Candace Mayeron was Den Mother to the Chippendales. 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 as it involves the murder of her close friend Chippendales choreographer Nick de Noia who she poses with here below in probably the last photo of him alive.
Candace Mayeron was the Associate Producer of the Chippendales show and basically the Den Mother 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’ this coming Monday March 14 at 10/9. I thought I’d heard something about that crazy story before, so I googled and sure enough “Curse Of The Chippendales” came up as an earlier Discovery+ docuseries.
While reading that show description I learned the famous Chippendales male revue started as a 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 this article in which Candace tells her Chippendales story originally to Elle Magazine then here through Hollywood411 about , “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.
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.
Listen LIVE from anywhere as Candace Mayeron joins me on The Debbie Nigro Show Friday March 11th at 11:20 am ET.
