Gail Harris

For the baseball player, see Gail Harris (baseball). For the US naval officer, see Gail Harris (naval officer).
Gail Harris

Gail Harris at the XBiz Awards, November 17, 2005
Born Gail Thackray
16 December 1964
Batley, West Riding of Yorkshire, England, UK
Other names Robyn Harris
Occupation Model, actress, producer. Adult magazine publisher[1] Founder Falcon Foto
Height 5'4"

Gail Thackray (born 16 December 1964 in Batley, West Riding of Yorkshire, England) is a British born model, actress and American adult magazine creator and adult industry entrepreneur. Known alternately as Robyn Harris and Gail Harris, by her marriage to Scott Harris, an American.

Life and career

Model and Centerfold

Before her film industry work, Gail Thackray was a Page 3 Girl (glamour model) for the British tabloid press. She then became a popular nude model from the mid 1980s, frequenting the pages of various pornographic magazines, including Knave, Mayfair, High Society and Genesis. In 1986, as Gail Thackray, she was featured on the front cover, centerfold and 14-page spread of Larry Flynt's Hustler Magazine and the 10th anniversary feature model of High Society.[2]

Hollywood

She transitioned and set her sights on Hollywood, beginning her career as a extra and actress performing nude scenes in low budget B Movies, Sexploitation Films and soft core porn film and video. In the Mid 80s, she frequently appeared nude in many episodes of Electric Blue, a soft core porn show that aired mainly on the Playboy Channel.[3] She costarred with many X rated porn stars including Kitten Natividad, Candie Evans,Taylor St. Clair, Ron Jeremy and Ginger Lynn Allen. She also began performing Stunt and Body double work. In 1990, Harris teamed up with low-budget director Jim Wynorski to star in two B movie horror/action direct to video films. Credited as Robyn Harris in 'Hard To Die', she stars as a lingerie model who is trapped in a highrise with a madman and gets to fire a machine gun in skimpy underwear.[4] In ' Sorority House Massacre II' Harris plays the female lead as a coed terrorized by a serial killer. Harris is popularly known as a scream queen and was named to Mr. Skin's Nudity Hall of Fame.

Founding Falcon Foto

Gail Harris is President and CEO of Falcon Foto, which she founded in 1988. Falcon Foto is a prominent provider of adult entertainment material to the publishing and Internet industries and has a library of over 2 million images.[5] USA Today, reported in 2004 that FalconFoto, had the world's largest privately owned library of erotic photos. The collection according to online experts is worth more than $25 million.[6] Falcon Foto also serves as the major licensor of adult material to the print publishing groups such as Larry Flynt Publications, Paragon Publishing (Club), Crescent Publishing (High Society), and Swank Publications. contributing approximately 40% of all photo content in the industry.[7] In 2005, Falcon Foto was involved with The Tom Sizemore Sex Scandal video.[8] Jason Tucker, Co-Owner of Falcon Foto, served as Sizemore's manager and tried to promote sales.[9] In 2010, Falcon Foto sued various porn site companies for copyright infringement of the Sizemore sex tape in Los Angeles, Ca.[10]

Creation of Hustler's Barely Legal

Hustler's Barely Legal magazine

In 1988, Harris created the first niche adult magazine, Barely Legal, for Larry Flynt Publications, which became one of Flynt's best-selling titles. The launch of Barely Legal revolutionized the industry with 22 copycat titles appearing, as well as format changes in established publications and in the video medium. Falcon proved its vision again with a second title, Hometown Girls, published in partnership with Flynt, becoming Flynt's 3rd top earner. Falcon Foto's third announcement of a new title Virgins Magazine created a bidding war before the concept was even released.[11][12]

Internet Porn and Niche Markets

When the Internet began to rapidly expand in the mid 1990s, Harris already had a viable pornographic business in place.[13] Falcon Foto then began digitizing their entire library[14] for use on the Internet and by the early 2000s, Harris had created multiple Internet sites, such as FalconFoto.com, FalconFoto.net,[15] Falcongold.com, focusing on the pornographic 'niche' market.[16] To this end, Harris stated the mission of her company, Falcon Foto, in a 2003 interview in YNOTNews, an adult industry news : "To provide the best adult content to satisfy the niche fantasy of every perv on the Internet".[17] She also claimed her company had the distinction of being the "first to shoot a granny and the first to create an entire magazine devoted to young girls". Her other niche products included photos and videos of Barely Legal, Busty Beauties, Hometown Girls, 40+, Plumpers and the other magazines.

In 2003, Harris collaborated with Larry Flynt III to create Contrentrus.com, both producing and marketing pornographic video products.[18]

In 2004, Falcon Foto hired KSEX radio.com on-air personality Chef Jeff to an exclusive directing, photography and videographer deal in production of pornographic content.[19] Previously, Chef Jeff had been directing pornographic material such as the BackAlleyHooker.com series for Guerilla Traffic and served as the editor of a porno review, adult and sex news web site TheIndustryVoice.com.[20]

In 2006, Harris finished a year as a consultant for Flynt, putting her staff to work helping Flynt develop websites, Vegas casino projects, video lines and a mobile operation within his empire.[21]

In 2006, Harris collaborated with porn actors Brandi Love and Chris Potoski to form Naked Rhino Media, a multimedia porn site that features exclusive niche-specific content.[22]


Personal life

Gail Thackray met her first husband Scott Harris while skydiving in the United States. Scott was the photographer who parachuted into the Michael Jackson compound during the October 6, 1991 wedding for Elizabeth Taylor and Larry Fortensky.[23][1]

On August 1, 2004, Thackray married Jason Tucker, an adult entertainment entrepreneur and porn site operator.[24] On February 19, 2011, they were legally separated.[25]

Thackray retired from acting and producing in 2002 and stayed on as a resident of Los Angeles, California in the United States where she enjoys riding horses and spending time with her family.

Nude Model for Adult Magazines

Filmography

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0364703/bio?ref_=nm_ov_bio_sm
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 http://riveroffilth.com/category.cfm/category.cfm?Category=634&CFID=6648452&CFTOKEN=58892516
  3. ↑ "Gail Harris". IMDb.
  4. ↑ "Introducing… Gail Harris - The Actress Zone". The Actress Zone.
  5. ↑ http://www.xbiz.com/articles/19832 Gail Harris By Gila Morgan February 27, 2007
  6. ↑ http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/tech/news/2004-03-09-onlineporn_x.htm Online porn often leads high-tech way By Jon Swartz, USA TODAY Posted 3/9/2004
  7. ↑ http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2001-07-18/features/0107180183_1_adult-entertainment-harris-web-masters X-rated photo czarina shows how to market a body of work July 18, 2001|By Gary Dretzka, ChicagoTribune
  8. ↑ http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:hGi0ZXTWZ1cJ:www.adultfyi.com/read.php%3FID%3D48104+&cd=11&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us
  9. ↑ http://www.nydailynews.com/archives/gossip/new-web-vids-sizemore-matters-article-1.648560
  10. ↑ http://newswire.xbiz.com/view.php?id=127255
  11. ↑ http://www.ynot.com/content/104619-ynotnews-interviews-gail-harris-falcon-foto.html YNOTNews Interviews Gail Harris From Falcon Foto by YNOTCONNOR Published on May 15th, 2003
  12. ↑ http://www.businessweek.com/stories/2006-06-18/the-pornographers-vs-dot-the-pirates BloombergBusinessWeek Magazine The Pornographers vs. The Pirates posted June 18, 2006
  13. ↑ "X-rated photo czarina shows how to market a body of work". Chicago Tribune.
  14. ↑ "Moving From Back Alleys on to Wall St.". Los Angeles Times.
  15. ↑ "Falcon Foto Launches New Content Sales Site". ainews.com.
  16. ↑ "AVN - How to Market Niche Websites". avn.com.
  17. ↑ "YNOT - YNOTNews Interviews Gail Harris From Falcon Foto". YNOT: Adult Industry Forums.
  18. ↑ "Falcon Foto Collaborates On New Webmaster Product". ainews.com.
  19. ↑ "AVN - Falcon Foto Inks Chef Jeff To Directing Deal". avn.com.
  20. ↑ "Business Profiles and Company Information - ZoomInfo.com". ZoomInfo.
  21. ↑ XBIZ. "Gail Harris". XBIZ.
  22. ↑ XBIZ. "Falcon Foto, XclusiveCash Form Naked Rhino Media". XBIZ.
  23. ↑ "Parachutist's Hopes for Riches From Liz Taylor Wedding Fall Through". Los Angeles Times.
  24. ↑ "USATODAY.com - Online porn often leads high-tech way". usatoday.com.
  25. ↑ http://www.plainsite.org/dockets/thpfjrd5/california-central-district-court/jason-tucker-v-gail-thackray/ Attachment 1: Exhibit Page 2 IV. ALLEGATIONS COMMON TO ALL COUNTS
  26. ↑ http://vintage-erotica-forum.com/t4577-p9-gail-thackray.html

External links