A docuseries immortalizes The Chorys of Marbella: how to burn through 1 billion pesetas in 20 years

In the mid-80s, the flamboyant Richard Pryor succeeded at the box office with a Hollywood comedy about a nobody who inherited a fortune. The plot twist was that, before receiving the money, he had to pass a test: spend 30 million euros in just one month. It was titled 'The Great Splurge,' and although it may seem like fiction, it wasn't. Around the same time, four guys were living that same excessive life firsthand in Marbella. They squandered a legacy of 1,000 million pesetas—about 60 million euros at the current exchange rate—allowing them to live lavishly: 14 trips around the world, betting on red in casinos, investing in doomed businesses, and dancing until dawn with Liza Minnelli, Brigitte Bardot, Christina Onassis, Sean Connery, and Lola Flores. They were the kings of the party. A continuous party. They called themselves 'Los Chorys,' and their saga has reached the screen in a docuseries presented this Tuesday at the South International Series Festival held in Cádiz.

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"The story is so incredible it's hard to believe. If we told it as fiction, they would call us exaggerated," admits Manolo Jiménez, the director from Malaga ('Las Sinsombrero' and 'Solteronas'), who is preparing this three-episode documentary starring Yeyo Llagostera, Luis Ortiz, Jorge Morán, and Antonio Arribas. The four decided to pool their money and live the high life. Aptly said because the money was inherited. Although the capitalist partner of these four musketeers was one of them.

"Rogelio Llagostera was a successful doctor and businessman who patented the anti-inflammatory Reflex and Strepsils lozenges, but when he died young, his son Yeyo suddenly became a wealthy heir at just 28 years old. And from the beginning, he had it clear: spend the money with his friends," the filmmaker recounts the central plot of the docuseries produced by Chester Media and the Malaga-based producer Yolaperdono, with the collaboration of Canal Sur, which has turned this title into one of its big bets for 2026.

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Yeyo Llagostera became one of the essential characters of the golden Marbella. But the other three also starred in separate stories worthy of a movie script. Luis Ortiz formed with Guillina von Bismark one of the indispensable couples of the 'jet set' of the Golden Mile, although his inheritance also has a plot: "His father, Francisco Ortiz, was the censor of TVE for decades and went to the '123' to measure skirts and necklines, so when Chicho Ibáñez Serrador was appointed director of programming, the first thing he did was to fire Luis's father," recounts Manolo Jiménez, who also points out that Jorge Morán is the son of another legendary Spanish cinema actor: Manolo Morán, the mastermind behind the visit of the Americans in 'Welcome, Mr. Marshall'.

Yeyo Llagostera received a millionaire inheritance from his father, who patented brands like Reflex and Strepsils

A sensation, that of being greeted with a party and toasts, which Jorge, Luis, Yeyo, and the fourth member of Los Chorys, Antonio Arribas, who was Carmina Ordóñez's partner and also a movie-type guy, experienced firsthand. He was an action movie stuntman, and when he met the rest of the gang, he had just had a work accident on a set. "Separately they already seem like fictional characters, but together they are the protagonists of the craziest demonstration of friendship ever lived," Jiménez emphasizes.

Acid for life

With the fumes of Reflex, they dedicated themselves to blowing millions on their lives and those around them. It lasted them 20 years in high style. And high flight. "They chartered complete flights to the Rio de Janeiro Carnival and took their friends, who went with the hotel and all expenses paid," recalls Manolo Jiménez, who has become one of the greatest experts on the life and miracles of Los Chorys, a mechanism that worked thanks to the "personality" of Yeyo. "He was the engine of everything, a personification of generosity since he inherits a fortune and decides to spend it with his friends," asserts the filmmaker and biographer, who does not hide that he would have loved to be at some of those parties of these professional revelers.

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At the parties, there were no shortages of drinks or drugs. "The acid has stayed with me for life," Luis Ortiz ironically confesses to Miguel Ríos in the trailer for the docuseries. But behind this story of revelry and lavish spending also lies that of visionary entrepreneurs. "They traveled around the world, but with an idea: to look for new businesses to bring to Spain. The problem is that they got carried away. They ended up making 14 trips around the globe and were always partying. In fact, the only thing they set up were nightclubs that were a huge success because they were precisely the attraction, the kings, but, of course, they were spendthrifts and ended up inviting everyone," recounts the filmmaker, who does not hesitate to consider Yeyo, Luis, Jorge, and Antonio as the "true entertainers of the golden Marbella of the 70s and 80s," where they ran legendary venues like Champagne Room.

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Llagostera will be the main protagonist of the docuseries, where his charisma mixes with that of a "sensational storyteller." Also the stories of Luis Ortiz and Antonio Arribas, both deceased. "Although we have Luis recorded in three interviews he granted us before his death -2024-, one of them with Gunilla, with whom he demonstrated a chemistry that, despite being separated, still existed," reveals Jiménez about this Spanish version of the 'Rat Pack'—the clan formed in Las Vegas by Sinatra, Dean Martin, Peter Lawford, Joey Bishop, and Sammy Davis Jr—with its own denomination of origin, Los Chorys.

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"The acid has stayed with me for life," Luis Ortiz ironically confesses to Miguel Ríos in the docuseries directed by Manolo Jiménez

A nickname adopted by the protagonists themselves, halfway between genius and survival. "Their job was to party, and in fact, it was said that in the 80s you hadn't been in Marbella if you hadn't partied with them," assures Manolo Jiménez, who adds that the nickname was Jorge Morán's idea. "In that hustle of meeting people, he found the perfect solution, which was to call everyone 'chory' because they couldn't remember names, so they started calling each other that too," reveals the filmmaker who summarizes that, all that catalog of crazy life and fun, is the plot of a very personal story that united these four men: the exaltation of friendship and partying. "The series will be a three-episode party," he toasts to conclude.