Falcon turns 40

The first porno I ever bought was Falcon Studios’ Cross Country, Part 2. Yes, I bought the second half before I bought the first, because it wasn’t available and I was dumb. So I went home with Part 2, hoping against hope that the plot wasn’t so complex that I would be left in the dark as to the subtle character motivations of Dean Monroe fourgy-ing his way out of third-degree murder charges.

This year marks Falcon Studios’ 40th anniversary, a momentous milestone in a long, illustrious history in gay porn. For many people growing up and first starting to learn about the industry, Falcon is their gateway jerk-off material. Think of it this way: if you were at a party where you didn’t know anyone, Falcon would be the guy who comes over and says, “Oh hey, are you new here? Come on, I’ll show you around. I know everyone here.” Falcon is totally that guy.

While the mainstream Falcon line is the one people are most familiar with, Falcon has four other companies in its family: Jocks, a twinkier line; Mustang, the more mature line; Massive, with its bigger, more muscular models; and Falcon International, for when they want to go globe-hopping with their models. And with its recent merger with Raging Stallion Studios under the management of AEBN, Falcon has more or less become the Broken Social Scene of gay porn — a collective of artists coming together in one major super-group (for those of you who didn’t get the reference: they’re the Brady Bunch of gay porn, capisce?).

At this point, everyone has, at some point, worked with Falcon. Before he launched his own studio, Michael Lucas was a Falcon exclusive. Chi Chi LaRue, Steven Scarborough and John Rutherford all directed for Falcon before moving on to their own studios. And some of the most iconic models in the business have called the studio home, including Matthew Rush, Zak Spears and Pierre Fitch. Among the current roster of exclusives are Erik Rhodes, Roman Heart and Andrew Jakk.

It’s weird to say that a porn company conveys a sense of familiarity, but in all honesty, that’s part of the appeal for me personally; Falcon has been around forever. Any gay man who knows even the bare minimum about porn culture has some sort of tie to the company. They’ve either jacked off to a DVD or watched one of Falcon’s live shows or rented a VHS tape (you know, back when those were still a thing).

I hesitate to say that one of Falcon’s strong suits is its familiarity, because if anything, familiarity has a bad rap in porn culture. But if you want to be familiar, you need something that will make people want to come back, and over the course of 40 years, Falcon’s found it.

Congratulations, guys, and just think: when you turn 50, Courtney Stodden will try to bang you!