Latest / Legally Brunette / Killer Thriller: You Thought It Was Sexy Men But It Was Murder

Transcript

Killer Thriller: You Thought It Was Sexy Men But It Was Murder · Legally Brunette

• 0:06
  Speaker 1: Amy Roboc and TJ.
• 0:07
  Speaker 2: Holmes present Killer Thriller with your host Alisa Donovan.
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: Oh my goodness, I am very excited. We are pulling
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: back the curtain on a story that you may think
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: you know thanks to Hulu's Welcome to Chippendale's. But let
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: me tell you something. The real version is even wilder.
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: And our guest today is Jay Schwartz, now a legendary
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: Hollywood publicist, but back in the eighties he was deep
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: inside the rise of Chippendale's New York. Jay knew everybody,
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: all the players. He witnessed the chaos firsthand, and he
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: knew Nick Denoya before his shocking murder. I am so
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: excited to talk to Jay about all the stories that
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: never made it on screen, the personalities behind the scenes,
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: and the moment that it all turned dangerous. Jay, Welcome
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: to Killer Thriller.
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: Thank you, Thank you for having me. I excited to
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: be here.
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: I am so excited to be here, and I honestly
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: I have to so you can see, I have like
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: seventeen thousand pages of notes, and so I first of all,
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: I will tell you my what I thought Chimmndales was.
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: This was an eighty I was born in nineteen seventy one.
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: So I was like, ten, eleven and twelve, what all
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: was happening? All I remember were the commercials, and it
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: was like, Oh, this just seems like, you know, handsome
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: guys with just dancing with their shirts off, and that's
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: that's all there is to it. So I had no
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: idea that there were multiple murders, that people were like
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: sleeping together and like I thought, it was like nice
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: buttoned up white ladies going to watch men, you know,
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: just kind of dance.
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: Well, there were one thing is true. They were nice
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: white ladies showing up to do that. In New York
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: it's called the Bridge and Tunnel crowd. But they were
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: far from innocent, these women, they were far from innocent.
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: So the Chippendale's, the idea of Chippendale's, let me go
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: back a little bit. Okay, Chippendale's is not what people
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: thought it was. Right. Chippendale started in Los Angeles, right,
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: the story of Chippendale's that has been portrayed, portrayed on
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: every podcast, and this show is not the story of Chippendale.
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: Okay, So tell us what I okay, very quickly, We'll
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: tell you this story of Welcome to Chippendale's, which is
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: the Hulu series, is phenomenal cast. I want to know
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: what you think about the cast as well, but everybody
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: is compelling, and I mean Juliet Lewis, Annelie Ashford. Anyway,
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: the cast is phenomenal. Juliet Lewis is like a star
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: of the first order. So that people know this show,
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: welcome to Chippendale's. Becaus is on the rise of the club,
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: first starting in La and then it comes to New
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: York becomes an international phenomenon thanks in large part to
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: Nick Denia.
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: Whom you know and wh is my boss?
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: Who was your boss and then you're going to tell
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: us how you got involved in New York And he
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: was really the creative mind behind the show. Right, So
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: this series is really through the lens of Steve Bannerjee
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: who was the businessman behind it and began it in La.
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: So yes, but to go back just one step, when
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: you said you know women coming into it was these
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: women weren't if you think that men were sleazy when
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: they went to strip clubs, didn't hold the candle to
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: these really.
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: So because also I remember watching and thinking aren't these
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: all gay men? Like I didn't understand like, this is
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: what women wanted. Women wanted to see this. I'm like,
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: is there something wrong with me?
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: Well, because it wasn't. You didn't know what it really was, right,
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: I didn't. And the only gay guys in the New
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: York club where our you know, backup dancers, was our
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: true interesting And so I will get into New York
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: and what the show was and how it was and
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: what Nick's vision was. But tell me where you're were.
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: So how do I know? There are so many places?
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: So tell us how did you meet Nick? How did
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: you come to be involved in Chippendale's In the first place.
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: I worked for a Broadway producer named Fred Zolo, and
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: at the time he was dating a woman he's now
• 4:37
  Speaker 2: married to, Barbara Rockley. At the time he was he
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: was dating a woman named Barbara Leggetty. So I worked
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: in a.
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: PR now right, a broaddy producer.
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: Yes, I was working in an office. First, I was
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: doing publicity for a company called Burnham Calla, which was
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: my second job. My first job I had worked for Salters,
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: Ruskin and Friedman, and at that time in the eighties,
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: the two big PR companies were Salters Ruskin and Friedman,
• 5:10
  Speaker 2: who handled Sinatra and Barbara Streisan and Rogerson Cowan, those
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: were the two.
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: Big oh, yep, yep.
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: I left there, got a job at Burnhaman Callahan was
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: working there and Fred Zolo rented an office a space
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: out of there. I was all about entertainment and getting
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: into this world. I studied acting in school in Long Island,
• 5:36
  Speaker 2: and Barbara was a club promoter, you know, she threw parties,
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: Broadway openings, parties, opening nights, and she got approached from
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: a club called Magique. So in New York at the time,
• 5:53
  Speaker 2: the biggest clubs were Studio fifty four, Magique Area, and
• 5:59
  Speaker 2: like Light.
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: Oh that's even Limelight that those were around even when
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: I moved into the city in eighty nine, ninety yeah.
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: And it was wild as you can imagine the eighties were.
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: And so Barbara got a call from the owners of Magique,
• 6:17
  Speaker 2: who they had worked you know, they worked together, and
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: they said, you know, we're doing this club. We're bringing Chippendales,
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: which no one really needed to know. No, no, I
• 6:28
  Speaker 2: mean you heard of it, but you didn't really know
• 6:31
  Speaker 2: what it was. And we're bringing it to New York.
• 6:34
  Speaker 2: And so the concept was from six to ten, the
• 6:38
  Speaker 2: club was Chippendale's from ten to four. It was a
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: regular club.
• 6:45
  Speaker 3: So now you have to imagine I'm catching.
• 6:49
  Speaker 2: They they rebuilt the club into the interior of the club,
• 6:53
  Speaker 2: and we were hiring and rehearsing everything all during that summer.
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: You were hiring the dance.
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: I went ahead. So Barbara told them they can't. She
• 7:05
  Speaker 2: couldn't do it, but she had somebody who could do it.
• 7:08
  Speaker 2: And she came to me and said, I want you
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: to meet with this guy named Nick Denoya, and I
• 7:15
  Speaker 2: think this would be perfect. And I was hesitant because
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: I wanted to work on Broadway. We were we had
• 7:20
  Speaker 2: just opened a show called Hurley Burley right on Broadway.
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: Oh my goodness, and no, no, just go and do
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: that and you can come back to this. I said, okay.
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: So I went and had dinner with Nick at a
• 7:35
  Speaker 2: restaurant that's no longer there, but I used to go
• 7:37
  Speaker 2: there all the time, called JRS. I was on forty
• 7:39
  Speaker 2: sixth Street and we're in the restaurant and he's just
• 7:42
  Speaker 2: smoking his cigarettes along and being him and says, okay,
• 7:49
  Speaker 2: you know, come work for me.
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: And so he so the people know. He was like
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: considered the creative mind that he wanted to make it
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: a real right.
• 7:58
  Speaker 2: So nip My idea was unlike la Nick was. He
• 8:06
  Speaker 2: portrayed himself as way more successful than he was, so
• 8:11
  Speaker 2: he wanted.
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: This highly unusual in Los Angeles.
• 8:15
  Speaker 2: But he had won two Emmys for this called Unicorn Tail,
• 8:23
  Speaker 2: which was a children's show.
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: Ironically, yeah, I do find that odd but right.
• 8:31
  Speaker 2: And so his idea was to make this as closed
• 8:35
  Speaker 2: to a Broadway show as possible because he was not
• 8:37
  Speaker 2: getting the Broadway right right. So they made the club
• 8:44
  Speaker 2: and how to get in the club, and what the
• 8:47
  Speaker 2: show was about very similar to doing a Broadway show.
• 8:52
  Speaker 2: We had a choreographer, we had music, we had a
• 8:55
  Speaker 2: box office. You could call in and make reservations, get tickets.
• 8:59
  Speaker 2: It was on to Catron that hired a Broadway publicist
• 9:03
  Speaker 2: to come and do that.
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: And was that all his idea to do was that
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: his the.
• 9:08
  Speaker 2: Was his idea to do it like that, right, you
• 9:10
  Speaker 2: know there were different numbers, yep. But he also said
• 9:18
  Speaker 2: the opening of the show. His idea of Chippendale's was
• 9:23
  Speaker 2: more burlesque, not the sleazy strip shows that men would
• 9:29
  Speaker 2: go to see women undressed, but more like gypsy Rosalie
• 9:34
  Speaker 2: believing more.
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: To right, like he understood that women didn't want to
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: just look at a good looking man like they We
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: need more depth, We need some kind of an emotional
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: interest or some kind of like sensuality to a point, right.
• 9:52
  Speaker 2: Because this club that six hundred people right doors would
• 9:59
  Speaker 2: open that six o'clock.
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: In six o'clock, like, let's think about this, that's quite early. Yes,
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: that's like early bird special dinner.
• 10:07
  Speaker 2: Hour show didn't start till eight.
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: Oh, you're kidding. Some people are getting smashed, okay, and
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: getting smashed so long time.
• 10:17
  Speaker 2: No men were allowed in the club, right, So this
• 10:20
  Speaker 2: is all women, which is what made this all work
• 10:23
  Speaker 2: because it was all women. And more importantly, the rules
• 10:32
  Speaker 2: of Chippendale were Chippendale's is a Disneyland for ladies. So
• 10:38
  Speaker 2: when you're a good looking guy, you know how to
• 10:42
  Speaker 2: be six feet abs ripped the spandex pants with nothing
• 10:50
  Speaker 2: left to the imagination, cuffs, collars, bow tie.
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: Did you have anything to do with casting these people?
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: Did you have to interview any of them?
• 10:57
  Speaker 2: That's what I did?
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: You did?
• 10:59
  Speaker 2: I did all hiring and firing.
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: You did? So wait, what was the criteria? I heard?
• 11:03
  Speaker 2: There was a said six foot and good looking? You know,
• 11:08
  Speaker 2: and i'd have to say to the guys, take your
• 11:12
  Speaker 2: shirt off. That was uncomfortable for me to do because
• 11:18
  Speaker 2: I don't tell guys.
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: To take right.
• 11:21
  Speaker 2: So but I arranged it. You know, in the office
• 11:25
  Speaker 2: is where the guys would come to meet me. But
• 11:27
  Speaker 2: I had a room full of women, you know who
• 11:30
  Speaker 2: worked in the office, right, so they would go like
• 11:34
  Speaker 2: the you know, raise their thumb or lower their thumb.
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: Well, you're kidding. It was like the secret.
• 11:38
  Speaker 2: But again, after a while, it was just take a
• 11:42
  Speaker 2: shirt off, you know. It was just like it didn't matter.
• 11:46
  Speaker 2: It didn't have this of a guy saying to another guy,
• 11:50
  Speaker 2: take your shirt off, because in the beginning that was uncomfortable.
• 11:55
  Speaker 2: But the guys who we hired, waiters, hosts, bus boys, even.
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: Yes, so everyone that worked there was male, correct, right.
• 12:06
  Speaker 2: Except our costume girl was Amy.
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: She was she so to talking about the series. Also,
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: Juliette Lewis plays a character called Barbara Coughlin. I don't
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: know who that's, right, So they they say that she's
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: more of like a composite character to represent a bunch
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: of different people. But I think that probably she might
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: mostly resemble Candice Maren. Maren is that the names. Oh wait,
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: you're shaking your head. I was gonna say, tell me
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: that you love her because she just seems so ballsy
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: and like bananas. Don't like her?
• 12:44
  Speaker 2: Tell me what, let's go back. Oh no, it just
• 12:50
  Speaker 2: so Chippendale's Disneyland ladies. And here are the rules of
• 12:54
  Speaker 2: working at Chippendale's. When a woman comes in the door,
• 12:58
  Speaker 2: you're talking to her. You no matter what she looks like,
• 13:04
  Speaker 2: what ethnicity she is, interesting, You're talking to this one
• 13:09
  Speaker 2: person right in front of you. Doesn't matter who else
• 13:12
  Speaker 2: comes in here. This is the person you're talking to.
• 13:15
  Speaker 2: So the idea was, you need to make this woman
• 13:17
  Speaker 2: feel she's the most important woman in the world. Yeah,
• 13:22
  Speaker 2: that's a part of the fantasy. And that's what Chippendale's, right.
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: That's very very smart, Like that is a really good
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: way to do things.
• 13:34
  Speaker 2: And then the opening of our show, you know on
• 13:38
  Speaker 2: the video screens was Chippendale's was burlesque images of women
• 13:47
  Speaker 2: and men, you know, throughout the ages.
• 13:51
  Speaker 4: So it was really showing you that this was a
• 13:53
  Speaker 4: show and you had tickets for the show and it
• 13:58
  Speaker 4: was a real experience. And so I give that to Nick.
• 14:02
  Speaker 4: Nick idea for all of that was perfect. It really was,
• 14:07
  Speaker 4: and it that's what made the club so successful.
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, But.
• 14:14
  Speaker 2: There are a lot of other elements that came in.
• 14:16
  Speaker 2: You know, in the very beginning, it was me and Nick.
• 14:21
  Speaker 2: We brought in the choreographer from here, who was the
• 14:23
  Speaker 2: La Rams choreographer. Her name was Nancy Gregory. And you know,
• 14:29
  Speaker 2: then we brought in a few dancers from LA to
• 14:34
  Speaker 2: open the club right here. But then we had to
• 14:38
  Speaker 2: hire a staff for the club, so host, waiters, bar boys,
• 14:43
  Speaker 2: you know, bar backs. They all had to be good
• 14:46
  Speaker 2: looking guys too. That was the rule. Everybody who worked
• 14:49
  Speaker 2: here had to be gorgeous. How to be good looking
• 14:52
  Speaker 2: because you're walking around without a shirt, right. This club
• 14:57
  Speaker 2: very very different than the LA Club. And I'll say again,
• 15:01
  Speaker 2: I had nothing to do with the LA Club.
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: So you you feel like the Los Angeles one was
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: a bit more seedy, a little more direct in terms
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: of yes, and the thing is about taking your clothes
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: off and women all the things.
• 15:15
  Speaker 2: I'm not saying that New York didn't that that didn't
• 15:19
  Speaker 2: happen in New York, but the New York club was
• 15:22
  Speaker 2: much classier. So what happened when the New York Club
• 15:27
  Speaker 2: opened Chippendale's. You know, people heard of Chippendale's and it
• 15:29
  Speaker 2: was successful in Los Angeles, but when New York opened,
• 15:34
  Speaker 2: that's what put Chippendale's on the mast. So our standards
• 15:37
  Speaker 2: were much much higher, you know. And it is very
• 15:41
  Speaker 2: specific about who you're hiring. You know. When I used
• 15:45
  Speaker 2: to go to the Jersey Shore down to Belmar in
• 15:49
  Speaker 2: the summers, and people found out who I was on
• 15:52
  Speaker 2: the beach and there was this one guy, Tony of course,
• 15:55
  Speaker 2: of course it is his name from Jersey, and he
• 15:59
  Speaker 2: would a song. You know, everybody have their boomboxes, and
• 16:04
  Speaker 2: the specific song came on so many men so little time.
• 16:08
  Speaker 2: It was the song. It was a really good dance song,
• 16:12
  Speaker 2: and whenever it came on the radio, you know, he
• 16:15
  Speaker 2: would get up in the middle of the beach and
• 16:19
  Speaker 2: start dancing to this song and his little reds every week,
• 16:23
  Speaker 2: right and everyone on the beach would yell out, Hey, Jay, look,
• 16:28
  Speaker 2: Tony's dancing for you. I was like, you know, and
• 16:31
  Speaker 2: he was a good looking guy and his body was good,
• 16:33
  Speaker 2: but he was too short.
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: But what I mean, but I would have hired him.
• 16:39
  Speaker 2: Or had that not have been I would have hired him.
• 16:42
  Speaker 2: Is that you know, being hired there, you have to
• 16:44
  Speaker 2: have a certain personality, you have to know what you're
• 16:48
  Speaker 2: getting in, right of course. Okay, so that's that La
• 16:53
  Speaker 2: club a lot. I'm not going to say a lot
• 16:57
  Speaker 2: of what was portray because I don't know the people
• 17:01
  Speaker 2: who wrote the books. I don't know how they got
• 17:03
  Speaker 2: the information. But it's inaccurate. Yeah, I think it's inaccurate.
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: What do you think is you've you've watched the series, Yes,
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: welcome to him, Jell. So what do you think is
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: the most what's the thing? You are like? This is
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: totally wrong.
• 17:32
  Speaker 2: The way the guys looked. No disrespect to those actors,
• 17:37
  Speaker 2: but they were not good looking guys. And again no
• 17:40
  Speaker 2: disrespect and.
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: No shade, but more kind of like, uh, you know.
• 17:44
  Speaker 2: You had a bald guy, you had a pot belly,
• 17:49
  Speaker 2: and nobody had hair on their chest except oh, really,
• 17:54
  Speaker 2: like we had one guy, Mike.
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: Oh that's right. I remember all of the images Miying had.
• 18:00
  Speaker 2: He was the only one who had hair on his chest.
• 18:02
  Speaker 2: Nobody else did. And in watching this, they had one
• 18:06
  Speaker 2: guy also hair on his chest and a beard and
• 18:11
  Speaker 2: long hair. None of the people who worked in New
• 18:14
  Speaker 2: York had beards. You got to be clean.
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: Shaped, hat to be clean shaven.
• 18:17
  Speaker 2: I mean, mustache was okay, but that was the only similarity,
• 18:22
  Speaker 2: you know, that guy and Mike. But everybody else who
• 18:26
  Speaker 2: worked there, they were not good looking enough. And Steve
• 18:30
  Speaker 2: would not have that club.
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Did you feel the tension between Steve being in
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: LA and Nick being in New York? And like, what
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: was what was this?
• 18:42
  Speaker 2: I was in the middle of it. You have to understand.
• 18:44
  Speaker 2: You have Steve in Los Angeles. Steve was an Indian man,
• 18:51
  Speaker 2: you know, from Bombay. He'd show up on Friday nights
• 18:55
  Speaker 2: every so often in a tan suit and sandals from India,
• 19:00
  Speaker 2: and he'd come in, wouldn't let anyone know he was
• 19:02
  Speaker 2: coming because there was no man in the club, remember,
• 19:06
  Speaker 2: and just to check on his club. See he would
• 19:12
  Speaker 2: know what he was coming. We did not know. Wow.
• 19:15
  Speaker 2: And I used to speak to Steve all the time. Personally,
• 19:18
  Speaker 2: I liked Steve. Steve was always very good to me.
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: You felt like he was a nice guy to me.
• 19:24
  Speaker 2: Yes, you know there were times where I would be
• 19:27
  Speaker 2: yelling at him on the phone, saying, what's wrong with you?
• 19:31
  Speaker 2: Does California turned the sun there turned your brains to mush? What?
• 19:36
  Speaker 2: What's aggressive, arrogant New Yorker who because and it was ridiculous.
• 19:43
  Speaker 2: I need you to send me new cod pieces that
• 19:46
  Speaker 2: light up. I need more more.
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: So he's all bent out of shape about cod pieces,
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: not him me. You are saying to him, you need
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: to send me these things right.
• 19:57
  Speaker 2: Because they're not working anymore. You need to send me
• 19:59
  Speaker 2: new ones. I need more cuffs and collars. I need
• 20:01
  Speaker 2: more bow ties. I like because this is what it
• 20:04
  Speaker 2: took to make the show, right. So you know, now,
• 20:11
  Speaker 2: knowing what I know, I probably wouldn't have been so
• 20:14
  Speaker 2: aggressive to Yeah, you were hit list that he was
• 20:17
  Speaker 2: a murderer. I mean, you know, but he would come
• 20:20
  Speaker 2: into New York and take me out to lunch and
• 20:22
  Speaker 2: take me to dinner with his wife and his newborn children,
• 20:26
  Speaker 2: and really liked him.
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: So was his wife, as was she as kind of
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: I did not know. I seemed like she's very smart,
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: and she's very capable, and really was kind of keeping
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: the wheels on the bus for a little bit.
• 20:42
  Speaker 2: I really don't know what Irene did. I do know
• 20:47
  Speaker 2: Irene was very quiet always when she was with me,
• 20:50
  Speaker 2: when we went to lunch and dinner and with the children.
• 20:54
  Speaker 2: So I did not know that Irene was involved in
• 20:57
  Speaker 2: the club. So for me, I you know, I don't know.
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: That right, because that makes it seem in the show,
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: they also make it seem as though she was very right,
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: and I think evolved.
• 21:09
  Speaker 2: That was whoever wrote this book took a lot of liberties. Liberties,
• 21:16
  Speaker 2: you know, so what about all of the things. But no,
• 21:19
  Speaker 2: just let me answer your previous question. Nobody liked Neck
• 21:24
  Speaker 2: really in today's world. And this is how I described Neck.
• 21:29
  Speaker 2: He was a cross between Harvey Weinstein and Scott rudin O.
• 21:36
  Speaker 2: On top of.
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: I've worked on top, I've met Harvey, so.
• 21:41
  Speaker 2: On top of being in the closet, but he was
• 21:47
  Speaker 2: all about very flamboyant.
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: Oh really, So that's almost like that's a very sort
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: of it's the word I'm looking for, you know. It's
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: like if he's in the classe. But he's almost tempting,
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: taunting people to sort of say something about him, like
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: that's a very aggressive sort of way to behave.
• 22:08
  Speaker 2: So he would so I'd get guys to come in,
• 22:11
  Speaker 2: you know, we'd make appointments. Before I hired them. Nick
• 22:14
  Speaker 2: had to see him, so it was always the they
• 22:17
  Speaker 2: you know, take your shirt off one particular day. You know,
• 22:22
  Speaker 2: it was like before the club was opening, you know,
• 22:24
  Speaker 2: the guys were coming in to get ready and this
• 22:27
  Speaker 2: I had this guy come in and Nick came in
• 22:30
  Speaker 2: because he knew he had to be there for this.
• 22:33
  Speaker 2: And you know, I said, you know, whatever his name was,
• 22:37
  Speaker 2: you know, take off your shirt. And Nick was standing
• 22:41
  Speaker 2: there and now this is in front of all the
• 22:43
  Speaker 2: guys that worked in the club that you know, we're
• 22:45
  Speaker 2: getting ready. Nick would say, this is what he said.
• 22:49
  Speaker 2: I'll never forget this. Hmm delicious. Oh, and that's just creepy. Yeah,
• 22:58
  Speaker 2: that's just yeah.
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: Can you imagine going into a job interview because someone
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: said that to me.
• 23:04
  Speaker 2: Remember this is the eighties, so there was no me too,
• 23:07
  Speaker 2: There was no no something wrong. You could say whatever.
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: Whatever you wanted. But this is so Also, was it
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: is it true that people were like they say there
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: was a something called an orgy room that that's no,
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: you're shaking your head. Never know, that's a lie.
• 23:22
  Speaker 2: No orgy room. It was the It was just the
• 23:28
  Speaker 2: room could an orgy room. So people to me, so
• 23:31
  Speaker 2: there's a bunch of people around, they were all getting
• 23:34
  Speaker 2: having sex to get this.
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: Semantics were not it was an orgy room, per se,
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: but there was more. No people had sex separately, but
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: it was in one room.
• 23:46
  Speaker 2: But again I cannot vouch for the confirm me. I
• 23:52
  Speaker 2: can tell you what we did myself in New York.
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: Yeah, well that's what I want to hear.
• 23:59
  Speaker 2: Okay, but you asked me if did everybody have a
• 24:04
  Speaker 2: problem with Nick and what was what was the dynamics?
• 24:08
  Speaker 2: So l A was Steve New.
• 24:12
  Speaker 4: York, Nick and myself in the middle because I worked.
• 24:18
  Speaker 2: For Nick technically. And then the owners of the club
• 24:22
  Speaker 2: in New York Steve and Gary.
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: So there was another owner in New York who's Gary.
• 24:28
  Speaker 2: They were brothers. Step and Gary were brothers in New York.
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 24:31
  Speaker 2: And then there was another an older man named Jerry
• 24:34
  Speaker 2: Denver and his piece of information, his grandson owns shipping it. Okay,
• 24:41
  Speaker 2: so the but but but I'm saying nobody.
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: Liked Nick because of his he just because.
• 24:49
  Speaker 2: Of who he was. He was an outrageous, ego, maniacal
• 24:54
  Speaker 2: son of a bitch. You know, he was not a
• 24:57
  Speaker 2: good guy. Wow, he tortured me. You know. It was
• 25:01
  Speaker 2: just horrible, horrible, horrible to me. Now, other people might
• 25:06
  Speaker 2: have loved it, and everybody to each their own.
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: Even the woman that I'm speaking of before, Candace.
• 25:16
  Speaker 2: His friend. Okay, Candace now portrays herself like she was
• 25:21
  Speaker 2: a producer on the show.
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: She most definitely does right, She's not.
• 25:25
  Speaker 2: She wasn't. Wow, So I was the.
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: Producer, you know, Jay, if you say it, it makes
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: it true.
• 25:32
  Speaker 2: Yes, I know. And she convinces other people that she
• 25:36
  Speaker 2: did this. Now, from what I've heard, Candace was she
• 25:41
  Speaker 2: did run the tour, but the tour happened after me,
• 25:45
  Speaker 2: way later. So I made sure when I was working
• 25:49
  Speaker 2: at the club that I had a title and a
• 25:51
  Speaker 2: business card and it said J. D. Schwartz Associate producer.
• 25:56
  Speaker 2: And I can show you on my phone all the
• 25:58
  Speaker 2: pictures from Chippendale's with business guard with everything. Candace was
• 26:04
  Speaker 2: not a producer on the show. And ironically, a few
• 26:08
  Speaker 2: years ago, we had a get together for one of
• 26:12
  Speaker 2: the guys that I had hired. I flew back to
• 26:15
  Speaker 2: New Jersey for this and Candace was there and she
• 26:21
  Speaker 2: kept wanting to come over and talk to me, and
• 26:23
  Speaker 2: I didn't want to talk to her because the things
• 26:26
  Speaker 2: that she was saying is just a lie. You were
• 26:30
  Speaker 2: not the associate producer. I was the associate producer. You
• 26:34
  Speaker 2: didn't hire the guys in the clubs in New York,
• 26:37
  Speaker 2: and all I've claimed to do, I worked in New York.
• 26:41
  Speaker 2: It was me. There was only one me. I did
• 26:44
  Speaker 2: it all, hiring, firing, costumes, everything. And I had a
• 26:48
  Speaker 2: counterpart from Magique who worked in the club. Because when
• 26:53
  Speaker 2: the club, I haven't even told you about that yet.
• 26:56
  Speaker 2: But we're not up to that yet.
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: Do we have so much to cover? I don't even
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: know we're going to handle it.
• 27:01
  Speaker 4: But anyway, she finally came over to me, you know,
• 27:06
  Speaker 4: when people were standing around and.
• 27:09
  Speaker 2: We were a fundraiser for this guy who has MS
• 27:14
  Speaker 2: okay as MS, and I flew in to be there,
• 27:22
  Speaker 2: and I just kept avoiding her, and she finally came
• 27:26
  Speaker 2: over to me, and she said, well, if I know,
• 27:27
  Speaker 2: if you have something negative to say. I said, first
• 27:30
  Speaker 2: of all, you've come over to me, I didn't come
• 27:32
  Speaker 2: to you. Your relationship with Nick and my relationship with
• 27:38
  Speaker 2: Nick two different things. I said. But I have seen
• 27:41
  Speaker 2: things and heard things that you've said. You're you were
• 27:44
  Speaker 2: the producer of the show. That's a lie. You weren't
• 27:47
  Speaker 2: the producer of the show. And well, I did the tour.
• 27:50
  Speaker 2: I'm like Okay, I had nothing to do with the
• 27:53
  Speaker 2: tour that was after I left. So maybe you produced that,
• 27:57
  Speaker 2: but you were not a producer in the club for
• 28:00
  Speaker 2: the show. You did not do that. And you know,
• 28:03
  Speaker 2: the guys were around me because all these guys I
• 28:05
  Speaker 2: hired them, they're my friends. And there, you know, everyone
• 28:09
  Speaker 2: was like standing up or being there for me. And
• 28:13
  Speaker 2: then that was the end of it. And she said, well,
• 28:15
  Speaker 2: if you don't have anything nice to say, I don't
• 28:17
  Speaker 2: want to hear it.
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: If you keep bringing up my life and I don't
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: want to calling you out.
• 28:23
  Speaker 2: And I'm like, okay, again, you came over to me,
• 28:26
  Speaker 2: I didn't come over to you. I don't really have
• 28:28
  Speaker 2: anything to say to you. So when I hear that
• 28:31
  Speaker 2: other people, well Candace said, I don't give a fuck.
• 28:36
  Speaker 2: Kanda said, because Candace had no part in my life, right,
• 28:41
  Speaker 2: don't step in to my So she wasn't.
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: Even a part of this show in New York. She
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: really was justin.
• 28:49
  Speaker 2: She had nothing to do with New York.
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: What's literally I.
• 28:52
  Speaker 2: Met her one night at the club with Nick when
• 28:56
  Speaker 2: Nick came running up to me earlier in the night
• 28:59
  Speaker 2: before the club opened. There's a big meeting all the
• 29:03
  Speaker 2: guys that worked there, Nick, Gary and Steven. There's too
• 29:07
  Speaker 2: much cocaine going around in this club. You got to
• 29:09
  Speaker 2: stop the cocaine. Nobody needs to sell cocaine. It's got
• 29:13
  Speaker 2: to stop. So okay, let's just say okay. That night
• 29:21
  Speaker 2: Nick had Candace, I guess she flew in and I
• 29:24
  Speaker 2: don't know who else. The moment the show ended, he
• 29:28
  Speaker 2: came running up to me. He said, you gotta find
• 29:31
  Speaker 2: some coke. Who's gonna want to sell you coke? You
• 29:36
  Speaker 2: you just told everybody going to lose their job if
• 29:39
  Speaker 2: they're dealing in the club. So why was that the
• 29:42
  Speaker 2: first time I met Candas?
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: Oh? When was it?
• 29:45
  Speaker 2: That was my thing with.
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: Wow, that's it. She was like just sort of standing
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: there while he was asking you to get him some cocaine. Yes,
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: that's really like try to make yourself a primary care
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: or in a story sort of person.
• 30:02
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Well, so look, I've only done one interview before this,
• 30:06
  Speaker 2: and it was an A and E. Yes. I watched
• 30:08
  Speaker 2: that documentary. Yes, and so I had somebody just put
• 30:12
  Speaker 2: all of my stuff on one link for me, and
• 30:16
  Speaker 2: I see because I just rewatched it the other night,
• 30:19
  Speaker 2: and I see how the documentary if I said something.
• 30:24
  Speaker 2: They put in a clip of somebody else and it
• 30:28
  Speaker 2: sounded as if we were talking about the same thing.
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: Definitely, it's definitely made to look that way.
• 30:34
  Speaker 2: The one of the guys there, the black guy and
• 30:37
  Speaker 2: the yes in this it's like he was a big
• 30:40
  Speaker 2: deal there. First of all, Steve really wasn't a big proponent.
• 30:45
  Speaker 2: That's my question.
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: Was that real? In the series they make it seem
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: like he was pretty racist.
• 30:50
  Speaker 2: He was, and so I and I didn't even know
• 30:54
  Speaker 2: who the guy was, right, So it just goes.
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: To show you, right, because he was saying he was
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: in the New York show, he was a particular guy, right,
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: But in the series about.
• 31:03
  Speaker 2: The high ate in New York, it was nobody else.
• 31:06
  Speaker 2: It was me, So I would I could tell you
• 31:10
  Speaker 2: everybody worked for me.
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: Wowow right.
• 31:13
  Speaker 2: And because we still have a bond to this day.
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: Yeah, do you talk to the don't charge to them
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: a lot.
• 31:19
  Speaker 2: But you know, we go back and forth.
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: When you started working with Nick and you knew that
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: it was going to be Chippendale's, had you already heard
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: about because we haven't even talked about the fact that
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: there was already a murder suicide that happened before this,
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: even until you didn't you didn't know till later. Okay,
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: I mean that makes.
• 31:54
  Speaker 2: Sense Again, I'm saying to you, look at how I
• 31:57
  Speaker 2: spoke to Steve banaging myself, and I know he done that.
• 32:01
  Speaker 2: I wouldn't have spoken to him as an arrogant New Yorker,
• 32:04
  Speaker 2: right brain? Does the sun turn your brain to motion?
• 32:06
  Speaker 2: In California? What's the deal with you? Guys? Are you
• 32:08
  Speaker 2: that slow?
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: So it sounds like you had a.
• 32:12
  Speaker 2: More Now I'm a full glfdian.
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: I mean it happens to all of us. I feel
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: the same too. I get cold, you know, in sixty
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: degree weather morning it was. It's really sad spathetic of us.
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: But it sounds like you almost had a more congenial
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: relationship with Steve than you did with Nick.
• 32:33
  Speaker 2: I did, I absolutely did. Wow. So there was also
• 32:36
  Speaker 2: an audit. Steve was auditing the New York Club. The
• 32:40
  Speaker 2: New York Club was auditing Nick. I will Steve. I
• 32:47
  Speaker 2: had to be a witness for both sides.
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, on.
• 32:51
  Speaker 2: The same day, with an attorney there that they paid for.
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: One of most thought that the other was stealing from
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: and everybody hated.
• 33:02
  Speaker 2: Nick and Nick would disappear for times. And then they
• 33:04
  Speaker 2: made the rules like Nick couldn't go leave the New
• 33:07
  Speaker 2: York club without written uh you know, he had a
• 33:13
  Speaker 2: that he wanted to write to say I'm going to
• 33:16
  Speaker 2: go for a week, and then they had to sign
• 33:18
  Speaker 2: physically sign off on it. When Nick would go back
• 33:21
  Speaker 2: to California.
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: Oh my gosh. So so could you tell that this
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: was I mean, this just seems where at what point
• 33:32
  Speaker 1: was it that you could feel or did you not?
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: Could you feel like things are starting to go a
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: little sideways?
• 33:41
  Speaker 2: Do it? I just I mean you had to be
• 33:44
  Speaker 2: blind not to know what was going on, and maybe
• 33:47
  Speaker 2: the guys didn't know, but because I was office, you know,
• 33:51
  Speaker 2: but I was also like I'm the guy that everybody
• 33:55
  Speaker 2: talked to, you know, like when the LA dancers were
• 33:59
  Speaker 2: going back, I had to go out to strip clubs,
• 34:02
  Speaker 2: men's strip clubs in New York to look for male dancers.
• 34:08
  Speaker 2: I had to replace two guys in New Jersey is
• 34:10
  Speaker 2: where I went, yeah, to do it, you know, But
• 34:13
  Speaker 2: I mean a lot of good stuff, well good stuff
• 34:17
  Speaker 2: at the time. If you're a young guy and you
• 34:20
  Speaker 2: want to get into clubs, you know, all the clubs
• 34:22
  Speaker 2: in New York City. You can just call up and say,
• 34:24
  Speaker 2: he's day from Venel. You know, I want to come
• 34:28
  Speaker 2: into Studio fifty four tonight, right. You know there was that.
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: I mean, what a great how so you were so young?
• 34:34
  Speaker 1: I mean I think that that must have like skewed
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: your sense of reality.
• 34:39
  Speaker 2: It did. I mean that club, there was a brotherhood
• 34:44
  Speaker 2: in the club. So you ask you said before about
• 34:48
  Speaker 2: the gay guy. So all of the backup dancers, they
• 34:54
  Speaker 2: were Broadway dancers.
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: And back up meaning they were never the primary guys.
• 35:00
  Speaker 2: Would be like if one of the guys they were
• 35:05
  Speaker 2: you know, dancers right in there and we had a choreographer.
• 35:12
  Speaker 2: All of them were gay, with the exception of one
• 35:14
  Speaker 2: of them who is actually a very successful actor. You're
• 35:18
  Speaker 2: kidding and we stay in touch by Instagram.
• 35:22
  Speaker 1: Mm hmmmm. Was that purposeful to hire or was everybody
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: in the Because.
• 35:29
  Speaker 2: Dancers were not good dancers either if you look at
• 35:31
  Speaker 2: like you.
• 35:32
  Speaker 4: Watch them on on regious region because they were.
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: On regions all the very good out with the.
• 35:39
  Speaker 2: Big guy Sam, Sam was our.
• 35:43
  Speaker 1: Oh yes, yes, yes right, and Sam couldn't dance.
• 35:47
  Speaker 2: Sam. All of them were sweethearts, but it's like they're
• 35:52
  Speaker 2: not dancing so they had to have people who could dance, right,
• 35:57
  Speaker 2: I would say maybe one, two, three of the other
• 36:05
  Speaker 2: staff members.
• 36:07
  Speaker 1: Meaning like waiters.
• 36:10
  Speaker 2: Or something, Yes, I would say they were gay. You
• 36:18
  Speaker 2: never say it though, right, right, But more importantly, because
• 36:24
  Speaker 2: we were such a brotherhood and we were insulated in
• 36:26
  Speaker 2: that club, it didn't matter.
• 36:29
  Speaker 1: It didn't matter.
• 36:29
  Speaker 2: Nobody cared. It was one for all and all for
• 36:32
  Speaker 2: one and one for all. We were all in it
• 36:35
  Speaker 2: together and nobody else was experiencing what we were experiencing together.
• 36:41
  Speaker 2: It didn't matter.
• 36:42
  Speaker 4: Yeah, but no, that's a big misconception people have, Oh,
• 36:46
  Speaker 4: everyone in there's gay.
• 36:47
  Speaker 2: I'm like, no, they're not.
• 36:49
  Speaker 1: Wow, So did anybody was there any judgment upon So
• 36:53
  Speaker 1: first of all, just so that we're clear, were people
• 36:57
  Speaker 1: patrons having sex with the dancers? Was this happening?
• 37:01
  Speaker 2: And the waiters and the waiters.
• 37:02
  Speaker 1: Everybody always a financial exchange or not? It was just
• 37:09
  Speaker 1: like after right, So it wasn't like a lap dance
• 37:13
  Speaker 1: because wasn't there the kissing tip?
• 37:16
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's that was a part of the show. You
• 37:19
  Speaker 2: can't do a kissing tip now because of COVID that
• 37:23
  Speaker 2: you can't do that. So now it's a stage show
• 37:26
  Speaker 2: in Las Vegas where they're on a stage. This time
• 37:29
  Speaker 2: we were in the realm. Yeah, and so women would
• 37:33
  Speaker 2: pay to have the seats, you know, around the dance
• 37:38
  Speaker 2: excuse me, around the dance.
• 37:40
  Speaker 1: Floor, right, you know, oh sure, right, they were.
• 37:44
  Speaker 2: The hosts, would you know, A woman would say, you know,
• 37:47
  Speaker 2: here's twenty, you know, and so the waiter would come over.
• 37:52
  Speaker 2: So after the after the act, then they would do
• 37:56
  Speaker 2: free style dancing, kissing tips. Right, so they had their music,
• 38:02
  Speaker 2: and then someone would come and hold the twenty over
• 38:04
  Speaker 2: your head and so that they get I used to
• 38:10
  Speaker 2: pick women up and twirl them around the dance. So
• 38:12
  Speaker 2: a lot of women weren't wearing underwear.
• 38:14
  Speaker 1: Oh my god, ladies, ladies.
• 38:19
  Speaker 2: So when I say to you, which going back doors
• 38:23
  Speaker 2: open at six, you start drinking hard liquor. You're being
• 38:28
  Speaker 2: focused on by this gorgeous looking guy. The show starts
• 38:33
  Speaker 2: at eight. You're still drinking. During the show, they're doing
• 38:37
  Speaker 2: the show boy. By the end of the show, you
• 38:40
  Speaker 2: have six hundred horny women right in there. At ten
• 38:43
  Speaker 2: o'clock the doors open to this is like, this is
• 38:51
  Speaker 2: like genius fish in a barrel, right right? What this
• 38:54
  Speaker 2: is like?
• 38:55
  Speaker 1: So the men must the men and so this has a.
• 38:58
  Speaker 2: Nunny block in New York. You're in front of the club.
• 39:03
  Speaker 2: There's a line going that way down that street. There's
• 39:06
  Speaker 2: a line going this way down the street of guys trying.
• 39:11
  Speaker 1: How much did they have at the time? How much
• 39:13
  Speaker 1: did men have to pay to get in there? I
• 39:15
  Speaker 1: hope they charged him an arm and a leg. I
• 39:16
  Speaker 1: don't They probably didn't, I don't remember.
• 39:18
  Speaker 2: But they drank. And also during the show, there were
• 39:25
  Speaker 2: no men allowed in there. So if women, you know,
• 39:28
  Speaker 2: they got savvy and they wanted to hook up with
• 39:32
  Speaker 2: a waiter, a host, whomever. The men's room was wide
• 39:36
  Speaker 2: open because there was nobody in there.
• 39:37
  Speaker 1: There was nobody in it.
• 39:40
  Speaker 2: Except Jose who was also dealing.
• 39:42
  Speaker 1: Coke, except for the coke dealer. So bathroom guy, oh
• 39:50
  Speaker 1: he but he also provised, so he had a little
• 39:52
  Speaker 1: towel at maybe a mint or a orn a ball
• 39:57
  Speaker 1: or something. Right, it's the language, is that the right lingo?
• 40:03
  Speaker 1: I can't. I mean, this is I don't even know.
• 40:05
  Speaker 2: I feel like I've just told you so much stuff
• 40:08
  Speaker 2: about New York when this was you know, you started
• 40:13
  Speaker 2: asking me about La Well.
• 40:16
  Speaker 1: I just wanted people to for people who are unfamiliar
• 40:19
  Speaker 1: to really kind of understand the the It's not even
• 40:22
  Speaker 1: a migration. It's really like Nick said, I want to
• 40:25
  Speaker 1: do this in New York, right, And it's really and
• 40:28
  Speaker 1: it did certainly become far more famous and somewhat universe international,
• 40:35
  Speaker 1: certainly because of New York.
• 40:37
  Speaker 2: Yes, But the story of Chippendale's, and this is my
• 40:40
  Speaker 2: biggest right, is not about the murder. No, the murder
• 40:47
  Speaker 2: happened five years later. So I started working there in
• 40:52
  Speaker 2: nineteen eighty three. The story of Chippendale's, story of Chippendale.
• 40:59
  Speaker 2: What happened and in that club? What was the club about?
• 41:04
  Speaker 2: Why was it so successful? What was how did it
• 41:07
  Speaker 2: become what it became? Every single podcast, this show is,
• 41:15
  Speaker 2: every single thing is about the same thing, right, Steve Banerjee.
• 41:20
  Speaker 2: Steve Banergee was his club absolutely because it.
• 41:24
  Speaker 1: Was People say, it's like he you know, came looking
• 41:27
  Speaker 1: for the American dream in a very simple sort of description, right,
• 41:32
  Speaker 1: And then that and also because of that, he was,
• 41:36
  Speaker 1: you know, felt his own racism, I'm sure, and did
• 41:39
  Speaker 1: made certain decisions based on that. But so it's this
• 41:42
  Speaker 1: story that is so full of so many.
• 41:46
  Speaker 2: But what does the environment and dream entail? To think
• 41:49
  Speaker 2: about greed. Greed, that's the right, true line. That was
• 41:55
  Speaker 2: the problem between Steve and Gary. Nick and Steve, it
• 42:01
  Speaker 2: was all greed. Because when I started working for Nick,
• 42:07
  Speaker 2: you know, no computers, no emails, right, Nick had me
• 42:12
  Speaker 2: type letters on a typewriter to different venues where he
• 42:18
  Speaker 2: wanted to take the show because he did not want
• 42:20
  Speaker 2: to work for Steve. He wanted to take the show.
• 42:25
  Speaker 2: And then I would have to make a xerox copy
• 42:28
  Speaker 2: of the letter and put the phone number down on
• 42:30
  Speaker 2: there so I could follow up with the people to
• 42:32
  Speaker 2: set the meetings with Nick to go take this show out.
• 42:36
  Speaker 2: So Nick had had it with Steve wanted out of there.
• 42:41
  Speaker 2: The thing is what they do have correct in this
• 42:46
  Speaker 2: is yes they signed a knack in. Steve did not
• 42:51
  Speaker 2: know what touring rights were, what the word perpetuity was.
• 42:59
  Speaker 2: He didn't know. Nick knew what he was doing.
• 43:01
  Speaker 1: He wasn't stupid, and because that became the financial success.
• 43:08
  Speaker 2: But Ray did say you want to get your attorney. Um, no, no, no,
• 43:12
  Speaker 2: If I'm going to sit back and take fifty.
• 43:15
  Speaker 1: Nothing of me doing nothing right, But when Steve.
• 43:19
  Speaker 2: As it chosen this because that's true, but they leave
• 43:24
  Speaker 2: out so many things and that's the problem.
• 43:27
  Speaker 1: I have so much nuance, so many details, so many things.
• 43:31
  Speaker 2: It's like, oh, the guy that he went to kill
• 43:34
  Speaker 2: the dancer in in.
• 43:37
  Speaker 1: Uh yeah, in Europe, in Europe, you know, he.
• 43:40
  Speaker 2: And a couple of other guys left the LA Club
• 43:43
  Speaker 2: because they couldn't deal with Steve anymore and they went
• 43:45
  Speaker 2: to go do their own thing. So this is so
• 43:47
  Speaker 2: Steve wanted to have them killed.
• 43:48
  Speaker 1: Right. See, this is your referring to Adonis, right, this
• 43:51
  Speaker 1: is the name of the these a couple of dancers
• 43:54
  Speaker 1: from LA went to somewhere in the UK. I don't
• 43:56
  Speaker 1: know if it was London, I think it was somewhere
• 43:58
  Speaker 1: in the UK though, and started their own show. And
• 44:02
  Speaker 1: he found out it's like a very megalmoniacle.
• 44:05
  Speaker 2: But the guy that did was an FBI agent. The
• 44:10
  Speaker 2: guy that Steve hired was an FBI informant.
• 44:15
  Speaker 1: Wait, the guy who he hired to do what to
• 44:18
  Speaker 1: murder the guy's And.
• 44:22
  Speaker 2: That's how Steve got caught. And then Steve made a
• 44:25
  Speaker 2: deal when he was in prison that nothing could be
• 44:29
  Speaker 2: taken away from his wife, right kids. And they came
• 44:33
  Speaker 2: the next morning to take him into court to make
• 44:36
  Speaker 2: this agreement, and they found him hanging in his jails.
• 44:40
  Speaker 1: And he hung himself. So I thought that he hired
• 44:46
  Speaker 1: some like drug addict guy to do it. So the
• 44:50
  Speaker 1: whole thing with Ray.
• 44:51
  Speaker 2: Cologne, that the murderer was like a drug addict guy.
• 44:55
  Speaker 2: That's not that had already happened.
• 45:00
  Speaker 1: Yes, right, so he hires I mean, this is what
• 45:03
  Speaker 1: it's like, very hard to keep track of all of
• 45:06
  Speaker 1: the So do you think so you're you're saying, Okay,
• 45:09
  Speaker 1: you've had, you know, a lovely dinner with Steve and
• 45:12
  Speaker 1: his family, and is there any part of you that
• 45:15
  Speaker 1: thinks I mean, this is always a question for me,
• 45:18
  Speaker 1: you know, like, oh, he was a good neighbor. Oh,
• 45:20
  Speaker 1: you know, it's always nice, a little quiet.
• 45:22
  Speaker 2: It was the same thing. You never thought. I didn't
• 45:25
  Speaker 2: know anything about setting the other club on fire. I
• 45:27
  Speaker 2: didn't know about.
• 45:28
  Speaker 1: Any right, he also had because and also look, I
• 45:31
  Speaker 1: was like, you're always on your job till night and
• 45:37
  Speaker 1: doing all the things I had to do.
• 45:39
  Speaker 2: And I really didn't have that much to do with Steve.
• 45:44
  Speaker 2: But Steve knew he could count on me in New York.
• 45:48
  Speaker 1: But yeah, again, that was my job.
• 45:50
  Speaker 2: That's what I was supposed to do.
• 45:51
  Speaker 1: Right. Do you remember where you were when you found
• 45:56
  Speaker 1: out about Nick, because you were still working, right, you're
• 45:59
  Speaker 1: still working.
• 45:59
  Speaker 2: Working with Nancy Ryder, who is a premiere of one
• 46:03
  Speaker 2: of Michael J. Fox's films. We were up at Universal,
• 46:07
  Speaker 2: so you.
• 46:07
  Speaker 1: Were no longer working for I was here, okay, because
• 46:10
  Speaker 1: that was two years later.
• 46:12
  Speaker 2: Okay, that's when you could drive. There was no city walk,
• 46:16
  Speaker 2: so you could drive. There was a rolling right in
• 46:19
  Speaker 2: front of the Universal theaters. Yes, and that's where the
• 46:21
  Speaker 2: red carpet was. And I think the I'm not sure
• 46:24
  Speaker 2: which movie it was, Secret of My success or one
• 46:28
  Speaker 2: of those Michael movies. And so Nancy represent Mike represented Michael.
• 46:33
  Speaker 2: Therefore I represented Michael. And I was there, you know,
• 46:38
  Speaker 2: at opening night, and I tell people to just pull
• 46:42
  Speaker 2: up the et footage. You could see me next to
• 46:45
  Speaker 2: standing next to Michael. Because when I got the phone
• 46:47
  Speaker 2: call and it was from one of the bus boys
• 46:50
  Speaker 2: that I had hired, and first thing I said was me, Wow,
• 47:00
  Speaker 2: that is the amount of contempt that I had for
• 47:05
  Speaker 2: this man.
• 47:06
  Speaker 4: Wow.
• 47:07
  Speaker 2: You know, it's terrible to say anybody deserve to get murdered.
• 47:15
  Speaker 3: Of course, dot dot dot dot dot. So hold on,
• 47:23
  Speaker 3: we really now have to go back to then.
• 47:27
  Speaker 2: From you.
• 47:29
  Speaker 1: Well, you know you and I are both from our
• 47:31
  Speaker 1: little chat before we do. There is often a race.
• 47:35
  Speaker 1: What was it between the mouth and the mind?
• 47:37
  Speaker 2: Right? I always got in trouble to me. My brother
• 47:41
  Speaker 2: would say to me, your mouth and your brain had
• 47:43
  Speaker 2: a race, and your mouth won.
• 47:47
  Speaker 1: So I'm winning.
• 47:48
  Speaker 2: But I have always said anything I say about Chippendale
• 47:55
  Speaker 2: is my life experience. So it is my life. It
• 48:00
  Speaker 2: is what I lived through, It's what I went through.
• 48:03
  Speaker 2: It may not be your experience, certainly not Canvas's.
• 48:08
  Speaker 1: Experience, definitely not mine, but.
• 48:11
  Speaker 2: It is my experience. So this is my story, yeah,
• 48:15
  Speaker 2: because it is my life.
• 48:17
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 48:18
  Speaker 2: And if I'm going to tell this portion of my life,
• 48:24
  Speaker 2: I'm going to be honest because I don't believe in lying.
• 48:28
  Speaker 1: Right, And it's also your right to do so it's
• 48:31
  Speaker 1: your experience, it's your life. You have no course, you
• 48:36
  Speaker 1: are allowed to do that. So how did you wind
• 48:40
  Speaker 1: up leaving?
• 48:41
  Speaker 2: Then?
• 48:42
  Speaker 1: Did you want to say something else?
• 48:44
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I'll tell you that again. I have to say
• 48:47
  Speaker 2: I really didn't have much to do with the La
• 48:50
  Speaker 2: Club at all. I knew some of the dancers, and
• 48:53
  Speaker 2: when I did decide to come out here, I stayed
• 48:55
  Speaker 2: out when did you see did the waiters houses? Because
• 48:59
  Speaker 2: theman that I moved in with, she was a manager
• 49:03
  Speaker 2: and she represented one of the guys with the Chippindalees
• 49:05
  Speaker 2: guy as an actor, and so I wound up staying
• 49:08
  Speaker 2: in his apartment on his couch for the two weeks
• 49:11
  Speaker 2: I was out here looking for a job and so
• 49:13
  Speaker 2: on and so forth. So yes, I did go to
• 49:16
  Speaker 2: the club, and I was very let down. Really club
• 49:20
  Speaker 2: there was nothing like our club, right, but you know
• 49:25
  Speaker 2: it kind of looked at like what they had in
• 49:27
  Speaker 2: this show. It's it's funny because when they portrayed the
• 49:32
  Speaker 2: New York club, that's not what our club looked like
• 49:35
  Speaker 2: at all.
• 49:36
  Speaker 1: Oh, it's not like at all. Really our club.
• 49:39
  Speaker 2: Our show was uh in the realm and was kissing tip.
• 49:44
  Speaker 2: The club that they show is there's a stage that's
• 49:47
  Speaker 2: fat La they show. And the thing that bothered me
• 49:52
  Speaker 2: the most in LA. You know the banisters that they had,
• 49:57
  Speaker 2: that's what we had in New York. You could put
• 50:00
  Speaker 2: your drink there. It was a certain colored turquoise. They
• 50:04
  Speaker 2: had it right for the La New York. That's not
• 50:09
  Speaker 2: what our club looked like. And even though they said,
• 50:12
  Speaker 2: oh they exploded in New York. They didn't show anything
• 50:15
  Speaker 2: in New York like they made New York like it
• 50:17
  Speaker 2: didn't matter.
• 50:18
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 50:19
  Speaker 2: Did Brookshields come in the club? Yes, so did Yeah
• 50:22
  Speaker 2: they did.
• 50:22
  Speaker 1: They had someone to play books, Brookshields.
• 50:24
  Speaker 5: And kind of Cloud, John Travall, Don Travalte, Semester Saloon
• 50:31
  Speaker 5: came in the club and they cast the movie perfect
• 50:33
  Speaker 5: with one of our waiters.
• 50:35
  Speaker 2: Right, absolutely, But New York was New York. Yeah. Here
• 50:41
  Speaker 2: it wasn't as much and it was much smaller here
• 50:44
  Speaker 2: and so and so I personally take issue with that
• 50:49
  Speaker 2: because you're not giving New York any of this. Do
• 50:52
  Speaker 2: you're giving La everything? Now? Did it start in La?
• 50:57
  Speaker 1: Yes?
• 50:58
  Speaker 2: But what they're showing.
• 51:01
  Speaker 1: Right, I mean they'd probably be You would never.
• 51:04
  Speaker 2: The guys that worked in that club, those dancers would
• 51:07
  Speaker 2: never have been hired. Wow. Nope, not one, not any
• 51:11
  Speaker 2: of them would have been hired at all.
• 51:12
  Speaker 1: Wow. Really Okay, this has been so much fun and
• 51:16
  Speaker 1: there is so much more to talk about. So we
• 51:18
  Speaker 1: are going to continue my conversation with Jay in our
• 51:22
  Speaker 1: next episode