Paul Raymond (publisher)

For other people, see Paul Raymond.

Paul Raymond (15 November 1925 – 2 March 2008), born Geoffrey Anthony Quinn, was an English publisher, club owner, and real estate developer.

After opening the UK's first strip club, Raymond became very wealthy, buying property on a scale that got him dubbed "King of Soho", and launching Paul Raymond Publications with the soft-porn magazine Men Only, soon followed by Escort, Club International, Mayfair and many other best-selling titles. He was starting to hand over control to his daughter Debbie when she died of an overdose in 1992, after which he became a recluse.

Life and career

Born and raised in Liverpool, where he attended St. Francis Xavier's College, his family was abandoned by his father, a haulage contractor, when he was five. The outbreak of the Second World War prompted their relocation to Glossop in Derbyshire, where he was educated by the Irish Christian Brothers. Leaving school at 15, he was an office boy for the Manchester Ship Canal before taking up the drums for dance bands. Avoiding imprisonment for evading National Service by feigning a heart condition, he served as a switchboard operator and bandsman. He subsequently dabbled in the black market as a self-confessed spiv selling nylons and petrol coupons. He changed his name when he tried to break into show business as a mind-reader on Clacton pier at the age of 22.

Raymond toured a show featuring nude models as statues who were moved around the stage on podiums; nudes could not move on stage at this time under a ruling from the Lord Chamberlain's Office which controlled what could be shown in the theatre. Raymond opened the Raymond Revuebar strip club as a private club to circumvent the Lord Chamberlain's powers, in the former Doric Ballroom in Soho's Walker's Court in 1958, which was at the time the first British strip club. Within two years, 45,000 members had signed up. Though originally not quite as seedy as its reputation suggests (the venue was popular with prominent people of the day like actor John Mills and comedian Peter Sellers), Raymond had regular clashes with the authorities for over a decade. In 1961, Raymond was fined £5,000 following a magistrate's decision that permitting members to ring the Ding Dong Girl's bells constituted running an "unruly house". The JP also objected to a performer swallowing a snake in public and described the venue as “filthy, disgusting and beastly”.

He first moved into publishing in 1964 by launching the men's magazine King, but it ceased publication after only two issues. In 1971, he took over the adult title Men Only; his other magazines eventually included Razzle and Mayfair. Among the models featured in his magazines were Fiona Richmond, who became Raymond's girlfriend towards the end of his marriage to Jean Bradley (1951–74).

In 1974, he purchased the lease on the Windmill Cinema and renamed the cinema the Windmill Theatre, a former name of the venue. Other theatres run by Paul Raymond included the Whitehall Theatre, where the sex comedy Pyjama Tops ran for more than five years along with several sequels and the Royalty Theatre.

Raymond diversified beyond pornography and had many millions invested in property and real estate, most notably in Soho from the 1970s onwards, through his company, Soho Estates. Raymond regularly appeared on UK rich lists with an estimated wealth of £650 million by the time of his death, though one associate claimed the estate was worth billions, and Forbes placed Raymond on its list of dollar billionaires. He was though the victim of two attempts at extortion, detailed in Metropolitan Police papers released into the public domain at the end of October 2010. The perpetrators of the second (long thought to have been the IRA), were decorators posing as terrorists who sustained a campaign against him, including a threatened bombing and shooting of Raymond himself.

He began to hand over control of his empire to his daughter Debbie during the early 1990s, until her death in 1992 from a heroin overdose. Raymond also had two sons, with Derry McCarthy (born Darryl) the eldest from a relationship prior to his marriage (the woman having rejected Raymond's proposal of marriage). He became estranged from his ex-wife Jean Bradley, who blamed him for their daughter's death, and illegitimate son. Raymond had four recognised grandchildren: Cheyenne and Boston Raymond, from son Howard, and Fawn and India Rose James from daughter Debbie.

Paul Raymond was frequently dubbed by the press as the 'King of Soho'. On January 22, 1967, Paul Raymond was initiated as member number 644 of the Grand Order of Water Rats for his contribution to entertainment in the UK. A recluse in his last years, living in a penthouse near the Ritz Hotel, Paul Raymond died of respiratory failure in 2008 at the age of 82. His granddaughters Fawn and India James stand to inherit his estate once estimated at £650m. Fawn plans to devote herself to charity work.

In popular culture

A film about the life of Paul Raymond, directed by Michael Winterbottom and due for release on 26th April 2013, is currently in production, with Steve Coogan playing Raymond and Anna Friel playing Raymond's wife Jean. In addition to a cast of well-known UK talent, a small number of current Paul Raymond Publications' employees and editors appear as extras or in pseudo-cameos. The film's working title, The King of Soho, has been trademarked by one of Raymond's sons, for the title of his own biopic of the late mogul, and the producers of the first film decided to change their title. Winterbottom's film is now entitled The Look of Love.

See also

• Paul Raymond Publications

Further reading

• Keeping the British End Up: Four Decades of Saucy Cinema by Simon Sheridan (fourth edition) (Titan Publishing, London) (2011)

• Men Only, Vol.37. No.4. April,1972. "The New Raymond Revuebar Show."

• Today Magazine Vol.2 no.45. 31 December 1960. "Raymond King of the Strip Clubs". An article by Ernest Dudley.

• Today Magazine January, 1961. "A Nice Quiet Country Town, That's the Place for a Strip Club.", An article by Ernest Dudley.

• The Sunday Times Magazine, 23 November 1980. An article about Paul Raymond .

• The Soho Clarion, Issue 132, Spring 2008. "My Own Private Revuebar". An article by Gerard Simi in the Soho Society magazine.

• The Sunday Times Magazine, "Virtue and Vice", 17 August 2008.

• The Soho Clarion, Issue 136, Spring 2009. "When the Show Has To End". An article by Gerard Simi in the Soho Society magazine.

• British Pathe film, Clubs Galore. Released 22 December 1958. Film no.1563.29. Paul Raymond talks about the Raymond Revuebar.

• "For the Record:Paul Raymond". LWT television programme 1969.Paul Raymond is interviewed by Alan Watson.

• "Good Afternoon".Thames Television 1975.Paul Raymond is interviewed by Elaine Grand.

• Paul Raymond's Erotica, Film and video. 1981.

• A Night at the Revuebar. VHS Video. Electric Video. 1983.

• "Soho Stories". BBC2. 12 television documentary programmes screened from 28 October 1996 to 20 November 1996. Some programmes featured the Raymond Revuebar.

• Soho Sex King: The Paul Raymond Story. Channel 4 television documentary. Screened 15 March 2008. A shorter version of this documentary film was produced in 2005 before the death of Paul Raymond, the title being Sex in the 70's: The King of Soho.

• Members Only: The Life and Times of Paul Raymond by Paul Willetts. London: Serpent's Tail, August 2010. ISBN 978-1-84668-715-0.

• (retitled film tie-in edition) The Look of Love: Paul Raymond - The Man who made Soho by Paul Willetts. London: Serpent's Tail, April 2013. ISBN 978-1-84668-716-7.

External links

• http://www.paulraymond.com
• Paul Raymond and Fiona Richmond ultimate memorabilia website at www.fionarichmond.co.uk
• The Real Paul Raymond (Channel 4)
• Guardian Online report: "King of Soho" Paul Raymond dies aged 82
• 'Clubs Galore!' – 1958 newsreel exposing Paul Raymond's Soho empire
• BBC News: Porn baron Raymond dies aged 82
• The Stage: Revuebar’s Raymond dies at 82