PORN MANAGER DAVID FOREST: “I’M BACK!”

Posted March 29, 2012 2:44 PM by with 2 comments

We’ve now shot nearly twenty five interviews for our documentary on Falcon Studios founder Chuck Holmes, but few have been as unexpectedly informative as yesterday’s with long-time porn star manager/agent David Forest.

Now David isn’t exactly Justin Bieber– he’s been arrested twice for pandering through his Brad’s Buddies program (now “Meet the Stars”), going to jail once in the mid-90s, and he’s never been exactly welcome at the studios, who didn’t like him driving up prices for porn performers. And David — who got his start booking live shows in San Francisco in the 60s and the Sunset Strip in the 70s, before moving on to XXX — has never been allergic to a good time. But yesterday, when he talked about the good old days, he wasn’t talking about all-night parties — he was talking about the money he made for the boys.

Forest got into porn when he befriended Leo Ford in 1981. Leo hustled, but couldn’t always take the client. And when a call came in that Leo couldn’t field, he’d drive down to Santa Monica Boulevard, pick up a hustler and negotiate a deal for the client. Sometimes the boys he found went on to become porn stars; other times, porn stars found him to manage their escort business and live shows. For three decades, he drove up prices (at one point in the ’90s, he negotiated a two-movie deal for Ryan Idol for $40,000). Of course, the business has changed since then — it’s much easier for models to reach studios themselves, or negotiate private meetings on Rentboy. But David, who’s refocusing on his business, still sees a role for an old school manager.

David Forest and Billy Brandt in 2002

“These days models don’t get paid what they deserve,” he told us. “They’re doing live shows at clubs for $400, scenes for $1000. I take a cut, but I can also get them much more.” And while stars are busy on Twitter, he’s busy making dates. Despite his two arrests, he’s more than happy to introduce potential clients to stars (“as long as I get the money from the client, and not the star, it’s legal. I’m just setting up the introduction”). While the industry doesn’t pay what it used to (David says that in the early 80s, $1500 was standard. With inflation, that’s more like $3500 today.) For the right star, he says, it’s still a seller’s market.

VIDEO: Gay Porn Star Ken Ryker for Falcon Studios

Maybe there’s a reason that his model roster has included some of the biggest names in gay porn: Kurt Marshall, Lance and Leo, Ken Ryker, Tom Katt, Ryan Idol. He gave us plenty of juice about them, as well as his high-profile Hollywood client list, but like good hustlers, we’re holding out on the good stuff for later We learned THAT from the master …

Mike

VIDEO: Ken Ryker in the New Pledgemasters (via Falcon)
VIDEO: Leo Ford in ‘Style’ (via Falcon)

Related:
Jesse Santana Wins Escort of the Year

Tony Capucci Returns to Cockyboys
Pay for Gay: Jake Lyon’s $54,160 Escort Ad
My First Porn Crush: Adam Baran Talks Ryan Idol
Ryan Idol Convicted of Attempted Murder

Tags: , , , ,

2 responses to PORN MANAGER DAVID FOREST: “I’M BACK!”

  1. John April 2nd, 2012 at 2:32 PM

    I can’t wait to see this documentary!
    John

    Reply

  2. Being an Exclusive by Gay Porn agent David Forest | Gay Porn Blog: Gay News, Tubes, Stars and Videos July 26th, 2014 at 2:39 AM

    […] gay porn’s longest running (and most notorious) manager and “agent to the stars” started in the industry when he became friends with and started managing the career of Leo Ford in 1981. Since then, […]

    Reply

Leave a Reply