The Malibu Pool Boy: Cody Foster

By Josh Eliot

Producer Scott Masters was able to secure some great talent to work for Catalina Video in the 1980s and early 1990s. One of his main discoveries was Matt Powers, who I wrote about in the blog “Some Real What The Fuck Moments While Making Scott Masters' LIFEGUARD ON DUTY.” Scott signed Matt to an exclusive contract, moved him into his home and started a romantic relationship with him. When their breakup happened and Matt moved out of the residence, Scott suffered from separation anxiety and put out the feelers for a new exclusive model to replace him.

This new exclusive model came to us from the state of Colorado and was signed to a multi-picture deal in 1991. The model was Cody Foster, 21 years old, born October 9th, 1970. His very first scene was a J/O in the video Stargazing, which featured solo performances from all of the up-and-coming Catalina stars. He was personable, very friendly and fun to be around. Then we started production on Malibu Pool Boys (1992), his first full feature, which received more attention and instant success than many movies before it. Malibu Pool Boys made Cody an instant star and led to a staggering amount of magazine covers to follow, essentially turning him into the “It Boy” of 1992. Cody was poised to have a long successful career and an exciting life as one of Catalina’s dancers who toured the country. His multi-picture contract and company backing almost guaranteed that. In addition, his Colorado agent had national and international connections with all the gay clubs and event promoters.

Cody Foster's rise to fame from corn-fed Colorado boy to mega star in 1992

I’d say some red flags were glaring to myself and the crew from working with him on Malibu Pool Boys. Shooting the movie started off smoothly, with Scott Masters, Cody and myself taking a drive down the Pacific Coast Highway, shooting exterior shots and having a fantastic seafood lunch on the shore. Spirits were high and everyone was excited to start this movie that we hoped would be a “star-vehicle” to make Cody a success. Shooting the first day with Chad Knight was going excellently - who didn’t love shooting a scene with Chad! His dick was always up and ready, so the oral went great. The real trouble started with the fucking. Scott Masters would never - absolutely never - put the full power and finances of the company behind a new exclusive star who was a “bottom,” no way no how. That’s how he felt, and he often verbalized it. This was years before popular power-bottom Joey Stefano hit the scene.

The shooting of Malibu Pool Boys was a classic lesson on how not to start off a working relationship. You see, Cody Foster was a bottom, through and through; he verbalized it to all of us and even tried to reason with Masters, but to no avail. Scott Masters was going to have this hot new exclusive fuck Chad Knight, come hell or high water! Well, I can tell you, that went over like “a fart in church.” Cody would get hard, run into the shot, try to stick it in and go soft almost immediately. This literally went on for hours and hours, and you could visibly see Cody’s spirit dimming and his hostility growing. Still photographer Jeff Burton and I were even a little frightened by certain personality changes we witnessed. It was more than just frustration we were seeing; his anger filled the room, though Scott Masters didn’t seem to notice. Yes, we got some shots in the final movie of Cody fucking, but at what expense? Cody became angrier and angrier and probably felt like his voice wasn’t heard, and his first time with the full crew was probably embarrassing for him. There was no Viagra then, and you could just see him almost losing it every time he had to penetrate Chad. I felt bad for Chad, too; how do you finish a scene with someone who is obviously in distress and ready to explode? Jeff and I both tried to get Scott Masters to just have Cody bottom to release some anxiety on the set, but it all fell on deaf ears. He waited until both models were absolutely exhausted to finally let Chad fuck Cody. Of course, Chad fucked like the star he is and saved the scene. But the damage was done. From that very first sex scene on his very first movie, Cody acted completely different in every single conversation with Scott Masters and the crew.

A couple of days later, it was time for Cody’s second scene in the movie with Arik Travis. Can I just say that Arik Travis never got the full “star-treatment” he so deserved! He is tall, dark and handsome, with a chiseled face and fat piece. I think the only cover he graced was for Fan Male, by Chi Chi LaRue, even though he worked on and off from 1992 to 2003. Total star potential with him! In any event, everyone showed up with a good attitude and the scene went off without a hitch, with Cody doing all the bottoming and no topping. Even though things went well that day, there was this weird tension in the air, almost like Cody was super annoyed to be around all of us.

Arik Travis in Fan Male and with Cody Foster in Malibu Pool Boys

The next time we saw Cody was when he came to town for his role in Chi Chi LaRue’s Bi-ology: The Making of Mr. Right (1992) with Lois Ayres and Dean Glass, and his role in Reunion (1992). I was shooting Down Bi Law downstairs while Chi Chi was working with Cody upstairs for Bi-ology. Chi Chi later told me that it was a bit tense at moments, where Cody would kind of get a bit pissy and she was scared that I would see Lois’ head rolling down the staircase. Lois Ayres is a strong woman, and the kind of starlet that you don’t fuck with. She might have pushed Cody’s buttons once or twice, causing another tense set. We split the crew in half to shoot simultaneously, and photographer Jeff Burton would run up and down the stairs to cover the still photography for both movies. He kept plopping down and sharing the nightmarish behavior happening upstairs with me. For the movie Reunion, I was the head videographer and we shot it at the 8 Is Enough TV show house in Universal City. All I truly remember is that it was tenser than tense! I’ve blocked out why and how, but Cody became very dark and slightly scary. I was so happy to have never had to direct him - I could always stay on his good side by being just the cameraman, plus a good listener when he wanted to go off.

By mid-1992, when Masters and John Travis departed the company, Cody had one movie left on his contract: Cody Exposed (1993), which I passed on to Brad Austin to direct. He never forgave me for that! Cody’s contract was not renewed, despite his becoming immensely popular with the public. He then went on to work with numerous companies like All Worlds (Hard as Marble, 1992), Falcon (Basic Plumbing, 1993) and Pleasure Productions (Ripped, 1992), despite having numerous run-ins with the law in Colorado. In 1992, a civil suit was filed and in 1993, he had a restraining order against him and was convicted in Colorado for prohibited use of a weapon. I remember hearing that he fired his gun at a government building. In 1994, despite his legal troubles, he worked on three movies: The Bigger the Better 2 (HIS), Workin’ Stiff (Falcon) and Grease Guns (Studio 2000). In early 1995, his popularity was finishing its peak when he worked on Tradewinds (Huge) for Matt Sterling and Whitefire (All Worlds). After those movies, suddenly and without warning, all productions of movies featuring Cody Foster ended.

In 1995, he began serving a four-year prison sentence in a Jefferson County, Colorado jail for retaliating against his wife, who had previously filed charges against him for battery. His wife divorced him while he was in jail. Once out of incarceration he tried to revise his career, this time in the bondage market of adult entertainment as a submissive bottom taking punishment under restraint, which included whipping and spanking. In 2003, despite the change in his looks and image after getting out of jail, he went on to work in Open House (Massive Studios) and Goldenrod (Studio 2000) for producer Scott Masters. Go figure.

Cody's final movie, Tough Man Bondage, and other late career S&M scenes

He was not seen on screen again until 2006, when he was featured in Tough-Man Bondage (Grapik Art Productions), where he was hanging from all fours from the ceiling while John Bondi sweated his ass off while brutally whipping and spanking him. Those who have worked with Cody state that he had a very poor childhood, suffered from physical abuse when he was young, got married at age 20 and struggled with being in the closet.

On June 7th, 2007, he passed away from liver cancer at age 37. A difficult story to tell, for sure.

Bio of Josh Eliot:

At the age of 25 in 1987, Josh Eliot was hired by Catalina Video by John Travis (Brentwood Video) and Scott Masters (Nova Video). Travis trained Eliot on his style of videography and mentored him on the art of directing. Josh directed his first movie, Runaways, in 1987. By 2009 when Josh parted ways with Catalina Video, he'd produced and directed hundreds of features and won numerous awards for Best Screenplay, Videography, Editing, and Directing. He was entered into the GayVN Hall of fame in 2002.

You can read Josh Eliot's previous blogs for Bijou here: