Colt Studio Spotlight

Posted October 21, 2003 10:01 PM by with 0 comments

Yesterday I had the distinct pleasure of visiting the new San Francisco offices of Colt Studio and met with John Rutherford, the new owner of Colt and former president of Falcon Studios. In a unique coincidence, the new Colt office is in the same building (one floor below) that housed Falcon for many years in the 1990’s. Now that the dust has settled, both companies are on their own paths to the porn future, so I thought this would be a good time to interview Mr. Rutherford to find out his plans, and re-trace how he got to this point.

Rutherford said, “It all started about a year ago with Falcon lifetime exclusive Tom Chase. Tom has become more interested in bodybuilding and less and less interested in performing in movies, but he asked for permission to appear in a Colt movie.” Rutherford encouraged Chase to take the offer from Colt because he felt that, at the time, Colt was not in competition with Falcon.

Through Tom Chase’s association with Colt, Rutherford got wind that Colt was for sale. “I initially thought Colt would be a good property for Falcon to purchase, but when I presented the idea to the board of directors, they turned down the idea,” said Rutherford. Then in November 2002 Colt founder and chief creative force, Jim French, requested a meeting with Rutherford. The two had never met and Rutherford was honored with the invitation.

In the meantime, John Rutherford was feeling unhappy with his role at Falcon. “After being involved in 280 movies and spending most of my career in a creative capacity, I found I was becoming more and more involved in adminstration and less and less involved in creative aspects.” In March of 2003 Rutherford dropped a bombshell that he was giving notice with no real plans of what to do next. “I probably would have just done my own ‘John Rutherford’ line of videos once in a while right out of my garage.” It was after he left his employer of 14 years that the idea of owning Colt Studio came into being.

The move from LA to San Francisco carrying a body of work spanning 36 years was arduous, but had it’s comic elements, too. “Of the 4 trucks used, one got stopped by the cops on I-5 for being overloaded in the back. The police made them shift the contents to balance the load, causing everything to topple over. Photos, flyers, papers all went flying! Some gay guys happened to be around and recognized it was Colt material!”

As for Rutherford’s plans, he will be concentrating on shooting new productions in the Colt style. Jim French is still shooting still photography, and Colt will continue producing videos through it’s various lines: Colt, Buckshot, Minutemen, Spurs, and Colt International. John also has plans to introduce a new line of videos called Pony Studios featuring Colt men 18-22 years old.

We spent a good deal of time discussing the incredible body of work in the Colt archive. A total of 70 titles exist, but only 30% have been transferred to DVD, so expect more to come. Rutherford feels a “responsibility” in preserving this material for future generations and “treating with respect”. It seems a firm plan for the vintage Colt material has not been decided yet, and won’t be until it’s properly reviewed and catalogued. Unlike Rutherford, Jim French’s passion was more on still photography than video, which gets lends itself perfectly to being showcased in the membership section of their website www.coltstudio.com.

Pay-per-view (no recurring charges)
Ignition
Genuine Leather
Best of Colt 3

Members Only (monthly fee)
Carl Hardwick Collection
Franco Corelli Collection
Minute Man Series 1
Minute Man Series 10

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