"Pavlov’s Dog is no longer a one-man operation," says John Marsh, sole owner and president of the Hollywood-based company. "With three websites, including the new Fratpad.com live webcam site, I now have working with me an editor, a marketing guy, a graphics designer, and two people in shipping, not to mention a professional recruiter of models from all over and a full time programmer for Fratpad. And for the first time I’m working with a wholesale distributor, 360WestMedia.com, a division of Village Lighthouse.
"Back in 1985, I was just a Southern California guy with a bankrupt magazine about marching bands on my hands. The typesetting bill for the last issue was three thousand dollars, so I decided then and there I had been in the wrong business. I created a typesetting business which slowly expanded into a digital pre-press service bureau, running film and doing color separations for many gay-oriented publications, including a number of adult-oriented ones.
"But as the technology matured, I realized that the services I was providing were becoming obsolete, so in 1999 I started a company called Pavlov’s Dog to produce a ‘mock’ website called Fratmen.com just to learn what it would take to run a gay porn website.
"I figured that I could transition my existing business into doing DVD authoring and replication and providing membership website services for my old print clients as they one-by-one went onto the web. I’d been a fan of the solo video format, so I decided to go that way with my mock site, just because it was something I was interested in.
"Well, the content I created for the mock site was such a success that I never got around to helping my old clients. In 2001 I added Fratmen.TV, a membership site on which members could watch any of my then forty titles — it’s now over a hundred and thirty."
To what does Marsh attribute his unexpected success? "From the start I wanted to step up the technical quality of my work compared to other solo porn I saw. I wanted it to be like Abercrombie with hard-ons. And aesthetically, I learned that a slowly-moving camera gives a lyric, peaceful, more alive, interesting feeling.
"Also the Fratmen Up Close solo movies are all photographed in nice homes that we rent, because I want to create a subliminal feeling of calm, comfort, and security. People laugh at my need for that, but on a subconscious level, I think it makes the finished product more beautiful, another ‘step up.’
"And the boys in the movies are not street trade, but middleclass college boys from all over. To start with, we offer them more money than people thought we were sane to offer. And I work very hard to make them feel at ease, so that they know what will happen when they get out here, exactly what will be expected of them, not uncomfortable or hurried, nor in any way that they’re in a sleazy situation.
"I guess the combination of quality, artistry, context, care, and casting filled a gap. Most solo movies are five fifteen-minute jack-offs lasting altogether ninety minutes. In the Up Close series, we give our customers two longer scenes, but a shorter and less expensive movie. That happened by accident, because I originally needed lots of content fast to put on the site.
"Our greatest successes in the Up Close series have been Tyler Up Close — each Up Close is named for the model in it — and, to my surprise, a recent one called Fratmen’s Greatest Shots, an assembly of fifty cum-shots in ninety minutes. It quickly became our second biggest all-time bestseller."
And what about the new site — new as of June 2006 — Fratpad.com? "Fratpad was originally created to provide additional ongoing work for some of the guys that were popular on Fratmen. We rented two apartments for eight guys. The concept was a little different than what had been done before. We give each of the models his own wireless laptop cam which he can take into his room or into the shower. Members can see and hear the guys, or contact them for chats and suggest activities, although the majority of the members are actually more interested in just having conversations with the guys!
"Videos from Fratmen are different of course. The II series contains some interviews. The Alumni Weekend series brings guys together socially and has solo scenes, but also has at least one duo scene of two guys trying something more adventurous, side by side jackoff and oral. We’ve done Alumni Weekends in Hawaii and Australia so far, and we’re talking about doing a ‘snow’ one, say in Aspen or Banff. And the models are aching to see Ibiza!"
What’s it like having prolonged social and business contact with the models now that there’s the Fratpad? "A lot of them are actually really good friends. I think I missed some of the fun in my teen years or something. I love going clubbing to big nightclubs to hear dance music, and none of my friends my age want to do that."
ORDERING INFO: 800-650-5963; 360WestMedia.com (wholesale). Retail: 1-800-FRATMEN; Fratmen.com.
