FBI and Steve just become insanely boring. Time and again, Ray tries to meet with Steve and Steve avoids him-just not that interesting to read the same thing over and over.
Honestly-you can watch the Hulu series in about the same amount of time as it would take to read this book, and you can see it really brought to life by a talented cast, something the novel almost completely fails at doing.
If you haven't seen the Hulu series here's the basic facts. "Steve" Bannerjee, an Indian immigrant rose from very poor circumstances by starting a male strip club in Los Angeles, and though the club closed long ago, the Chippendales brand and name is still known all over the world. However, though Steve owned the club and the dancers, he had little talent or imagination or showmanship. Nick DeNoia, who Steve brought in as a choreographer, made the Chippendales the iconic, well oiled machine it is today by hiring guys who could actually dance, creating well choreographed routines with real production values and generally making Chippendales a professional entertainment act, rather than just another sleazy strip joint. And people loved it. When the money started rolling in Steve was at first delighted but quickly came to be jealous and fearful of DeNoia's talent and to hate splitting Chippendales earnings with him. So he hired a hit man and had him murdered.
The story has the makings of a great series, which Hulu capitalized on. Unfortunately, this author only really captured the drama and kept the pages turning in a few of the chapters. Once the murder has been covered, the book fizzles as the long investigation and pursuit of Steve by the FBI covers the second half of the book. Repeated games of cat and mouse between the hit man, Ray, who was now working with the FBI and Steve just become insanely boring. Time and again, Ray tries to meet with Steve and Steve avoids him-just not that interesting to read the same thing over and over.
Honestly-you can watch the Hulu series in about the same amount of time as it would take to read this book, and you can see it really brought to life by a talented cast, something the novel almost completely fails at doing.
January 10, 2025
More of a 2.5 if I could do half stars. It’s an interesting story and I was intrigued to read it after watching the Hulu series and hearing it stemmed from this book.
However, constant typos aside, the book is so detailed at times it makes it confusing. The recounts of what I imagine are court transcripts and files are seemingly regurgitated onto the page as opposed to being woven into a more cohesive story. I found a few times it was also super difficult to follow because specific dates and years were mentioned, then the next paragraph mentioned dates years different from then, and then we went back to the original year being talked about in the next paragraph.
Overall, an interesting read and not a waste of time, but could have been better written.
However, constant typos aside, the book is so detailed at times it makes it confusing. The recounts of what I imagine are court transcripts and files are seemingly regurgitated onto the page as opposed to being woven into a more cohesive story. I found a few times it was also super difficult to follow because specific dates and years were mentioned, then the next paragraph mentioned dates years different from then, and then we went back to the original year being talked about in the next paragraph.
Overall, an interesting read and not a waste of time, but could have been better written.
January 23, 2023
Great book good story. Enjoyed reading this one.
February 28, 2023
A fascinating story told in the most boring way possible
February 1, 2026
Writing is pretty immature and filled with grammatical errors. Story was thrilling but book overall was bad.
January 25, 2015
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, the United States was enamored to a ridiculous extent by the phenomenon of disco dancing. In Los Angeles, California, a young East Indian businessman who dreamed of attaining the American dream of wealth (his definition of success), bought an old, broken-down nightclub with friends of his. The club did not do very well until the young man's friend from New York, talked him into hiring a choreographer and Broadway professional to help transform the nightclub into a different type of venue: a place where women (ladies) could see male strippers who were fit, handsome, classy and the very image of romance to many women. Thus, the Chippendales were born (they were named after the English furniture designer Thomas Chippendale of the 18th century).
The club became a sensation, as did the well-trained dancers. If the principal people who operated the club were of a different mindset, the story may have ended there. However, there was a lot of internal fighting, petty jealousies, and most of all, greed, which pretty much caused the demise of the club.
The young East Indian man, Steve, resented having to pay the choreographer money for his idea to take the dancers on tour around the world. Basically, he seemed to resent having to pay partners and employees much of a living wage or salary at all. Thus, he approached one of the partners, Jim, who had ties to organized crime in New York, to see if Jim could hire someone to burn down the competing Los Angeles clubs, and ultimately to murder the choreographer Nick. He also saw it as betrayal if any of the dancers working for him quit and worked for another club, and he spoke of having two or three of them killed. Jim did not involve organized crime to protect his friend. Instead he tried to avoid or put off acting upon the requests at all. When pressed by Steve, he found some low level criminal types who were not very bright, and two cases of unsuccessful arson were one result. However, the choreographer was murdered as he sat in his office in Manhattan. At this point, the FBI became involved in the case, as RICO laws were being broken.
The book tells of what happened over a several year span to try and bring the responsible parties to justice. Much of the information came from written files and court transcripts. The case dragged on and on for years, and ultimately, not one of the principle people in this story ended up happy or successful. I viewed it as a cautionary tale regarding what greed can do to people. The whole debacle is a terrible tragedy.
The club became a sensation, as did the well-trained dancers. If the principal people who operated the club were of a different mindset, the story may have ended there. However, there was a lot of internal fighting, petty jealousies, and most of all, greed, which pretty much caused the demise of the club.
The young East Indian man, Steve, resented having to pay the choreographer money for his idea to take the dancers on tour around the world. Basically, he seemed to resent having to pay partners and employees much of a living wage or salary at all. Thus, he approached one of the partners, Jim, who had ties to organized crime in New York, to see if Jim could hire someone to burn down the competing Los Angeles clubs, and ultimately to murder the choreographer Nick. He also saw it as betrayal if any of the dancers working for him quit and worked for another club, and he spoke of having two or three of them killed. Jim did not involve organized crime to protect his friend. Instead he tried to avoid or put off acting upon the requests at all. When pressed by Steve, he found some low level criminal types who were not very bright, and two cases of unsuccessful arson were one result. However, the choreographer was murdered as he sat in his office in Manhattan. At this point, the FBI became involved in the case, as RICO laws were being broken.
The book tells of what happened over a several year span to try and bring the responsible parties to justice. Much of the information came from written files and court transcripts. The case dragged on and on for years, and ultimately, not one of the principle people in this story ended up happy or successful. I viewed it as a cautionary tale regarding what greed can do to people. The whole debacle is a terrible tragedy.
November 27, 2014
This was a horrible book. It's written as if for middle school kids. It's boring, boring, boring. The author wants us to think Ray is innocent of anything, while Steve is the most evil vicious vile person ever to have lived. If I could rate this no stars I would.
I'm so glad I didn't pay money for it. Don't bother reading it.
I'm so glad I didn't pay money for it. Don't bother reading it.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews