Porn Valley – Speaking on behalf of AdultFYI.com, Gene Ross spoke to Allan Woods a reporter for The National Post in Canada which is also covering the story concerning the disappearance of adult performer Taylor Summers. Summers is from Ottawa.
Woods led off with a question asking about the prevailing tone in the industry and how Summers’ disappearance is being perceived. Ross told him that Summers is a relatively new performer on the scene and wouldn’t be widely known in the adult business for that reason.
“It sounds like she was making a living as an Internet model,” said Ross. “And Internet models work in a slightly different arena than the industry at large.” Woods asked how so. “They’re working for Internet companies and Internet companies operate differently,” Ross replied. “They’re not shooting movies, per se, they’re shooting content for website distribution. Summers was of that segment of female performers that may have been working exclusively for Internet content deals.”
Woods asked if that was a different environment from the adult mainstream. “You’re working for different people,” Ross answered. “You’re working for, presumably, less money because it’s website content. Taylor Summers really has not worked in the adult mainstream. She was basically starting out and a lot of girls start out the same way where they do modeling gigs, perhaps pretty girl shoots and use that as a means to broaden their contacts and eventually come into the mainstream of adult. Not always. But often times, that’s how a lot of girls get their start. They get their feet wet to see if they like it and make their decisions based on that.”
Woods asked if there were less rigorous standards for such work. “Smaller time producers?” Ross said yes for one and that the pay is probably a lot less. “The hours required are also a lot less,” Ross also noted. “If you’re getting paid to do a mainstream adult scene, you could be on a set for an entire day. It works differently.”
Asked if he knew anything about Anthony Frederick, the photographer who was presumably shooting Summers, Ross said it was the first time he ever heard of him. “I went on his site the other night. It looks like he does a lot of softcore shooting. Other than that, that was the first time I’ve heard of his name up until a couple of days ago.” Ross said you could go throughout the country and probably find many photographers like Frederick who are shooting low profile web content. “They have their own websites and make their living shooting that way.” Ross said the adult industry is so large that one half of it wouldn’t know the other. “It’s a vast, broad enterprise.”
Woods was trying to get an idea to the extent of industry involvement in the Summers’ story. Ross indicated that there would only be a relative handful of people who would have known Summers directly, that she wasn’t an identifiable commodity such as on the order of a Jenna Jameson. “If that were the case, there’d be opinions flying all over the place,” Ross said.
“But there would be a feeling of concern, naturally,” Ross continued. “There would be an immediate cause for concern for any girl who’s working under the umbrella of the adult industry. Even if anyone didn’t know this girl, there would be a rallying cry. There always is in this industry. If one of its own is under siege, there obviously is concern even if people don’t know her directly. They can empathize with the situation that she’s in. But right now the bulk of concern would be confined to her immediate family and friends.”
Ross also cautioned that there are a lot of stalkers and female performers have had to deal with those kinds of situations. “Who knows what situation she [Summers] found herself enveloped in?” Ross said. “This is a continuing investigation but very sad.” Ross also made a parallel to the story of Kristine Louise Johnson, an aspiring actress in Los Angeles, who disappeared last year. Woods said he heard about the story and wondered how it turned out. “Very badly,” Ross replied.
“She was found dead,” Woods concluded and wondered if the Summers case was considered sinister. “Under the facts that have been presented so far,” Ross continued, “it strikes you that if a girl is excusing herself from a shoot to say that she’s going to get a bite to eat, and it’s three days later before someone notices that she’s gone, there’s something that needs to be addressed here. There’s questions that have to be asked.” Ross observed that the way the industry works, the prevailing wisdom is never to allow a female performer to leave a set. Woods asked why that is. “Because of something like this,” said Ross who claims that if you gave a girl an hour, she’d take three to go shopping.
“Girls in the industry do have a tendency to flake,” Ross said. “Just getting them to a shoot is tough enough. That alone might have taken a hassle or some cajoling to accomplish. But once you have them there, they’re working on your time clock. But a situation like this was obviously more casual. This strikes you as an amateur shoot. But even under normal sets of circumstances, they would have brought food in. And, especially in a strange neighborhood to allow her to go wandering? Conshohocken is not a hot bed for adult shooting. From what I’ve read the neighbors seemed to be aghast that something like this was going on under their nose. Not that this was a sinister form of activity.”
Asked if Internet productions would tend to have security, Ross said that because of budgets that would not be the case, and neither in mainstream adult for that matter. “They’re by and large very casual affairs,” said Ross. “The only security would be the tendency to watch out for your own investment by insuring that girls got on the set.”
Asked if he had considered anything relevant to the issue, Ross told Woods that it struck him odd that some information didn’t seem to be forthcoming, and assumed that the police were releasing only so much to the media. “I see stories that beg for questions and I don’t know why they aren’t being asked,” Ross said. “Particularly the one about her two boyfriends.” It’s been speculated that Summers had a boyfriend in the Philadelphia area, but the latest news revealed that Summers was living with another boyfriend in Canada.
“Which strikes me odd,” said Ross. “I’d have to ask what that’s all about. When you come up with another boyfriend, these guys who latch on to industry girls, sometimes you have to give them a second look.”