What is Wikichippendales? No, we are not Wikipedia. We have no relation to the famous online encyclopedia. We are a small journalism school in New York City. As journalism students, we were fascinated with the recent documentaries on the culture changing, 70’s nightclub Chippendales. But when we tried to read more about this iconic brand through Wikipedia, we found very little factual information. For several years, Wikipedia has restricted editorial contributions on the Chippendales History page due to editorial vandalism. In other words, editors making stuff up instead of documenting facts. When we dived into the Wikipedia Chippendales Talk page, a world of controversy revealed itself. Editors arguing over authorship and history. Some were rewriting history for their “15 minutes of fame”. We were fascinated as to who really founded Chippendales and how it was created. We reached out to several former associates to explore and investigate.
Apparently, there has been a decade struggle with the truth behind Chippendales. Various editors with a connection to the 40-year-old nightclub phenomena publishing unfounded claims, pushing their own version of the truth. It’s been difficult to peel fact from fiction. But we wanted to know the real stories behind the brand, the owner and real founder Somen “Steve” Banerjee. This was our journalistic mission. Please contact us with tips, information and ideas. It’s a fun blog and hopefully educational. We do not claim to be perfect but we strive to be fair and factual. Chippendales was part of America’s cultural history, although most of us are too young to remember it. Wikichippendales was created to explore what the real Chippendales Wikipedia page cannot cover.
