Escalating Crime and Arson

Ham. What on earth has happened to your eye? I don't know. I looked online, but then Well, for what it's worth, to me it looks like what my grand said her old neighbor Queenie had. Her eyes went every colour of the rainbow. I had to bathe them in warm carrot juice every day for a year. You could give that a try. Um It's best to get a gammy eye checked by an expert. That's why spec savers can help treat eye problems in every store. should have gone to Unwanted Advice. Savers. Conditioned supply. If you want to listen to all of the episodes of this series right now, early release and ad-free, plus a whole host of extra fan club benefits, head to museum of popculture.supportingcast. Or if that's too much for a mouthful, Just click on it in the show notes, which is the description bit. That no one reads. Hello and welcome. I am Josh Wittercomb. For today I'm the curator of a place of incredible artifacts and exhibitions, a place that stores the greatest thing on earth. This is my archive of pop culture. As a self-confessed pop culture obsessive, I love the geniuses, the scam artists, and dare I say, the absolute madmen. That made the records, shows, and films that we love. In each series I will tell you a story of unlikely triumph and usually an enjoyably crushing failure, featuring celebrated stars that in any other industry would probably be politely sacked. It's a show for people more interested in David Hasselhoff than David Lamy, Elizabet Taylor than Queen Elizabeth I, which let's be honest, is all of us. Joining me today to discuss the unbelievable story of the Chip and Dales is comedian and friend of the show and me, Susie Ruffle. Los Angeles in the late 1970s. A city of reinvention, excess, and opportunity. In the wake of the sexual revolution, nightlife was shifting and the scene was ready for something different. Enter the Chippendales. What are you doing here tonight? Watching me! Looking for bigger and better things. What began as a small club scene soon became a global cultural phenomenon. Male dancers turning fantasy into a booming business across the United States in the 1980s. 100,000 a day 100,000 idea, 150,000 idea. But behind the spectacle, the ambition turned oh so toxic. Creative disputes became bitter rivalries. Control of the empire became everything. And in 1987, the tension Exploded. But today, Banner G and his world famous American dream are in serious trouble as he stands accused of ordering hits on his ex-employee. Plots to eliminate competitors, arson attacks on rival clubs, a conspiracy that stretched far beyond the stage and into the world of contract killers. and murder for hire. Federal indictment claims Steve Bannerjee offered $25,000 a head for the murder of two of his ex-Pippendale associates. A story where power, fame, and obsession blurred the line between success and destruction. Where the pursuit of the American At a very deadly cost. This is the unbelievable story of the Chipandales. Susie, what are we covering today? We're covering the Chippendales. Okay. This is one for the Instagram. You ready? I spent four pounds fifty on Amazon, Susie. Oh my god. It was delivered on the day. Okay. Hit me with it. Actually, you're working out Well, not really. I do stick quite rigidly to the Zoe diet, but that's a different podcast, Susie. And a more successful one. What is the Zoe diet? This isn't the time, Susie, but you need to eat thirty plants a week. And you're just ripped from that? I'm not ripped. How often are you gymming? Ideally two times a week. And well, maybe I need my eyes tested. For people at home Maybe this won't make the head hit of the uh Oh it should be covering the chip and Dales. It should. Would you like to describe my outfit, Susie? Yes, Josh. Is in the shape of his life. Ha ha ha. He's wearing Little cuffs. And a collar and a bow tie. And nothing else. Well, I assume you've got trousers on. I've got trousers on. Oh, is the Amazon cheap Chip and Tails outfit. Terrible for the environment. Terrible, you know sex life. Great for a sex life. But if that leads to more children terrible for the environment. Are you gonna do the whole episode like this? Well, the problem is, Susie, the reason I've worn this for the opening episode Is this the darkest story we've ever told. Oh. So I can't wear it for episodes two to four because there's too many murders. Oh my gosh. Yeah. Okay. Well listen, let me enjoy it just for this episode. Yeah, I don't know whether I can wear it for the whole of this episode because What if it just gets clipped up like single clips and people haven't seen the other clips? I'm just sat there in the stupid ass out there. So if the clips go from you know back You know, it might look like you're undressing as the episode goes on. What do you know about the Chipendales, Susie? Because obviously that might surprise you that this is a story of murder and intrigue and revenge. I did think I was a funny choice for this episode, just given my sexual proclivities, which is just that I'm a lesbian, not that I'm weird. No, it just but I just thought, you know. you could take a quite a good view on it because you're not gonna be won over by their beautiful bodies. That's why you've put your top on as well. That's why I put my top on as well. Yeah, yeah, of course. Yeah. What do I know about the chip and dials? I know that they are Sexy fellas. They they sort of predate the Magic Mike era, don't they? Yeah, exactly. Have you been to Magic Mike? Yes, I have, my friends in it. Oh really? Yeah, I've got a friend that's in it. And did you enjoy the experience of going to Magic Mike? did because I was watching my friend. Would I have seen it had she not been in it. No, I don't think I'm their target demographic. No, I don't think you are. I'm not hammered on a Hendu. Did you shout get it off? Yeah, but I actually it was because I was going to the Mast singer the following week and I was just practicing. No, I didn't. But I did think they were all excellent dancers. And I did I was Really impressed by that. And I mean, similar to you, Josh, they are in the the shape of their lives. Well, I'm gonna say it, Susie. I don't think that you are really experiencing it in the way that the Chipendales audience did. Which we will come to was rabid. and intense and very, very sexually charged. Sure. Like our friendship. Exactly. These are the men of Chippendales. By day they are pretty normal guys, except of course for their polished looks, but by night they turn into whatever these women want them to be. Let's go back to the birth of the Chibendales because I think a lot of people that don't know the story of the Chibendales will remember it as a kind of naff strip show from the eighties and early nineties that was a bit of a joke. And well, they're probably right, but you know, it was a big deal. So let's look at it, right? So the birth of the modern strip club kind of starts in the twentieth century. There was stripping in the Greek times and stuff, but Susie, we're not interested in that. No, not today. Any day, really. I couldn't give a shit. What about the Greeks? The ancient Greeks, I obviously the modern Greeks I care deeply about since their financial crisis. That's how I feel about space. I'm just not interested. Yes, I know, I know. I know exactly what you mean. But do you know what I am interested in? Birth of the Chip and Dales. Let's go. Birth of the Chip and Dales. Okay. So the twentieth century used all the like burlesque theaters, all that kind of stuff, especially in the USA. And so they started, stripping started there, and it was combined with comedy and music, and there was stripping. Sure. I mean that's an awful gig, isn't it, for comedians. Isn't that what used to happen at the comedy store? No, I think it was a strip club before it was or some I don't think it happened during the comedy. No, isn't that why it was called comic strip? Oh, maybe. I don't know. I heard this is Something that might be wrong, so That's fine. That's what this show's about. Susie, don't apologize for that. I heard that The comedy store used to have a comic and then a stripper and then a comic and then a stripper. I mean, I kind of think that would work. Like not do I want to do that. But only because you'd go, Oh sh you know, in that sort of working men's club where Oh, wasn't she lovely? And then someone would come out and go, Oh, wouldn't mind if my wife was like that. Oh, that is a good line actually. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Do you know what? Now you say it like that. I'm I'm signing up, that sounds like a great night out. It's a bit weird, isn't it? Because you're gonna get two very different audiences sat together. Well Who's looking to be titillated and have a laugh? Well Your wife? My love life since day one, Susie. Well then you're not funny. I'm not funny, yeah. Come on. Come on, this is a bit weird. We've got to have a laugh about this, haven't we? Yeah, that it's strange, isn't it? To go someone doing sort of mother in law jokes. And then someone getting their knockers out. It's a weird green room as well, isn't it? Like a just kind of old comedian and a stripper. Yeah. By the mid twentieth century, they go their separate ways. Strip clubs, our strip clubs. Yeah, yeah. And they focus on stripping. And then by the seventies That's when you first see male strippers, okay? Uh there's a magazine called Jet Magazine which in nineteen seventy three described dancer who this is the quote peeled down to black G string and handcuffed himself to the fence outside Big Ben. bore a banner labeling him as the body divine angel, a lovely male stripper. Book him. Wow. No producers showed an interest, but he did get arrested. Really? There's a great news article from The Guardian in nineteen seventy five. about a court case regarding a uh A mail strip club. Bournemouth Crown Court. It was in Wimbourne. We've both played Wimbourne. Yeah, the Tivoli Theatre. The Tivoli Theatre in Wimbourne, yeah. The titillation theatre. Whatever, rubbish, rubbish. Terrible. It's really embarrassing. Obviously I've got the bod, but I haven't got the words. So on the eighth of August, nineteen seventy five, The Guardian ran an article saying, Wives refreshed by seeing Mail Strip Show. This is a court report. Women who went to a club in the West Country, just to be very clear, Dorset isn't the West Country, but let's not get into it. Women who went to a club in the West Country to see male strippers came away refreshed and happy. And this is the quote. No doubt better wives and mothers. The defence in a case at Bournemouth Crown Court claimed today. The show at Speltsby Manor Hotel near Winbourn enabled the women to get away from their families and relax. That was the defense. I mean, I don't know that anyone's going to watch stripping to relax. No, it does feel quite an intense experience, does it? Yeah. Oh, I paint, I do yoga, I watch strangers get their knobs. It feels 'cause they're obviously there are people that go to comedy all the time, or there's people that go to music all the time. I don't feel like stripping is something you're into. It's like Oh no, there's gonna be guys that prop up the bar that everyone Oh yeah, no sorry, I meant the other way around, Susie. I don't think there's women that love male stripping. No, I think the guy that goes to a lot of stripping, that's a problematic man. Sure. He exists. He exists. But I can't see there's anyone with a passion for the art of of the male stripper. No right in. Right? Yeah, yeah. I'm I mean There's no kink shaming here. There's no kink shaming here, and maybe that's the audience we've got. People who are interested in popular culture and the male form have come together as our audience. That's the Venn diagram. Come together's the wrong word, yeah. This is Susanna White, a mother of two of Mill Road. Christchurch says that she'd seen and enjoyed the show six times. She exists. She exists. She says it's the only place I can go to relax. I'm just not convinced it's relaxing. But who am I to say? I mean, also, you know, I can appreciate the malform. I did write at the top of this pod, but I'm not attracted to men. More like a bot right at the top of this bod, am I right? The bod cast. Am I right? I think you should stop. Okay, okay. I think being a cover girl's gone to your head. Okay. Judge David Pennant So it doesn't help the judge David Pennant, a lay preacher who's married with four children, told the jury No Not the right judge. Not the right guy, not the right guy. He's already judge. Yeah. He said to the jury, You are the front line. You are setting the standards. You may think there are differences between men and animals. at least for people who want to belong to a civilised society. For one thing, animals don't exhibit their sexual organs deliberately. I think some do. I do as well. I think there'll be some sort of mating call. Isn't the judge meant to just kind of tell you to reach a verdict? That feels to me. Like he's he's steering the jury. Slightly. Slightly? He's a lay preacher. I think he's Oh yeah, I don't think he was the right guy. Well, good news, Susie, the jury failed to reach a decision in the first trial. After a retrial, both men were cleared. Of Orful proclivity or whatever it was called. And can I just check before we go any further? When These men strip. They are The Chipandales don't get their knobs, I don't think. Okay, so it's a suggestion of knob? So that there'd be obviously everything else. So bum? But only cheeky bum. Don't want to turn the air blue. I don't think they're like Parting the cheeks to show their anuses. No. They're not doing what Bart Simpson does. Did I need to clear that up? Yeah, they're not sort of talking with their bums. Like a Ramberman. awfully unsexual show that would be. I m I mean imagine they're wearing very small pants. They're wearing G strings, Susie. They're wearing G strings. And and people are very interested in the bulge. I think so, but I don't know what the score is with the bulge because um I think is all about their bodies, their their hot bods. Would it be the type of thing where they'd whip off the G string at the end but a hat would be over it? Yeah, exactly. All of that kind of jazz. Yeah. So that's sight of hand. In part two, Susie. I'll describe you a full Shippendale show. I won't be acting it out, don't worry. I was about to say when you say describe is quite an interesting one 'cause I will be describing a full Chip and Dales show, but I'll also be describing a gruesome murder and suicide. My God, this podcast has everything. It really does. Like and subscribe. I don't want to steer people too much, but we'll put some Chipandale stuff on the Instagram. So go to the Instagram. You're like that lay preacher, you're stirring people. You know exactly where you want them. Yeah, exactly. Go to the Instagram for some hot pods. No, Museum of Pop Culture Pod. on Instagram. And if you join the fan club, maybe I'll do my own little show. Am I right? Please don't. Okay. If you don't join the fan club, I'll do a show. There you go. So this story starts with a man called Soman Banerjee, right? He was born n nineteen forty six, just after the war in Bombay, which is now Mumbai, in India. It's S-O-M-E N, his name's Soman, but some people I think it's pronounced Shoman. So he was born with the name Showman. He's the founder of the Chipendales, right? Right. He emigrates to Canada, then to the USA in nineteen sixty nine, ends up in LA. He is basically The American dream. Like this immigrant who's come across bit like Scarface. I don't know if you've seen that film where like, you know, the immigrant who comes across to make good, but he's the dark side of the American dream because it all takes him over and ends in bloodlust, Susie. And also stripping. Great. He changes his name to Westernized not great. I was saying great in his this is going to be very interesting. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Dramatically fascinating. Personally, a horror show. Awful. Awful for the poor victims. So he's he chooses the name Steve rather than Showman. You know, often people when they emigrate they choose like a Westernised name. He starts his build up the capitalist food chain with a um a mobile gas station. He takes over a gas station, petrol station for people in the who speak. The Queen's English? Which I'm imagining a fair few of the audience. Fair few of the audience. Fair few of the audience. So just outside LA and he kind of he's a bit of a quirk, right? Mm-hmm. So he wears kind of stylish glasses. button down Oxford shirts with silk ties at his gas station. Yeah, and he's very rude to customers. He he runs a gas station, you know, like like some people run a kind of very high end shop where they look down their nose at customers. Oh yeah. Yeah, yeah, you've been in one of those. You live in Brighton. Well, the type of place where people look at you going, I don't think you can afford cashmere. I know I think I could afford it, but I wouldn't pay this for it. Goodbye. Exactly, yeah. And he does that in a petrol station. Yeah, great, okay. I can't afford petrol. Well, it's in those days it's very expensive now. Yeah. But he'd be like, you know, I don't think you can afford that Twix. That kind of attitude. Do you know what I mean? He gets very angry if people ask for the key for the toilet, that kind of stuff. His heart wasn't in it. His heart wasn't i Or he just he just wants to climb the ladder. So Next he borrows a thousand dollars. to rent a failing nightclub, right? So this is nineteen seventy three, the kind of early ish seventies and he rents a nightclub called The Round Robin. Right, which is in the Palms district of West Los Angeles. And in the first two weeks of running the club. It's going badly. Him and his partners who he's doing it with. Already five thousand dollars into the red. He changes the name. Destiny two. Okay. Any ideas why it's called Destiny Two? Is there already a place called Destiny? And he's hopping on it. Not far off, he sees this as his second destiny. His first destiny being his petrol station. Oh wow, gosh. So his mobile petrol station was Destiny One. And this club is Destiny Two. I feel like a club in the seventies would have been so fun. You'd love to go to Destiny Two? Well, I don't know what's happening there. If you're saying it's in the red, it's not as busy as I want it to be. Well he would love you to go to Destiny two, Susie, because his main issue is that there's too many men and not enough women going to nightclubs. I mean this was even happening when we were Going to clubs. Girls are getting free. Girls are getting free. Girls get their first drink free. All that kind of stuff, right? Have that patriarchy. Do you know what? And they say it's easier for men. But I've just paid three pounds to get into a screen pub. So let's have a think about that. Am I right? Yeah, you're right. And do you know what, the fact that you've got your collar and cuffs on really makes makes me take it seriously. So he'd do like two free drinks for ladies, no cover charge, all that kind of stuff. But he couldn't get the business flying at all. Okay. Destiny two was not going as well as Destiny One at this point. But then he meets a man called Ralph Augustin Angel Colon. Um So So name's Colonel. Well that's one of the bits he's showing in his strip, no. C O L O N, Colon, right? I mean I guess so. But are you telling me this guy's a stripper and his surname's colon? No, he's not a stripper. He's involved. He organises strippers. Well, you'll see what he does. I'm gonna describe him as a comedy assassin. Okay. He is called Colon. He's known as Ray. But he is called Ray Colon. If my name is Colon, I'd say, Call me Ray. Oh my. So Ralph Augustine Angel Colon or Ray. He served in the US Air Force, he got into trouble in the US Air Force. The most classic way for the Chippendale story. He took a Playboy magazine that was addressed to another person in the air force and read it while on duty. That's reading. You think you're doing? You mean he's not wanking in the air force, Usa? He's not sat. Flying a plane. Dick out. Why do you think it's called a cockpit? Well. There is reading in play. This sounds like I'm defending it. But there was like articles in Playboys that I don't know what they're like these days. in the old days, they'd have proper journalists with like these long articles for Playboy. Yeah. I'm not defending it. I'm saying it's kind of a weird th I know I know. Why do you make Rose dress as a bunny all the time? Well, I've got the Chibendales outfit. So it he when he steals the Playboy is charged with tampering the mail and he's moved to a job he doesn't like. So he kind of that's the end of him in the air force. I feel like that's telling you that that Playboy magazine came back. What do you mean? Not in its original form. Oh right, yeah. Oh God, yeah. Do you think that's what it would be? Well because I don't think that if someone read my magazine You'd care. I don't think I'd care. I'd be like, could you not do that again? Could you let me read it first? Like me and my nan used to share take a break, it wasn't a problem. Of course. I would finish the cross for her. Yeah. I would never describe her as tampering with my take a break. So you do you think he was doing more than finishing the crosswords? I think he was finishing other things. There was other pages that were absolutely There were other pages he was stuck on. Oh, that's really good. That's really nice. Currently on tour. You can do blue. You can do blue. But I'll do it with a smile so it doesn't seem as creepy. one afternoon in nineteen seventy five, Ray Holon, he's stranded with I think we're gonna call him that for the rest of the thing. He has car trouble, he's forced to take a bus. And it stops at Destiny Two and he just goes in. Out of nowhere, right? For a cold drink. Steve Battenjay, the owner. Yeah. Basically tells him about the club's specials, right? And basically learns that Ray was at one point in the music business. And he asked for advice. What to do about the club's band. Right. Hilarious. He says Hire the Beatles, bit of fun. But then he suggests turning the club into a discotheque. Yes. I mean, it's a wild decision just to suddenly change your whole club atmosphere based on a guy who's come in. I think I was I was already imagining it as a discotheque. So was I, yeah, exactly. But it was just a bar. 'Cause it was nineteen seventy three, disco didn't really exist. I'm imagining it with the f floors that are light up like Pop World. Yeah, no, it's not like that at all. No, it's not like that at all. And so Destiny two starts doing good business after this. So Ray is in with Steve. Okay. But then soon after someone burgles Destiny too. They empty the safe, police send two detectives to investigate. And Steve accuses one of his old partners in it who he's bought out. And then this is when the problem starts, Susie. Even this early. Steve Callsray. And he's like, I'm gonna kill my ex partner. This is what I'm gonna do for burgling me. Wow. Could you do it for me? he says to Ray. I'm raised like Why have you chosen me for this? Basically, Ray, Steve knows that Ray has got connections in the underworld. So Mafiosa called Rocky Delamo. Which leads him to New York based Batano and Gambino crime family. in the mafia, right? Wow. But Ray is related to the Los Angeles branch of the mafia, which is called Within the mafia, the Mickey Mouse Mafia. They're not as good as the New York ones. Right. So New York, you're serious. I'm walking here. Exactly. All that kind of stuff. But in LA, it's sunny. They're a bit more chilled out about it. Yeah, and I think that the weather would have an impact on crime. Well it does it does famously, Susie. Yeah. With riots There's a reason all the riots happen in the summer. It's because people get hot and bothered. That's I think that's the truth. Also, it's easier to go out and riot in the summer. But that's true. Like people get angrier in Tight heat. Like you'd get in New York as opposed to a nice heat that you get in airline. A beach. Exactly. Maybe If the Gambino family had had a nice beach, they wouldn't have killed all those people. Gosh, it's interesting, isn't it, when you look like that? It's just. It does. Why is there no mafia in in the UK, really? Is it because of our our wet autumns? I've always thought so, but it's lovely to hear someone else say it. It's good to get these ideas out there, even if they're based on absolutely nothing. Absolutely fuck all. So they do stuff like Ray and his people, they shake down drug dealers. Yeah. And th there's one thing that Ray does, which is um Rocky Delamo, his accountant. has been skimming off the top each week. So what do you think Ray does? He shoots him. Ray and his crew put a bullet through the left hand of the accountant. And Delamo says I would have had the accountant killed, but he's so good at his job. And With a bullet through his left hand, a right handed accountant can still work. And he's had his left hand shot, so he's never gonna cheat me again. So he can carry on as my accountant with a bullet in his left hand. You wouldn't do that to someone that was sort of tied up with the mafia, would you? If you were that accountant, you'd think, I'm gonna skim off the top of a r of a different client. It's a wild thing. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Shall I just skim off the top? Of that guy that runs the used car place. Yeah, I think you're playing with fire. It is only ending one Well, it's not only ending one way, 'cause the way you'd imagine it to end would be you're killed. It's actually ending with you just being one handed a one handed accountant. Which to be fair sounds like a euphemism from a man that steals Playboy. You know. It's probably a joke in there about him like losing money. Like money falling through his hands. Oh, that's nice. Probably something there. Do you imagine him with one hole in his hand a kind of almost like sort of like stigmata. Like stigmata. Yeah, that is how I think of him. He's constantly able to look through the hole in his hand. So this we come to the birth of the Chip and Dales. Basically, Steve's got a discot. But it's a bit down at heel. So he decides to re kind of upholster the whole place. The Chipandale's name comes from Chipandale furniture, right? Yes. You know the kind of wood furniture. Yeah. He turns the whole place that kind of dark wood, leather, not leather in the S M sense, leather in the lovely writing table sense. Yeah, sort of like a Chesterfield sofa. Like a Chesterfield sofa. He he does that. He keeps the club open during the refurb. keep costs down. So people are just drinking around a club that's transforming from a old school discotheque into a Chesterfield and Chippendale kind of lovely gentlemen's club. By March nineteen seventy eight. It's remodeled for the grand reopening. And Above the door is the new name, Chip and Dales. And The chip and dials. Uh. thing he's using to bring women in, which is male strippers. So there's a dispute over where the mail stripper's idea came from. One claim. There's a club promoter called Paul Snyder. Oh uh said he pitched the idea of a male strip club after seeing it in a gay club in Canada. And he thought wow, surely men stripping for women would be huge. Steve himself. claims that he was the one that came up with it. He saw a strip show for women in a biker bar on Redondo Beach. And immediately Published an article. wanting male strippers for his club. So there's two views on it, right? Steve publishes an ad for strippers, right? It attracts two hundred applicants for ten dances. Wow. I know. That's more than I would have thought. It's a type of person, isn't it? There's a certain confidence that I don't think I have. To apply for a stripping uh job. Yeah, and also to think, I've got the moves. Yeah, exactly. And also the bodies one thing, but you've got to have the moves as well. Famously. But also having the body in the late seventies is a very different thing to having the body now. When in the late seventies the gym was kind of a a weird thing done by very few people. Do you know what I mean? It's not like dads at pick up now who, you know, go to the gym and stuff like that. It was like a niche concern bodybuilding in the seventies. But were they like bodybuilders? No, but they were ripped. They were ripped, okay. They were ripped to a level where you'd go They're not just getting up in the morning. Do you know what I mean? Yeah, sure. They're doing work. Susie, this is pre-protein shakes. Two hundred applicants for ten dancers, ten waiting bar staff positions. So the waiters and bartenders are working only for tips, which is a classic American thing, isn't it? That's crazy. They're not getting the main tips, right? The dancers are getting thirty dollars a night. But they're also, as we'll find, getting fuckloads of tips from the horny women. And yes, I am gonna use the word horny. Steve's preference, right? He wanted that weren't even yet twenty five, at least six foot, muscular body. Long hair. Preferably. Although that a lot of them don't have long hair. And also Here's a little thing he likes. He wanted them clean shaven with no body hair. Is he gay? No, he's married with kids. Very specific about what he wants from a guy. He's an art he's a directorial artist. Sure. So he's not gay, no, but he he wants a guy who's clean shaven, no body hair, especially any that would show around a G string. They need to wax their assholes. They need to wax their assholes. It's that simple. I wonder if wax was a thing. They're probably shaving. Oh, that's gonna go horrible. I think wax was a thing in the seventies, yeah. Do you think? I don't know, but you know, write in, if you know. Why don't you do the history of wax? I think by that point the sh the podcast has jumped the shark. Maybe. Okay. Well you could do Madam Two Swords. Oh, that would be a great one. Yeah, 'cause you know how that started. With like beheading heads that they've copied. Yes. And now it's just like Kylie. Yeah. It's absolutely fascinating. Madame Two Swords. Yeah. Well there we go. We'll write that one. She's an actual lady. Okay, right, we'll do that. She was an actual lady. And then there's there's Louie Two Swords, but let's not digress away from the Chip and Dales 'cause at the end of the day I'm still wearing the cuffs Susie. Yeah, sorry. In the late spring of nineteen seventy nine, we get the Chip and Dales. They start, right? A male exotic dance night for ladies only. So Steve forgetting that he claimed that the reason he came up with the idea is he saw it's in a different place in LA. claims it to be the first male strip show. In America. Wow. Okay. And inspired by the Playboy Bunny, he goes for the classic Chipandale's looks, so that is. Skin tight black trousers, chest bed, white cuffs. and white collar with bow tie. Mm. The classic, Susie. You can see me wearing it here. And it looks great. It looks as good today as it ever did. Yeah. And just to check with your cuffs, have you got cuff links in them? Or is there a little sew? From Amazon Velcro. Velcro. Sure, sure, sure. That's for easy access. That's for easy access, exactly. You might want to whip him off, whip it on. Exactly, though I imagine it. Well we'll come to the women who slept with us the Chipandales because there there's women. Oh, wow. Course Susie. course it was happening. He also wanted the bar staff and the the doorman. bare chested. Dorn in the in the same outfit as well, which must have been absolutely freezing. That's exactly what I was thinking. The valets that met your car would be wearing this as well. I'm not sure I want a topless man parking my car. I wonder whether do you think the bouncers would still have had to wear those? bright yellow things around their arms. a little earpiece as well. Yeah. I don't know. It's it's very difficult to be stood outside of a club in winter. dressed like that. Yes. Oh my gosh. But basically the rule is, once inside the club the women can do whatever they wanted free from the fear. Well point is he's gone for women only, 'cause he fears that if there was men there then the women wouldn't be able to let go. they wouldn't be able to kind of enjoy the show. And then at ten PM, men are basically let into the club. Right. And the women are so Horned up and raw us by that point. Yeah, yeah. Horned up. Yeah, so basically the men. Okay, who's all in for Cancer Research UK's race for life? We're doing pretty muddy. It's an obstacle course. There's one for kids. Runners. Walkers. Book clubbers. Nick clubbers. Henpin bowlers. Whether you climb it, slide it, or crawl it. Cancer, all in to help fund life saving research. Join our London events throughout the summer. Sign up now from just £14.99. Visit raceforlife.org. Prices vary by event distance and participant age. The men in LA are like, I've got to go to the Chipandales at ten PM. It's an absolute crapshoot. That's not the phrase. But you know Well it's a crapshoot. It's a game, isn't it? I meant like um What is it called? Something duck I don't know what the phrase is. Shagfest. Shagfest, sure. Yeah, yeah. I think crapshoot. When we're talking about Just talked about someone waxing their asshole might not be the one. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, yeah. Ideal, yeah. This is a bluer episode, but it is the Chippendales. Yeah, I mean people aren't listening to this on the way to school with their kids. They're not saying, I'll pause it here for when I pick you up. We'll find out what Steve did next. This is what was going on. The chip and dolls would come on, they'd do their dance, then they'd lean down to do this thing called a tip and kiss. They'd lean down to a woman. And she'd basically throw her arms around the dancer's neck. The dancer would stand up. With her still hanging on to their necks until she had to let go. That was basically what would happen in the club. Many of the dancers get extremely muscly necks from tip and kisses, which is incredible kind of. Just thinking. You'd want people to be very light. Yeah, well they got a thing called Chipandale neck. Which is um basically they got really strong necks from lifting up women with their necks. That's so weird. But they were making seventy five to a hundred and twenty five dollars a night from Tip and Kiss's tips. So it's worth it. It's worth having the big old neck. Yeah, for sure. Once the club opens, there's such novices at hosting these stripping events. But basically They haven't looked into the laws of what you can and can't do. So the police raid it because you can't have the women touching the men. And basically, after the raid, the club has to declare, please don't touch the dancers. They'll dance for you if you wave a tip, but no putting it down their G string. Not allowed. Gotta have some decorum in these situations. Yeah, similar rules at your tour, isn't it? It is a very similar rule at my tour, Susie. Stop. Putting ten is in my G string. purely here for jokes. I'm not here for your titillation. I think it's the way that you say coco pops. Some people can't resist it. That's why I've got such a strong neck. They actually incorporate a police act into the show. tends to shut down the club and then it all goes sexy. Oh I wonder if that's where that comes from. I'd say the Chippadells are leading, you know, they've led a lot of things, they've led to stripping grams, all that kind of stuff, probably. So yeah. It is an instant success. It becomes the hottest nightclub in LA. You get the Biggies come there, Cher comes, Brooke Shields, obviously Hugh Hefner. The capacity is 299. They are filling it with five hundred to six hundred women a night. Wow. I mean that's a fire safety hazard. It really is. Steve basically imagined what would happen. Is that women would come to the show. And then the show would finish and they'd leave and then they'd have a normal club night with like women and men. But what happens is all the women stick around. So men from LA are desperate to get in at 10 PM to to see the women who've been to the Chipendales. There's basically there's sex in the bogs. Every night at the Chip and Dales. Come on, Susie. With the chip and dials. With the chip and dials. Wow. One MC said that a womaned a dancer five hundred dollars to snort cocaine off his dick. Hmm And he said no. Oh my god. Yeah. That is so shocking. Is it? I mean, well, I don't know what your tour shows are like, Susie. Josh, please. I know that the riskiest thing that you do on a tour is put two tea bags in a cup. I do, yeah, but they are DK. But uh yeah, one patron said she she went to the club with her friend and her friend's mum. Wait, the mum was later bragging about giving a chip and a blowjob in the car. Oh my gosh. Yeah. This is so blue. It is so blue. This might be the bluest thing I've ever done. Just let you know. Sex sales, Susie. Sex sells. And that's why we're hosting it. Exactly. One of the butt dancers says, I wasn't a priest and I had a weakness for beautiful women. I love the idea. As if anyone hasn't got a weakness for beautiful women. Who fancies women. Like Do you know what my problem is, Susie? I've got a weakness for beautiful women. Yeah. Another one says, I remember someone wanted my sperm for a baby. They offered me $2,000. Wow. You want a fit baby, get the sperm off of Chipendale. By fit baby I mean like grow up attractive. Just to be clear. Yeah, Josh, don't worry. It's all gone too blue. It's gone from blue to sort of illegal. Yeah, it has gone from blue to illegal. So then, right, police start to think, Well there's this is overfilled. This is the last days of Rome. So they send undercover female police officers to the club. And basically when they see a patron touch a dancer, they just shut it down. And like he hires security guards for the stage, Steve. But basically. They can't keep the women away from the dancers. It's an impossible security job. There's all this problem with the parking in the area because people are just leaving their cars anywhere to go to the Chippendales. Ha ha. Just the idea of someone just leaving it running. Just absolutely desperate to get in there. Get in there and see a big neck. But you know what? This doesn't surprise me, Josh, because we will both know this from the times when we played the clubs, is that Raucus Women at a comedy club. Far harder work than Raucus Men. Definitely, definitely. This is basically six hundred people on a Hendo, Susan. Oh my gosh. Yeah. So The Californian uh Department of Alcohol Beverage Control. sights on something. Can you guess what discrimination they get sighted on? Anti-man. Not allowing men into the clubs, not allowing men as patrons, yeah. So you're not allowed to do that. You're not allowed to have a single sex club in LA at this point. Also, and this is grim, he basically Steve faces racial discrimination lawsuits as well, because obviously all the Well, not obviously, but all the Chipandales are white. And Steve is Asian, but he tells the doorman, anyone who basically is not white and look doesn't look like they're on the cover of GQ or Vogue shouldn't come into the club. The head of security is black. The designer who created the look of the Chip and Dales. was not only black, but it was also gay. Steve is Indian. There's this kind of wild kind of Hol it's just horrible, right? And Steve is a Absolute. nasty piece of work, right? Staff hate Steve. He basically hires and fires this DJ and people say every time they go. either the DJ's just been rehired 'cause people like him or fired 'cause Steve hates him. He like treats his staff terribly. And then he decides to commit his first crime, right? So in nineteen seventy eight, he calls Ray Colon. Remember Ray Colon? I remember Ray Kylon. to meet him at the Chippendales and he basically says he's got a problem and raise his only hope. Some of his best customers are going to they've set up rival clubs called Osco's and Moody's. Most people deal with that by just focusing on the fact they've got six hundred people in a three hundred seater every night and they're absolutely cleaning up. He wants Ray to burn the rival club. He says to Ray, I don't want you to burn them down yourself. Could you find someone who could do it? Ray says he tried to dissuade Steve, but Steve offered him seven grand and Ray needed the money. 'Cause the feds had recently got all the LA mafia, so Ray's income had gone from them. He Ray takes the money. This is incredible. In the hope. that you wouldn't have to do it and it would just blow over. We've all done it haven't we, Susie. Got offered seven grand and gone, Do you know what, maybe I'll never have to burn down these places. I'll take the seven grand and then he'll forget about it. Wild. It doesn't blow over. No shit. Oh what a shock. Yeah. And Steve says, Gonna have my money back. And Ray says, I'm sorry I've spent it. I can feel it getting out of hand. So Ray tells Steve he will complete the arson contract. But he doesn't know any arsonists. So in the next episode, Susie. We will come to what proves to be a disastrous attempt at arson. Also, the Chipendales go from strength. to strength will describe their show Just in their necks. Just in their necks. As they take over. the world. See you next time in a few days for that, or if you want to listen to it now. Join the Museum of Pop Culture fan club. And also you might get a little extra strip from me, am I right? I don't think that's gonna help. Susie, the live zooms are basically as similar Am I gonna be straight by the end of this subject? You are if you join the fan club. See you in a minute. That's it for part one of the story of the Chipandales. There's so much more to it than you realise, isn't there? Coming up in part two, as the success of the Chip and Dales grows, the story takes a dark turn. Arson Blackmail.