Victor Webster in The Chippendales Murder

'They created a world of fantasy, but something more powerful destroyed their dream.'

Over the last few years, the story of the Chippendales, and the murder of choreographer Nick Denoia have been captured in both A&E documentaries, (The Secrets of the Chippendales Murders) and in an HBO show, (Welcome to Chippendales)  I think the 2000 television movie was the first time however, the story was told on film.

2000's The Chippendales Murder tells the story of the rise of Chippendales male exotic dancers. Steve Banerjee purchase a downtrodden discotheque and after experimenting with several ideas to fill the club weekdays create female mud wrestling and male stripping. The downfall starts with Steve hiring Choreographer Nick Denoia. Banerjee contracts for the murder of Denoia resulting in Denoias death.

Denoia was killed because he was the target of a murder-for-hire plot orchestrated by Banerjee, the founder of Chippendales. Banerjee wanted DeNoia killed because they had a business dispute over a licensing arrangement for the Chippendales tour. In 1994, Banerjee pleaded guilty to the murder of DeNoia and was sentenced to 26 years in prison, but he died by suicide before he could be sentenced. 

A decent copy of the film is hard to find, but thankfully, xyzpdq (Scenes of Male Skin) archived several of Webster's hottest scenes.  Although his black leather thong stays stubbornly on, we still get great views of Webster lighting up the dance floor! 

Kudos to Chippendales

I never thought I'd be applauding the current Chippendales show in Las Vegas.   I love seeing classic Chippendale images and videos, which I've posted about HERE: and HERE:  The present day incarnation however, seems more G-rated, for all those self-professed Christian gals on their bachelorette trips.  Far from the boundary pushing performances from the 1980's that I've seen on video.

The Vegas show often brings in celebrities, but most don't show much.  Unless I'm wrong, I don't believer Ian Ziering or Joey Lawrence hit the shower.  The only celebrity brave enough to show a little butt was Tyson Beckford, who flashed a little ass during his stint with the show.

Like Beckford before him, dancer and performer Gleb Savchenko doesn't disappoint.  Gleb shows his dancers bod and glistening, muscled glutes in the purple haze shower.  The kudos may actually be more for the many audience members with camera phones who captured Gleb rinsing down.  Usually people with cameras going during shows annoy the shit out of me, but for these beautiful views of Gleb, I'll let it pass.😀

Gleb Savchenko on Instagram

Cuffs & Collars

'Two thongs don't make a right...'

Back in 2018, I enjoyed taking a deep dive, featuring several pages spotlighting the classic men of Chippendales. (HERE: & HERE:)  Not the sanitized version currently boring bachelorette attendees in Las Vegas, but the black pant, thong wearing men who brought the brand fame in the 80's and early 90's. 

Back then, The Chippendales were everywhere.  On stage, in videos, on playing cards and even teasing audiences on daytime talk shows.  I think I first noticed the Chippendales when I was a kid walking through the mall with my parents at Christmas.  It was there, my eyes first caught those colorful calendars in the book stores.  I quickly found a way to peal away from my parents for a few minutes to get a quiet,  but secret closer look.

Although I featured many of the most well known dancers in my series of posts in 2018, there were a few I missed.  One, had one of the better strips in the 1987 VHS release of Chippendales: Tall Dark & Handsome.  Check him out, and a clip from the video on the NEXT PAGE HERE:

Chris Whalley: Tall, Dark & Handsome

Back in late 80's, Chris Whalley danced on stage with Chippendales, graced a month in their calendars, and was the hot nine of clubs in the Chippendales set of playing cards.  Chris was also a featured dancer with a solo in the middle of 1987's, Chippendales: Tall< Dark & Handsome.

Tall, Dark & Handsome was one of many videos that Chippendales put out in the 80's.  This was an odd little flick you can catch on Youtube if you look.  It's mostly a performance video, focused on the dancers but in addition to featuring Judy Landers, also featured several actress's playing the roles of ladies out celebrating their friends bachelorette party.

If the film wasn't silly enough, the 'story' component made it even sillier, especially looking back in hind sight.  Chippendales, as they were in the 80's and 90's were sort of a product of the times, and like many things from the 80's, didn't really hold up once the 80's came and went.

Chris Whalley however, seemed to hold up well.  When searching for Whalley on social media, one of the first things that came up was his old MySpace page.  There wasn't much on it, but it did have me looking for more of his modeling work.

After his turn with Chippendales, Whalley left the show and was a successful male model in the 90's, doing runway shows and various campaigns, including working several times with fellow 90's male sexy symbol, Brian Buzzini. 

I'm not sure why exactly I didn't notice Whalley when I originally posted about the Chippendales, but he was certainly a big part during the time during height of Chippendales success. Recently seeing his blue bikini shot from one of the Chippendale calendars, I was on the hunt to see, and find out more.  Check out his strip, down his thong, in Tall, Dark & Handsome in the clip below.

Chris (r) with Brian Buzzini (l)

Below: Chris alongside Brian Buzzini, Deryl George, Ric Arango, Scott King and Charles Taylor. at the 1992 Gianni Versace Runway show.

Above: Whalley, front row right

Tall, Dark & Handsome (1987)

Favorite Pic of the Day for February 9th

Above:

Hope you enjoy today's tribute to Chippendales

Be sure to check out the next page as there another page of posts full of Chippendale men and memories!

~Check out today's Birthdays HERE:~

Flavor of the Month

'The just want to see flesh.'

Dustin Stevens

My 10 post salute to Chippendales wasn't planned. It came together, as many of my pieces do, through stumbling upon an image while searching for shots for another piece. After I saw the film Razorback a couple of weeks ago, I decided to feature the movie's star, Gregory Harrison. Anyone who's hunted for images of Harrison knows that in doing so, you often stumble upon shots from his role in the early 80's stripper movie 'For Ladies Only.' It while searching for shots of Harrison that google presented the image above.

The shot, which I tired hard to find larger, is of model and Chippendales dancer Dustin Stevens. Dustin was one of the show's original dancers, hired in 1979. A professional dancer, Dustin worked in LA and in touring shows, until getting into a fight with another dancer while on the road in 1983. There is a great interview with Dustin on Youtube in which he talks in details about the show's early days and his time as a Chippendale and being in some of the first tours. (Many women tried to cut their g-strings off) Check out the Interview on Youtube HERE:

Seeing John's images from the 1981 calendar had me flashing back to the fist time I saw a Chippendales calendar in the late 80's. In all my years of working on FH, I had never thought too much about featuring the men of Chippendales until coming across the shot of Dustin. I always saw Chippendales as sort of cheesy, and more tease than anything else. Dustin had me remembering how much that early calendar viewing impacted me, and how it almost outed me to my family.

My family was visiting my mothers sister just after Christmas. She had two children, both quite a bit older than I was. Both were in college and were only home for the Christmas break. The oldest was my cousin Tara, who I think would have been about 20 at the time. I would have been about 12 or 13 I think and was still forced along to the yearly family visit. Under their Christmas tree was one of Tara's gifts, a Chippendale calendar with three bow tie wearing hunks on the cover.

I had my eye on the calendar all throughout the visit. I was dying to take a peak, but the room was filled with family. I waited for my opportunity just after dinner. Everyone was in the dining room, and the calendar lay alone in the empty living room. I grabbed it and ran into the bathroom, visually devoured it quickly. Before I was done however, the group had returned into the living room and I was forced out of the bathroom, leaving it hidden under a hamper.

1987

I sweated my way through the rest of the visit, trying to figure out how to get it back under the tree. Finally, as we were leaving, I took my opportunity. My aunt and uncle were in the doorway saying goodbye to use as we left. I ran past them, saying I needed to use the bathroom, and quickly grabbed the calendar and stuck it again under the tree. I am pretty sure my uncle saw me drop something under the tree, but nothing was said, and I rushed back to the car, heart racing the entire time.

1990

I remember seeing a few Chippendales appearances on TV and in magazines after that. I did buy one Calendar when I was a bit older in the early 90's. I was inspired by the loin cloth wearing model on the cover... I never hung it, just enjoyed it in the privacy of my bedroom now and then.

1991

When I was putting together today's posts, I was most interested in images from the 80's and 90's. I love the looks and the hair and the nostalgia value in those early images. As hard as I tried, the first calendar, the 1981 calendar featuring Dustin, could not be found on-line. If anyone has it, or knows where image scans might be located, shoot me a line.

1993