Flynt often had legal issues, fighting obscenity charges or lawsuits, and he often turned courtroom appearances into glasses. His obscene outbursts once prompted his own lawyer to ask a judge to tie up and gag Flynt.
Born in 1942, Flynt grew up in poverty in Kentucky and Indiana and dropped out of school after eighth grade. After stints in the military and at a General Motors factory, he and his brother opened the Hustler Club in Dayton, Ohio, in 1968. By 1973, he had grown into a chain of strip clubs throughout the State and Flynt published a newsletter to promote them.
This newsletter became Hustler magazine, its flagship publication, which became infamous for featuring explicit photos that made competitor Playboy look sweet. Virtually nothing was banned on Hustler The Flynt and Flynt pages made a point of posting pictures of female genitalia.
At his peak, Hustler would have had a circulation of 3 million. Larry Flynt Publications has also published other porn magazines, as well as mainstream films and magazines.
Flynt reveled in the controversy. He made the news by posting photos of a naked Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis sunbathing in 1975 and a cover photo of a naked woman being fed head first in a meat grinder. In 1998, he offered $ 1 million to anyone who could catch top US officials in a sex scandal.
“My competitors have always disguised their art pornography,” Flynt told the Cincinnati Post . “We never made any claims about what we did… We have proven that backyard humor has an appeal in the market. “
Larry Flynt, the tenacious, controversial and free-thinking entrepreneur who took a string of strip clubs and built them into Hustler, one of the world's most successful sex-based brands, has died. He was 78.https://t.co/AqBMeatqZU
— The Hollywood Reporter (@THR) February 10, 2021