6 X-Rated Studios That Made San Francisco The Capital Of Gay Porn

Most of us know the Bay Area as a hotbed of Internet start-ups. (Social-media giants like Twitter and Google got their start in Silicon Valley, after all.)

But San Francisco is also home to a surprising number of entrepreneurs in an altogether different field: gay porn.

Queers have been flocking to SF  since before WWII, but when the Summer of Love hit in 1967, the door was flung wide open for sexual libertarians to storm the City by the Bay.

Among them were burgeoning porn studios like Colt, which opened that same year, and Falcon, which hung its shingle in 1971.

The men who started these companies—and the studios that came after—saw the city as a place they could ply their trade without interference from puritanical busybodies. And San Francisco’s large gay-male population continues to serve as both a large consumer market and a sizable talent pool. (It’s hard not to bump into a porn star at Gold’s Gym.)

SF is now home to Naked Sword (site NSFW)—a website providing streaming and downloadable videos—as well as some of the nation’s most famous and successful traditional studios. And local hangouts like the Lone Star Saloon and Eros sex club have been used as sets for porn shoots. (That would make for a fun walking tour.)

Today, we’re taking a look at six porn companies that call the City by The Bay home—examining how they got their start, what (and who) made them big and how they’re facing the challenges of the digital age.

Do you have the inside scoop on San Francisco’s gay-porn industry? Share in the comments (and maybe send a few pictures!)

 

FALCON STUDIOS

FOUNDED:1971

NOTABLE STARS: Billy Kincaid, Cameron Fox, Chad Knight, Chase Hunter, Hal Rockland, Tyson Cane

CLAIM TO FAME:  Falcon Studio‘s The Other Side Of Aspen series—started in 1979 and now in its sixth release—is one of the best-selling gay adult franchises in history and boasts some of the biggest names in porn in an all-out snowy Colorado man-orgy. It’s almost ridiculous how much sex goes on in these films.

HISTORY:  The company started in the pre-digital and pre-condom age and has survived the AIDS epidemic and the advent of amateur and pirated porn. In 2010 the Adult Entertainment Broadcast Network purchased Falcon and Raging Stallion—another SF-based porn studio that won beaucoup awards with its porn epic To The Last Man wherein most of the characters ended up dead). Though the Falcon and Raging Stallion brands remain separate, together they form the single largest all male erotic production company in the world offering films with furry men, fisting, and  even Eastern European muscle twinks. This year marks their 40th anniversary.

FUN FACT: Falcon’s founder Chuck Holmes’s name appears on the facade of the city’s Charles M. Holmes LGBT Community Center. He was also a philanthropist whose foundation supported LGBT rights, people living with HIV/AIDS, homeless-youth shelters and research into pediatric cancer and autism.

TITAN MEN

FOUNDED: 1995

NOTABLE STARS: Arpad Miklos, Blake Harper, Blu Kennedy, Buck Angel, Francois Sagat, Jack Simmons

CLAIM TO FAME: Titan Men has won the XBIZ Gay/GLBT Studio of the Year Award every year since 2008.

HISTORY: Titan started with a simple goal: to “eroticize safer sex and portray positive gay sexuality, with a wide range of men… in the panorama of nature.”

As a result, all models use condoms during intercourse and the company once denounced the David Awards (Europe’s gay-porn version of the Oscars) for nominating bareback studios.

FUN FACT: In 2003 the company sued Hustler founder Larry Flynt for allegedly selling 220 Titan images on his Stud Club website. In 2004 the company wrote to the Senate Judiciary Committee to complain that file-sharing sites had done nothing to stop its users from illegally downloading Titan films. And in 2010, it filed a $29 million lawsuit alongside Channel One Releasing and Corbin Fisher Entertainment against three websites it claimed had infringed upon copyrights by distributing more than 200 videos.

HOT HOUSE

FOUNDED: 1993

NOTABLE STARS: Aiden Shaw, Kyle King, Alex Collack, Kirk Ziegler, Kent North, Dick Wolf, Tony Mecelli

CLAIM TO FAME: Hot House was one of the first major gay porn studios to recognize the market for fisting and fetish play.

HISTORY: Hot House founder Steven Scarborough was actually the life partner of Falcon founder Chuck Holmes and worked six years as Falcon’s executive vice-president  before starting Hot House Entertainment in 1993.

But Hot House was also involved in a very famous Canadian obscenity case involving Scarborough’s 1997 film Descent. Three undercover inspectors from the Ontario Film Review Board noticed that a store’s for-sale copy of Descent did not have an “OFRB-approved” sticker. The inspectors snagged the DVD and slapped the storeowners with a $25,000 fine. Scarborough joined the legal case against the OFRB and stuck with it for four years. Eventually the Supreme Court of Canada dismissed the charges and Scarborough’s involvement with the case won him a Free Speech Coalition Lifetime Achievement Award.

FUN FACT: Hot House also had the balls to release a safe-sex poster campaign in Europe that featured models actually having intercourse. We can think if no better way to (ahem) raise interest.

COLT STUDIO

FOUNDED: 1967

CLAIM TO FAME: On the 40th anniversary of Colt Studio‘s creation, then-San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom proclaimed February 23, 2007, “Colt Studio Day.” The proclamation sent Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly off the rails, leading him to ask, “Don’t children live in San Francisco these days?…  What’s next? Barry Bonds Steroids Day?”

NOTABLE STARS: Carlo Masi, Tom Chase, Adam Champ, Mitch Branson, Gage Weston

HISTORY: Throughout his life, Jim French drew homoerotic images of men, but it wasn’t until one of his army buddies suggested he sell his work that French began Luger, a mail-order company named after the German gun. Through Luger, French sold sexy images of bikers, cops, cowboys, and wrestlers—none of the drawings and photographs were full-frontal (illegal at the time) but they were still highly erotic and suggestive.

French eventually sold Luger so he could start Colt Studio, which featured photographs rather than drawings, and moved Colt from New York to San Francisco to avail himself of more actual men willing to pose. The studio eventually moved into film and has since cultivated the image of the rugged Western outdoorsman in more than 500 films.

FUN FACT: Colt ran into financial difficulty in 2010 when declining profits and old debts forced its new owners, John Rutherford and Thomas Settle, to declare bankruptcy. However, a federal bankruptcy judge allowed Colt to remain in business while Rutherford and Settle continued to pay French.

TREASURE ISLAND MEDIA

FOUNDED: 1998

CLAIM TO FAME: The “treasure” here is all barebacking, all the time, with no apologies. In 2010 the company re-signed HIV+ model James Roscoe and his HIV- boyfriend Brad McGuire for more sans-condom scenes.

NOTABLE STARS: Peto Coast, Cody Koons, Dan Fisk, Jesse O’Toole

HISTORY: Treasure Island Media (TIM) founder Paul Morris says that he entered porn to capture the kind of sex that had meaning for him, to reveal the complex behavioral language of sex among men, and to address “the appalling phenomenon of the HIV ‘closet’.”

Ten years later Morris has succeeded in pissing off just about every safe-sex proponent in America. He’s been banned from promoting his work at International Mister Leather and, more recently, the Folsom Street Fair (though organizers contend that has to do with Treasure Island models having sex in their booths).

NOT-SO-FUN FACT: Treasure Island finds itself in the middle of a decades-old debate about depictions of condomless sex. On one hand, TIM films represent to some a fantasy where men can have intimate sex without barriers. But safe-sex advocates say Treasure Island videos glorify barebacking and put models at risk for infection and re-infection.

RAGING STALLION STUDIOS

FOUNDED: 1998

CLAIM TO FAME: RS has snagged the Xbiz “Gay Movie of the Year” award two years running— Focus/Refocus (2010) and Brutal (2011).

NOTABLE STARS:  Michael Brandon, Phenix Saint, Colby Keller, Marcus Mojo, Girth Brooks, Eric Rhodes, Kennedy Carter

HISTORY:  J.D. Slater and Chris Ward started Raging Stallion in 1998, with porn actor Michael Brandon (who appeared in several of the studio’s films) coming on board as a co-owner some time later. In addition to its main line, Raging Stallion has several specialty lines: Monster Bang Video, Fisting Central, Centurion Pictures XXX, High Octane, HairyBoyz.com and Pistol Media. Oh my.

FUN FACT: Co-owner JD Slater also records music for Raging Stallion films and has released some tracks on CD.

 

 

Don't forget to share:

Your support makes our travel guides possible

We believe that LGBTQ+ people deserve safe vacations that allow them to be their authentic selves. That's why our City Guides aren't locked behind a paywall. Can you contribute today?

Cancel anytime · Proudly LGBTQ+ owned and operated