Welcome to Chippendales is the brand-new true-crime drama on Hulu, with episodes dropping every Tuesday on the streaming platform.
The series follows the rise and catastrophic fall of Steve Banerjee, the founder of Chippendales, the first all-male striptease dance troupe.
At the end of the first episode of Welcome to Chippendales, the show takes a dark and twisted turn, when model Dorothy Stratten and estranged husband Paul Snider's bloodstained room and lifeless bodies are seen lying across their bed. However, Welcome to Chippendales does not answer immediately what happened to them.
Newsweek has everything you need to know about Stratten and Snider below. Warning: there will be some spoilers.
What Happened to Dorothy Stratten and Paul Snider?
Dorothy Stratten was a Canadian Playboy Playmate and actress, who was brutally killed at the age of 20 on August 14, 1980.
Her murderer was her estranged husband, Paul Snider, 29, a Canadian nightclub promoter and pimp who took his own life that same day.
According to police reports, Snider is believed to have raped and then murdered Stratten before killing himself with the same shotgun. Alongside Steve Banjeree, Snider founded Chippendales in 1979.
Stratten and Snider had met in 1977, with the promoter arranging for a photographer to take professional nude photos of the teenager that were later sent to Playboy.
Stratten and Snider married in 1979 and separated in 1980. Rosanne Katon, the September 1978 Playmate of the Month, told ABC News that Dorothy didn't think she could get out of the wedding.
Stratten was at the height of her career. She had been named Playboy Playmate of the Year in 1979 and 1980, and she had appeared in three comedy films, as well as episodes of Buck Rogers and Fantasy Island.
In March 1980, Stratten flew to New York City to begin work on They All Laughed, her first role in a major movie, and she starred alongside Audrey Hepburn. The film was being directed by Peter Bogdanovich, and the pair allegedly began an affair during production.
After a failed attempt to save their marriage in late June 1980, Stratten wrote to Snider, announcing their physical and financial separation.
Convinced his wife was having an affair, Snider allegedly hired a private detective to follow her.
Stratten was killed on the afternoon of Thursday, August 14, when she visited her shared home with Snider to discuss the financial implications of their official separation. He would shoot Stratten with a recently purchased shotgun.
In August 1981, a year after Stratten's death, They All Laughed had its U.S. release, and in 1984, its director, Bogdanovich, released the memoir and biography The Killing of the Unicorn: Dorothy Stratten 1960-1980.
Stratten's murder has been at the center of two movies, 1981's Death of a Centerfold and 1983's Star 80, and she has also inspired the songs "Californication" by the Red Hot Chili Peppers and "The Best Was Yet to Come" by Bryan Adams.
Stratten is buried at Pierce Brothers Westwood Village Memorial Park & Mortuary in Los Angeles, which is also Marilyn Monroe's resting place.
Episodes of Welcome to Chippendales air every Tuesday on Hulu.
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
Molli Mitchell is a Senior SEO TV and Film Newsweek Reporter based in London, UK. Her focus is reporting on ... Read more
