King of Soho Dies

Paul Raymond, "Britain’s Erotic Entertainment Magnate", died.

Raymond began his entrepreneurial life selling black-market nylons during World War II and went on, in 1958, to own "Raymond's Revue Bar in Soho, the first licensed serious nude strip joint in London.


Self-deprecating about his cultural status, the self-called "spiv" went on to publish various men's magazines; marry and divorce dancer & choreographer for his club, Jean Bradley; and then date porno queen Fiona Richmond for several years.


The story on Raymond's death at DailyMail is more salacious that the first obituary piece linked to (NY Times); but nearly all the 'reports' rely on comments from his ex-wife and estranged son. I have no doubts that the loss of a daughter to drugs and being one of the wealthiest men (with all the trappings and trappers it brings) were troubling, but it's difficult not to read the salt-pouring infliction of the words of those family members he left behind and be a bit cautious, if not out-right suspicious.



I rather enjoyed this quote from Jean Seaton, Professor of Media History and the Official Historian of the BBC, found at TimesOnline UK:

“He was a symptom of a radical change in sexual attitudes which was driven by feminism. What feminism did was put sex on the table and say, ‘This is part of our lives’. But he took that and commercialised it to extract monetary value from it. He made porn mainstream by making men feel less of a failure for needing it.”

While many articles play-up Raymond's (self-professed) cultural deficits, placing the man several paces away from Hefner, that quote puts the real lay of the land rather nicely in context.

Rest in peace, Paul.

See also: My post on Fiona Richmond.