Paul Raymond, British porn baron
LONDON - Paul Raymond, a businessman whose pornography and property empire made him one of Britain's wealthiest men, has died. He was 82.
LONDON - Paul Raymond, a businessman whose pornography and property empire made him one of Britain's wealthiest men, has died. He was 82.
The Paul Raymond Organization did not provide a date or cause of death.
Known as the King of Soho, Raymond was the founder of Raymond Revuebar, one of London's first and most famous strip clubs and a landmark in London's entertainment district.
He also published a range of glossy soft-core magazines with names like Razzle, Men Only and Mayfair. For a time he owned a playhouse, the Whitehall Theater, staging racy farces such as "Yes, We Have No Pyjamas."
When police cracked down on the Soho sex trade in the 1970s, Raymond bought up properties at knockdown prices, becoming one of the area's biggest landlords. Last year, the Sunday Times Rich List estimated his worth at $1.3 billion.
Born Geoffrey Quinn in Liverpool in 1925, the son of an Irish trucker, Raymond left school at 15, determined to break into show business. He worked as a carnival mind reader and vaudeville impresario before moving into the world of nude entertainment. *