Candace Mayeron was kind of like a Den Mother to the Chippendales, even though she wasn’t much older than them at the time. Here she is below in the middle of a gaggle of them.
And here I am below, a young Debbie Nigro with dark hair, posing with a handful of ‘Chips’ in comparison.
We both have a Chippendales story. Mine is light and funny and happened in one night long ago. Candace Mayerons’ story is way more interesting, way longer and sadly way more tragic. It involves the murder of her close friend and boss, Chippendales Producer & Choreographer Nick de Noia, in the photo below sitting with Candace celebrating in probably what is the last photo of him alive.
Candace Mayeron was the Associate Producer of the Chippendales show and basically the ‘Big Sister’ to the Chippendale men up until 1987. I would never have known this information or anything at all about Candace had I not been sparked by reading that A&E was launching a limited series called “Secrets of The Chippendales Murders.”
I thought I’d heard something about that crazy story before, so I googled and sure enough “Curse Of The Chippendales” came up as Discovery+ docuseries.
Chippendales started as a nightclub stunt in LA in the 1980s. The show then became involved in a slew of scandals, including the 1987 assassination of Chippendales choreographer Nick de Noia and two other planned hits on a dancer and producer, all orchestrated by Chippendales Founder Steve Banerjee.
Then I came across an article in which Candace told her Chippendales story originally to Elle Magazine then through Hollywood411 called, “Sex, Money, and Murder. My Life as The Chippendales Den Mother”.
I have to admit when Candace’s photo came up and I saw she outnumbered me in ‘chips’ I was impressed enough to track her down and invite her on my show to talk ‘girlfriend to girlfriend’ about her experience which you’ll hear here in this podcast clip. She was also good enough to share some of her personal photos which I’ve added with her permission.
For a lot of women who would never dare have that kind of scandalous fun before, Chippendales provided a revolutionary form of entertainment that Candace will surely tell you, was more about the women who attended the shows than the men who performed.
The brief version of my Chippendales story? I was live on the air as a radio DJ, and had just mentioned Chippendales was opening in NYC, and as a joke I said anybody want to come with me? The phones started ringing off the hook! A few promotional ‘bus loads’ of women later we arrived -and all of them bought me drinks of appreciation for my good thinking. This photo of me above with The Chippendales was taken before I LOST 35 women who I was responsible for bringing home with me. Completely psycho story for another time.
Enjoy Candace and our candid conversation in this podcast of our radio interview.
