This story was originally published in the June 6, 2002, issue ofRolling Stone.
JOE FRANCIShas a gift.
He can make more than half the girls he meets take their shirt off.
“Girls Gone Wild” producer Joe Francis on July 5, 2003 in Southampton, New York.Matthew Peyton/Getty Images
He can make half of those girls take their panties off, too.
Girls Gone Wildvideos might not be PBS documentaries, but theyre not hardcore pornography, either.
What we offer are girls you’ve got the option to touch.
you could touch our girls!
Two tall blondes walk by, amazonian in strappy black stilettos.
Do any of you girls want a T-shirt?
What do we gotta do for it?
asks one of the blondes.
All you have to do is flash, he says.
She goes, I shouldnt, I shouldnt, I shouldnt, but you know shes going to.
No, your breasts are beautiful, says Francis.
Plus, we like nipples, too.
Is my dad going to see it?
one girl asks, not sounding weirded out by the prospect.
He and his friends always watchGirls Gone Wild.
Great, he says.
Can you go downtown, too?
he asks, and then both girls are dropping their pants.
Francis takes a big gulp of his drink and leans back against a wall.
One kid with an upside-down visor sticks around.
Dude, he says to Francis, are you taking resumes?
Neither job turned into a career.
I sucked at working for someone other than myself, says Francis.
Even my dad fired me after three days.
Francis sole extracurricular activity in high school was video-yearbook editor.
The idea forGirls Gone Wildcame from footage that someone had submitted forBanned.
It was shot in New Orleans, at Mardi Gras, and showed drunken college students having fun.
That tape lived in my VCR for a month says Francis, grinning.
There was a lot of porno on it, too, but I didnt like that part.
More than anything else,Girls Gone Wildstarted off as a product of my sexual fantasy.
Girls look really good from age eighteen to twenty-five, he says.
Its just a fact that thats the best time for girls.
Afterward, things start to happen bad things.
Francis wondered how he could market such a concept.
On a plane one day, he took out a legal pad and wrote down titles: College Women.
These days, Francis claims a staff of ninety full and part-timers.
I really see myself becoming a global media player.
Under the name Mandalay Direct, theyre producing new videos using theGirls Gone Wildformula.
As Francis business has grown and become more of a real enterprise, so have its problems.
She wore a big smile on her face as she squeezed her breasts and juggled them for the camera.
The girl was putting on a show, says Francis lawyer, Ronald Guttman.
Gritzke was featured on theGGWcommercials and website, and on a billboard that a friend spotted in Italy.
Gritzke is now suingGGW, and her case is scheduled for trial in the fall.
Francis doesnt worry that such suits will cramp his style.
But were not doing business like that anymore.
Now we get releases from all the girls.
Because getting them is too easy.
Going weightless in my plane is the best thing Ive ever done, Francis says.
Other than getting to see every girl in America naked.
Much to Francis chagrin, he and his workers get booted out of places a lot.
Sometimes, its like the ninth circle of hell.
Why are you all inside?
Get on the beach!
Get me south-of-the-border shots!
I like doing it.
Guys like me doing it.
Im not going to be at clubs with my husband when Im seventy.
My motto has always been that life is short.
When we popped it in the VCR, we became totally obsessed!
Were obsessed with boobs.
We even witnessed some not-so-cute girl licking some other not-so-cute girls nanas!
She makes a face.
I mean, its gross.
Leaderless, everyone else crashes on the pullout couches.
I was like, Is there a box to check for a plane?
(No charges were filed.)
He telephones his cameramen in their hotel rooms and yells, Get on the beach!
