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Sydney Morning Herald

Monday June 8, 1998

Robin Oliver

CHIPPENDALES: A Secret History

Nine, 9.30pm

AN EYEBALLING title and the first half delivers ad nauseam. A bunch of getchergearoffs baring pretty well everything and having what's left blatantly fondled by screaming women determined to ignore no-touching rules.

These fancied men in Spandex collars and cuffs are the Chippendales, so named after the style of furniture used to refurnish a seedy nightclub in Palms, a low-rent district of Los Angeles, where their story began.

That was in 1979, when Somen "Steve" Banerjee, a migrant from Bombay, devised an all-male revue. It drew women in droves and Broadway producer Nick De Noia was hired to smarten up the act.

Banerjee opened in New York and put De Noia in charge. Business zoomed and De Noia demanded more of the action. He was fobbed off with half the touring profits. Banerjee was sure the Chips were going nowhere. But a chance out-of-town booking put De Noia on the road. Soon he was raking in money and Banerjee wanted him dead.

How the contract was organised and De Noia executed is described in detail. All went quiet until Banerjee ordered a second execution. His nervous henchman went to the FBI.

Arrested, Banerjee hanged himself in jail. This British film presents an intriguing story of greed rather poorly. The club sequences are reconstructions. The narrator is Dervla Kirwan, Assumpta from Ballykissangel.