Larry Flynt

Larry Flynt
Flynt at theFree Speech Coalitionin Los Angeles in 2009
Born	Larry Claxton Flynt Jr. (1942-11-01)November 1, 1942 Lakeville, Kentucky,U.S.
Died	February 10, 2021(2021-02-10)(aged 78) Los Angeles, California,U.S.
Resting place	Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Glendale)
Occupations	Publisher activist businessman
Years active	1965–2021
Spouses	Mary Flynt ​ ​ (m.1961;div.1965)​ Peggy Mathis ​ ​ (m.1966;div.1969)​ Kathy Barr ​ ​ (m.1970;div.1975)​ Althea Leasure ​ ​ (m.1976; died 1987)​ Elizabeth Berrios ​ ​ (m.1998)​
Children	5 (1 deceased)

Larry Claxton Flynt Jr.(/flɪnt/;November 1, 1942 – February 10, 2021) was an American publisher and the president ofLarry Flynt Publications(LFP). LFP mainly produces pornographic magazines, such asHustler,pornographic videos, and three pornographic television channels named Hustler TV. Flynt fought several high-profile legal battles involving theFirst Amendment,and unsuccessfully ran for public office. He was paralyzed from the waist down due to injuries sustained in a 1978 attempted assassination by serial killerJoseph Paul Franklin.In 2003,Arenamagazine listed him at No. 1 on the "50 Powerful People in Porn" list.

Early life

Flynt was born in Lakeville,Magoffin County, Kentucky,the first of three children of Larry Claxton Flynt Sr. (1919–2005), asharecropper,and Edith (née Arnett; 1925–1982), a homemaker.He had two younger siblings: sister Judy (1947–1951) and brotherJimmy Ray Flynt(born 1948). His father served in theUnited States Armyin theEuropean theatre of World War II.Due to his father's absence, Flynt was raised solely by his mother and maternal grandmother for the first three years of his life.Flynt was raised in poverty, and said Magoffin County was the poorest county in the nation during theGreat Depression.In 1951, Flynt's sister, Judy,died ofleukemiaat age four.The death provoked his parents' divorce one year later; Flynt was then raised by his mother inHamlet, Indiana,and his brother, Jimmy, was raised by his maternal grandmother in Magoffin County. Two years later, Flynt returned to live in Magoffin County with his father because he disliked his mother's new boyfriend.

Flynt attended Salyersville High School (nowMagoffin County High School) in the ninth grade. However, he ran away from home and, despite being only 15 years old, joined theUnited States Armyusing a counterfeit birth certificate.It was around that time that he developed a passion for the game ofpoker.After being honorably discharged, Flynt returned to his mother inIndianaand found employment at the Inland Manufacturing Company, an affiliate ofGeneral Motors.However, there was a union-led slowdown and he was laid off after only three months.He then returned to his father in Kentucky. For a brief period, he became abootleggerbut stopped when he learned that county deputies were searching for him.After living on his savings for two months, he enlisted in theUnited States Navyin July 1960. He became a radar operator onUSSEnterprise.He was the operator on duty when the ship was assigned to recoverJohn Glenn's space capsule.He was honorably discharged in July 1964.

First enterprises

In early 1965, Flynt took $1,800 (approx. $17,000 in 2022 when adjusted for inflation) from his savings and bought his mother's bar inDayton, Ohio,called the Keewee. He refitted it and was soon making $1,000 a week (approx. $9,300 in 2022); he used the profits to buy two other bars. He worked as many as 20 hours a day and tookamphetaminesto stay awake.

Flynt decided to open a new, higher-class bar, which would also be the first in the area to feature nude hostess dancers; he named it theHustler Club.From 1968 onward, with the help of his brother Jimmy and later his girlfriendAlthea Leasure,he openedHustler ClubsinAkron,Cleveland,Columbus,Cincinnati,andToledo,Ohio.Soon each club grossed between $260,000 and $520,000 a year. He also acquired the Dayton franchise of a small newspaper calledBachelor's Beat,which he published for two years before selling it. At the same time, he closed a money-losing vending-machine business.

Hustlermagazine

In January 1972, Flynt created theHustler Newsletter,a two-page, black-and-white publication about his clubs. This item became so popular with his customers that by May 1972, he expanded theHustler Newsletterto 16 pages, then to 32 pages in August 1973. As a result of the1973 oil crisis,the American economy enteredrecessionand the revenues ofHustler Clubsdeclined. Flynt had to refinance his debts or declare bankruptcy. He decided to turn theHustler Newsletterinto a sexually explicit magazine with national distribution. He paid the start-up costs of the new magazine by deferring payment ofsales taxeshis clubs owed on their activities.

In July 1974, the first issue ofHustlerwas published. Although the first few issues went largely unnoticed, within a year the magazine became highly lucrative, and Flynt was able to pay his tax debts.Flynt's friendAl Goldsteinsaid thatHustlertook its inspiration from his own tabloidScrew,but credited his comrade in arms with accomplishing what he had not: creating a national publication.In November 1974,Hustlershowed the first "pink-shots", or photos of openvulvas.Flynt had to fight to publish each issue, as many people, including some at his distribution company, found the magazine too explicit and threatened to remove it from the market. Shortly thereafter, Flynt was approached by apaparazzowho had taken pictures of former First LadyJacqueline Kennedy Onassiswhile she wassunbathingnude on vacation in 1971. He purchased them for $18,000 (approx. $98,000 in 2022) and published them in the August 1975 issue.That issue attracted widespread attention, and one million copies were sold within a few days. (Goldstein'sScrewmagazine had previously published nude photos of Onassis in early 1973.)Now a millionaire, Flynt bought a $375,000 (approx. $2 million in 2022)mansion.

Attempted assassination

Larry Flynt in his gold-plated wheelchair in 2009

On March 6, 1978, during a legal battle related toobscenityinGwinnett County, Georgia,Flynt and his lawyer were shot on the sidewalk inLawrencevillebyJoseph Paul Franklin.The shooting left Flyntpartially paralyzedwith permanentspinal cord damage,and in need of a wheelchair.Flynt's attorney was seriously wounded.Flynt's injuries caused him constant,excruciating pain,and he was addicted topainkillersuntil multiple surgeries deadened the affected nerves. He also had a stroke caused by one of severaldrug overdoseson hisanalgesicmedication. He recovered, but hadpronunciation difficultiesthereafter.

Joseph Paul Franklin

Franklin, a militantwhite supremacistandserial killer,also shotVernon Jordan;he targeted other black and Jewish people in a killing spree from 1977 to 1980. Violently opposed to 'miscegenation,' he confessed to the shootings many years later, claiming he was outraged by aninterracialphoto shoot inHustler.About Flynt and aHustlerpictorial, he stated, "I saw that interracial couple... having sex... It just made me sick... I threw the magazine down and thought, I'm gonna kill that guy."Flynt himself suspected the attack was part of a larger conspiracy involving ultra-right elements surroundingU.S. RepresentativeLarry McDonaldalso behind theKaren Silkwoodcase with ties to the Intelligence Community and that Franklin may have been subject toMKULTRA-stylemind control.

Franklin was never brought to trial for the attack on Flynt. Franklin was eventually charged inMissouriwith eight unrelated counts of murder and sentenced to death. Flynt expressed his opposition to thedeath penaltyand stated he did not want Franklin to be executed.Franklin was executed bylethal injectionon November 20, 2013.

Personal life and death

Flynt was married five times; his wives were:

• Mary Flynt (1961–1965)
• Peggy Mathis (1966–1969)
• Kathy Barr (1970–1975)
• Althea Leasure(1976–1987)
• Elizabeth Berrios (1998–2021)

He married his fourth wife,Althea,in 1976, and they remained married for ten yearsuntil her death at age 33. Larry reported she had ARC (AIDS-related complex), but drowned in a bathtub in 1987.Toxicology reports were inconclusive.He married his fifth wife, Elizabeth Berrios, in 1998. Flynt had four daughters and a son, as well as many grandchildren.His daughter Lisa Flynt-Fugate died in a car crash in Ohio in October 2014 at age 47.

He said he was anevangelical Christianfor one year, "converted" in 1977 by evangelistRuth Carter Stapleton,the sister ofJimmy Carter.He said he became "born again"and that he had a vision from God while flying with Stapleton in his jet. He continued to publish his magazine, however, vowing to" hustle for God ".He later declared himself anatheist.

In 1994, Flynt bought aGulfstream IIprivate jet, which was used in the movieThe People vs. Larry Flynt.In 2005, he replaced it with aGulfstream IV.At the time of his death, he resided in theHollywood Hills.

Flynt said he hadbipolar disorder.

Flynt died fromheart failurein Los Angeles on February 10, 2021, at age 78.

Flynt's enterprises

LFP, Inc. headquarters in Beverly Hills

By 1970, he ran eightstrip clubsthroughout Ohio inCincinnati,Toledo,Akron,andCleveland.

In July 1974, Flynt first publishedHustleras a step forward from theHustler Newsletter,which was advertising for his businesses. The magazine struggled for the first year, partly because many distributors and wholesalers refused to handle it as its nude photos became increasingly graphic. It targeted working-class men and grew from a shaky start to a peak circulation of around three million. The publication of nude paparazzi pictures ofJacqueline Kennedy Onassisin August 1975 was a major coup.Hustlerhas often featured more explicit photographs than comparable magazines and has contained depictions of women that some find demeaning, such as a naked woman in a meat grinder or presented as a dog on a leash – though Flynt later said that the meat grinder image was a criticism of the pornography industry itself.

Larry Flynt's Hustler Club on West52nd Streetin New York

Flynt created his privately held companyLarry Flynt Publications(LFP) in 1976. LFP published several other magazines and also controlled distribution of the various titles.LFP launchedOhio Magazinein 1977, and later its output included other mainstream work. LFP sold the distribution business, as well as several mainstream magazines, beginning in 1996. LFP started to producepornographic moviesin 1998, through theHustler Videofilm studio,which purchasedVCA Picturesin 2003. In 2014, Flynt said his print portfolio made up only 10% of his company's revenue, and predicted the demise ofHustlerdue to competition from the Internet.

On June 22, 2000, Flynt opened theHustler Casino,a card room located in the Los Angeles suburb ofGardena.Other ventures which were wholly owned or licensed by Flynt or are wholly owned or licensed by LFP, Inc. include the Hustler Clubs and the Hustler Hollywood Store. LFP also publishesBarely Legal,a pornographic magazine featuring young women who reportedly have recently turned 18, the minimum age for a person to appear in pornography in the US.

Legal battles

Flynt was embroiled in many legal battles regarding the regulation of pornography andfree speechwithin theUnited States,especially attacking theMiller v. California(1973)obscenityexception to theFirst Amendment.He was first prosecuted on obscenity and organized crime charges in Cincinnati in 1976 bySimon Leis,who headed a local anti-pornography committee. He was given a sentence of 7–25 years in prison, but served only six days in jail; the sentence was overturned on appeal following allegations of prosecutorial misconduct, as well as judicial and jury bias.One argument resulting from this case was reviewed by theU.S. Supreme Courtin 1981.Flynt made an appearance in a feature film based on the trial,The People vs. Larry Flynt(1996), playing the judge who sentenced him in the case.

Outraged by a derogatory cartoon published inHustlerin 1976,Kathy Keeton,then girlfriend ofPenthousepublisherBob Guccione,filed alibelsuit against Flynt in Ohio. Her lawsuit was dismissed because she had missed the deadline under thestatute of limitations.She then filed a new lawsuit inNew Hampshire,whereHustler's sales were very small. The question of whether she could sue there reached the U.S. Supreme Court in 1983, with Flynt losing the case.This case is occasionally reviewed today in first-yearlaw schoolCivil Procedurecourses, due to its implications regarding personaljurisdictionover a defendant.

During the proceedings inKeeton v. Hustler Magazine,Flynt reportedly shouted "Fuck this court!" and called the justices "nothing but eight assholes and a token cunt" (referring to JusticeSandra Day O'Connor).Chief JusticeWarren E. Burgerhad him arrested forcontempt of court,but the charge was later dismissed.

Also in 1983, he leaked anFBIsurveillance tape to the media regardingJohn DeLorean.In the videos, when arresting DeLorean, the FBI is shown asking him whether he would rather defend himself or have "his daughter's head smashed in".During the subsequent trial, Flynt wore aU.S. flagas adiaperand was jailed for six months fordesecration of the flag.

In 1988, Flynt won a Supreme Court decision,Hustler Magazine v. Falwell,after being sued by ReverendJerry Falwellin 1983, over an offensive ad parody inHustlerthat suggested that Falwell's first sexual encounter was with his mother in anouthouse.Falwell sued Flynt, citing "emotional distress"caused by the ad. The decision clarified that public figures cannot recover damages for" intentional infliction of emotional distress "based on parodies. After Falwell's death, Flynt said despite their differences, he and Falwell had become friends over the years, adding," I always appreciated his sincerity even though I knew what he was selling and he knew what I was selling. "

As a result of asting operationin April 1998, Flynt was charged with a number of obscenity-related offenses concerning the sale of sex videos to a youth in a Cincinnati adult store he owned. In a plea agreement in 1999, LFP, Inc. (Flynt's corporateholdingsgroup) pleaded guilty to two counts of pandering obscenity and agreed to stop selling adult videos in Cincinnati.

In June 2003, prosecutors inHamilton County, Ohio,attempted to revive criminal charges of pandering obscene material against Flynt and his brother Jimmy Flynt, charging that they had violated the 1999 agreement. Flynt said that he no longer had an interest in the Hustler Shops and that prosecutors had no basis for the lawsuit.

In January 2009, Flynt filed suit against two nephews, Jimmy Flynt II and Dustin Flynt, for the use of his family name in producing pornography. He regarded their pornography to be inferior.He prevailed on the maintrademark infringementissue, but lost on invasion of privacy claims.

In May 2021,VICE Newspublished and reported on a copy of Flynt's 322-page FBI file, which the outlet obtained through aFreedom of Information Act(FOIA) request. It contained details of his 1983 arrest for disrupting the U.S. Supreme Court during theKeetonhearing and the unconfirmed claim of a confidential informant that Flynt had asked a mercenary to rig his wheelchair with C-4 explosives so he could blow himself up during that same hearing, taking all of the justices with him.

Politics

Flynt was aDemocratwhenBill Clintonwas president. In 2013, he said he was "acivil libertarianto the core ",though he once attempted a presidential run as aRepublicanin 1984.He was a staunch critic of theWarren Commissionand offered $1 million for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the assassin ofJohn F. Kennedy.In 2003, Flynt was a candidate in therecall electionof California governorGray Davis,calling himself a "smut peddler who cares".He finished seventh in a field of 135 candidates with 17,458 votes (0.2%).

Flynt repeatedly weighed in on public debates by trying to expose conservative or Republican politicians with sexual scandals. He did so during theimpeachment proceedings against President Clintonin 1998, offering $1 million for evidence and publishing the results inThe Flynt Report.These publications led to the resignation of incoming House SpeakerBob Livingston.In 2007, Flynt repeated his $1 million offer and also wrote the foreword to Joseph Minton Amann and Tom Breuer'sThe Brotherhood of Disappearing Pants: A field guide to conservative sex scandals,which contained some cases published by Flynt.

In 2003, Flynt purchased nude photographs of formerPFCJessica Lynch,who was captured by Iraqi forces, rescued from an Iraqi hospital by U.S. troops and celebrated as a hero by the media. He said he would never show any of the photographs, calling Lynch a "good kid" who became "a pawn for the government". Flynt supported activist groups opposed to thewar in Iraqin 2004 and 2005. He was a strong supporter ofLGBT rightsandsame-sex marriage.

In 2012, Flynt offered a $1 million reward for information onMitt Romney's unreleased tax returnsand ran two full-page ads inUSA TodayandThe Washington Postto promote the offer.

Flynt endorsedMark Sanfordin the 2013 special election forSouth Carolina's 1st congressional district,saying "His open embrace of his mistress in the name of love, breaking his sacred marriage vows, was an act of bravery that has drawn my support."

In January 2015, following the attack onCharlie Hebdo,Larry Flynt criticized the American media for refusing to broadcast the caricatures of Mohammed from the satirical weekly.

In May 2015, Flynt endorsedHillary Clintonin the2016 presidential election.In an interview withMarfa Journallater that year, he described his political views as "progressivelyliberal".

In October 2017, Flynt offered a $10 million reward for any evidence that would lead to the impeachment of PresidentDonald Trump.A 2019 Christmas card from Larry Flynt Publications, sent to several Republican congressmen, depicted Trump'sassassination.

Allegations of incest, misogyny, and racism

Flynt's daughter, Tonya Flynt-Vega, accused him ofsexually abusingher as a child.In the 1998 book,Hustled: My Journey from Fear to Faith,Flynt-Vega writes about her father showing her images fromHustlerand while he did so, he began touching her, had her remove her bathing suit, assaulted her orally, then showed her his erection and tried to penetrate her. She writes, "The pain was intense. I know I was hurt. Dad had not penetrated [me]."She described an exchange with her father after he knew she planned to publish a book describing his abuses of her: "He called me at work one day and said 'If you don't back-off that book, I'll send somebody to wring your [expletive] neck.'... He's 'Mr. Free Speech', but he's threatening to kill somebody for writing a book."Flynt denied his daughter's accusation of sexual abuse on several occasions,but he did acknowledge he had not been a good parent to Flynt-Vega. "She's looking for attention, and she's looking to get back at me, as her father, for not being there when she really needed me," he said in one response.In another interview, he stated, "Anyone who knows me knows my sexual preference. It's not children, especially my own."

Hustlercartoonist and humor editor Dwaine B. Tinsley created the comic feature called "Chester the Molester".It was a monthly part of the magazine for 13 years. In the comic, the main character endeavors through various means to molest and otherwise sexually assault girls and women. In 1989, Tinsley was arrested, charged with molesting his daughter from age 13–18.Tinsley was convicted of that charge on January 5, 1990.His conviction was overturned in 1992 when an appeals court ruled that the jury should not have seen cartoons drawn by Tinsley.The prosecutor in the case ultimately decided not to retry Tinsley, who served 23 months of a six-year sentence.Flynt claims he did not ask Tinsley about the conviction and "Chester the Molester" cartoons drawn while in prison continued to appear inHustler.He also defended Tinsley, calling him "a genius" and "at one time in America in the Seventies and Eighties the most brilliant and recognized cartoonist in America."

In addition to child molestation, therapeof adult women is a common theme in many of his magazines, includingHustler.A photo pictorial titled "The naked and the dead", depicted an imprisoned woman being forcibly shaved, sexually assaulted, raped, and electrocuted.In the January 1983 issue ofHustler,there was a photographic pictorial called "Dirty pool". It depicted a woman on a pool table being sexually assaulted andgang rapedby four men. In early March 1983, 21 year-oldCheryl Araujowas gang raped on a pool table by four men inNew Bedford.At the time, some coverage took onxenophobicovertones, blaming the crime not only on the victim but on thePortuguesecommunity as a whole. Flynt created a fake postcard featuring a naked woman on a pool table with the caption, "Greetings from New Bedford, Massachusetts, the Portuguese gang-rape capital of America."

Criticizing the sanitizing scope of the 1996 filmThe People vs. Larry Flynt,feministGloria Steinemdetailed his depictions of misogyny: "What's left out [of the film] are the magazine's images of women being beaten, tortured, and raped; women subject to degradations frombestialityto sexual slavery. "Steinem also addressed what she saw as the hypocrisy of him being regarded as a protector of everyone's free speech, noting" other feminists and I have been attacked inHustlerfor using ourFirst Amendmentrights to protest pornography. "The film's director,Miloš Forman,a native of the former Czechoslovakia, rebutted these and similar feminist critiques, stating that if he had used such extreme pornographic content, he would not have been able to make the film, which was rated "R". Forman, whose parents were victims of the Nazis,said he made the movie "out of admiration for the beauty and wisdom of the American Constitution, which allows this country to rise to its best when provoked by the worst".Others also viewed the film ashistorical revisionism,portraying a heroic Flynt.Entertainment Weeklynoted the "magazine's racist and anti-Semitic overtones – oneHustlercartoon showed a black man reaching for a watermelon on a giant mousetrap – is also nowhere to be found. "His daughter Tonya also spoke out against the film.

In real life, Flynt did not shy away from rationalizing his publication of taboo content and humor, claiming that his goal was to "offend every single person in this world at some point", and pointing out that "If the First Amendment will protect a scumbag like me then it will protect all of you, because I'm the worst."He defended himself against allegations of misogyny, stating that he supported abortion rights, same-sex marriage and equality, while at the same time offering harsh assessments of his feminist critics and embracing the magazine's crude, sometimes bigoted depictions.

Feminist authorLaura Kipniscompared Flynt to the ribald, French Renaissance satiristRabelais,saying that she sawHustler"as really dedicated to violating the proprieties that uphold class distinctions", and calling it "one of the most class-antagonistic publications in the country".

Works about Flynt

Books

• Kipnis, Laura(1998). "(Male) desire and (female) disgust: ReadingHustler".Bound and Gagged: Pornography and the Politics of Fantasy in America.Duke University Press.ISBN978-0822323433.
• Dines, Gail (2004). "King Kong and the white woman:Hustlermagazine and the demonization of black masculinity ".Not for Sale: Feminists resisting prostitution and pornography.North Melbourne, Victoria, Australia: Spiniflex Press (published 2005).ISBN978-1876756499.
• Flynt, Larry; Eisenbach, David (2011).One Nation Under Sex.New York: Palgrave Macmillan.ISBN978-0230339927.

Films

• The People vs. Larry Flynt(dramatic film).Forman, Miloš(director). 1996.{{cite AV media}}:CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)(Based on his life, featuringWoody Harrelsonin the title role. Flynt makes cameo appearances as a judge and jury member.)
• Larry Flynt: The right to be left alone(documentary film). Brooker-Marks, Joan (director). 2007.{{cite AV media}}:CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
• Sticky: A (Self) Love Story(documentary film).Tana, Nicholas(director). 2016.{{cite AV media}}:CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)(Interview with Flynt)
• Larry Flynt for President(2021) (documentary film).DirectorNadia Szold.

Autobiography

• Flynt, Larry (2008) [1997].An Unseemly Man: My life as a pornographer, pundit, and social outcast.Beverly Hills, CA: Phoenix Books.ISBN978-1597775762.

Other

Flynt appears in the music video "Afraid"by the American rock bandMötley Crüewhich first aired on June 9, 1997.

In January 2019, Flynt discussed the importance of freedom and voting in America when he was interviewed byWeekly Alibi'sAugust March.

External links

• Official website
• Larry FlyntatIMDb
• AppearancesonC-SPAN
• "Larry Flynt:" My final farewell to the Falwells – Good Riddance! "".The Daily Beast.September 1, 2020.