Chippendales
Chippendales dancers in Las Vegas with fans
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| Formation | 1979 |
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| Type | Theatre group |
| Purpose | Erotic |
| Location | |
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Notable members
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John Stagliano, Todd Michaels |
| Website | www |
Chippendales is a touring dance troupe best known for its male striptease performances and for its dancers' distinctive upper body costume of a bow tie and shirt cuffs worn on an otherwise bare torso.
Established in 1979, Chippendales was the first all-male stripping troupe to make a business performing for mostly female audiences. Through the quality of its staging and choreography, Chippendales also helped legitimize stripping as a form of popular entertainment.
Today, the company produces Broadway-style shows worldwide and licenses its intellectual property for select consumer products ranging from apparel and accessories to slot machines and video games. The Chippendales perform in a ten-million dollar theater and lounge built specifically for them at the Rio All Suite Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. Annually, the official men of Chippendales are seen by almost two million people worldwide, performing in more than 25 cities in the U.S., 23 cities in Central and South America, 60 European cities, four Asian countries, and eight South African cities. The main troupe members today are Billy Jeffrey, Sami Eskelin, Nathan Minor, Jaymes Vaughan, Staceyy Robinson, James Davis and Johnny Howes.
After operating a Mobil gas station, Somen Banerjee and his newly acquired partner, a law student at Loyola Law School named Bruce Nahin, bought a failed west Los Angeles disco named Destiny II and turned it into a nightclub featuring female mud wrestling and a "Female Exotic Dancing Night." Destiny II was located at 3739 Overland Avenue at McCune Avenue in Palms. The idea of featuring male dancers came from a nightclub promotional idea by Paul Snider, while the club name Chippendales was suggested by Nahin because of the Chippendale style furniture at the club.
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Wikipedia