Falcon Studios Turns 40

One of the pioneers and visionaries of gay porn Chuck Holmes, founded Falcon Studios in San Francisco in 1971 when porn was sold in blurry 8mm film, photo sets and was vaguely illegal. Selling from under the counter at book stores like Le Salon, Falcon and businessman Chuck Holmes helped change the industrhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gify and became on of its greatest successes.

September 24th marks Falcon Studios 40th anniversary and will be celebrated with parties and re-releases in conjunction with the annual Raging Stallion Folsom party and plans to announce Falcon's first ever "Man of the Year". Chuck Holmes has since passed away in 2000, but sure he would be thrilled with the direction of Raging Stallion Studios with founder Chris Ward pumping out high quality porn.

Falcon’s influence on the history of gay porn cannot be overstated. Holmes took a hobbyist’s industry and modernized it, building a studio and star system based on the MGM model. At a time when many directors were focusing on theatrical distribution, Holmes concentrated on mail order, producing not only his own films but also buying up rights to those of his competitors. During the 1980s and ’90s—the heyday of VHS—Falcon dominated the industry. Today, in the haze of a thousand websites and imitators, it remains one of the most enduring brands.

“I grew up watching Falcon movies back in the 1970s and 1980s,” said Ward, who in late 2010—with the help of Raging Stallion parent company AEBN—engineered a purchase of the company. “My favorites from the early years were Al Parker and Dick Fisk. Both of these men greatly influenced my own direction when I started my porn career.”

Ward is not the first porn director influenced by Falcon Studios. Over the course of 40 years the company has served as an incubator for gay porn’s greatest talents. Steven Scarborough, GayVN Hall of Famer and founder of Hot House Entertainment, was vice president of the company in the late ’80s and early ’90s (as well as Holmes’ real-life partner during those years).

In turn, Scarborough hired John Rutherford, now president of COLT Studio Group. Rutherford took over operations of the company after Scarborough’s departure in 1992, and continued after Holmes’ death in 2000. Chi Chi LaRue of Channel 1 Releasing, Bruce Cam of Titan Media and George DuRoy of Bel Ami all spent formative periods shooting for Falcon. Studio heads Michael Lucas and Kristen Bjorn started as models for the company.

Perhaps the most anticipated fruits of the celebration, though, will come from the vaunted Falcon Studios library. Beginning after Labor Day, Falcon will release previously out-of-print titles from the Falcon vault, transferred from the original master prints. While no titles have been specified, certain titles—sometimes shelved by Holmes after he began dating a specific model—haven’t been seen in nearly 20 years.