by Lucy Bobeau
September 11, 2020
The Showman
Born Somen (pronounced Sho-man) Banerjee in 1947, Bombay, India. The same year British rule ended in India. Later, Banerjee graduated from printing school and was a 4th generation printer. (1).
Banerjee loved printing. As a result he built the Chippendales brand on an array of paper products. Unfortunately, he signed off on a press galley that would change his life. In August of 1986, Banerjee was reviewing the 1987 Chippendales calendar on press. He was so involved with the color of the male images that he overlooked checking the dates of the year. A previous skirmish with a production freelancer who negated their job resulted in too many days for February. So Banerjee signed off on the “blueline” galley proof and therefor 300,000 copies of a calendar with too many days in February. The financial loss reversed Banerjee’s fortune and he went bankrupt. It was the catalyst that pushed him to murder Nick De Noia.
(1) “Steve Banerjee, Bengali Entrepreneur” Anirvan Chatterjee. 2000-July.