Spotify has released the fourth episode of its latest Original true-crime podcast, WELCOME TO YOUR FANTASY, from Pineapple Street Studios, in association with Gimlet.
This week, host Natalia Petrzela continues uncovering one of the greatest scandals of the 80s as she chats with former Chippendales dancer Hodari Sababu about his experience as the only Black dancer at Chippendales during that time, and delves even deeper into the corruption that kept the club standing.
In 1982, after being turned away at the door of Chippendales, a UCLA law student brings a racial discrimination lawsuit against the club. His life, and the life of one of the L.A. club dancers, become unexpectedly linked.
In the 1980s the “male exotic dancers” of Chippendales were everywhere, selling the promise of women’s liberation for the price of a few dollars in a g-string. But behind the powerful mullets, oiled pecs, and non-stop parties lies a much darker story of greed, corruption and murder. In the eight-episode series host and historian Natalia Petrzela exposes one of the great, sordid, unexamined stories in American culture.
WELCOME
TO YOUR FANTASY is the story of how two men — an immigrant from India
and a children’s TV producer from New Jersey — transformed a seedy
nightclub in Los Angeles into a global phenomenon, and how paranoia and
greed turned Chippendales into a hotbed for drugs, corruption, and
murder.
Beyond the well-known cuffs and collars, cheesy dance
routines, and unlimited supplies of body oil, the series examines the
club’s role in the late 70s/early 80s rise of female sexuality, gender
roles and masculinity, and the corruptible power of capitalism.
Podcast
host and co-producer Natalia Mehlman Petrzela, Ph.D. is a historian of
contemporary American politics and culture and is currently writing a
book on American fitness culture, FIT NATION: How America Embraced
Exercise As The Government Abandoned It.
You can listen to the podcast here.
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