Yes, you read that title correctly. Larry Flynt died of heart failure on February 10th this year. Besides Hugh Hefner, there is probably no one else who did more for the 20th-century porn industry and gained more attention for it than Larry Flynt. So, to examine this entrepreneur’s incredible legacy, I decided to do a complete write-up about it. As always, when you’re finished, and you found that you liked it, send it to your friends.
From club owner to professional pornographer
Ever since the start of his life, Larry Flynt was always something of a rogue. While still a teenager, he managed to run away from home and enlisted in the army using a forged birth certificate. Amazingly, he managed to get honorably discharged, then did some factory work followed up by doing some bootlegging.
Once he found out the cops were looking for him, Flynt quit the booze game and joined the military again, only this time he signed up with the navy.
(Would you be surprised to find out this guy is bipolar?)
The point where his life really picked up was in 1965 when he bought his mom’s bar. Hopped up on amphetamines, this man worked like a beast, sometimes clocking an impressive 20 hours a day. With this money, he opened up a series of Hustler Clubs, which featured cocktails and gogo girls galore.
It was at this point that Flynt and his partners really started making money and bankrolled his most famous venture. Specifically, Flynt launched Hustler magazine in 1972, which broke the mold in a number of different ways.
Unlike established competitors like Playboy and Penthouse, Flynt’s magazine didn’t have any of the refined pretenses about it. The publication was all about pornographic pictorials, often of the hardcore variety.
Further, Flynt pioneered the photography of ‘pink shots,’ or the inside displays of ladies’ snatches. While internal porn isn’t anything controversial these days, this was groundbreaking given the fact that most pornographers didn’t show female bush.
Like so many controversial figures, he made a lot of enemies.
You can’t get famous these days without generating a bunch of enemies, especially if you are involved in anything having to do with the sex business. Believe me; I know that from personal experience. But Larry Flynt is probably the poster child for this phenomenon.
Obviously, pushing the limits of what is considered tasteful in print is going to get you some unwanted attention. This is particularly true in a country like the United States that has a touchy relationship with sex and a court system that has people trying to push obscenity laws.
In fact, It was Flynt who was the primary target of those kinds of lawsuits. The first and maybe most notorious legal fight Flynt found himself in was the 1973 Miller v. California case. The whole thing ultimately went on for years and ended with Flynt getting a minimum sentence of seven years for obscenity. However, Larry ended up serving six days in jail and managed to get the sentence overturned on an appeal.
Being a guy with glutes as tight as mine, I sure as shit wouldn’t want to spend any time in jail. But I gotta respect the fact that Flynt did. After all, this court battle led to legal precedences in the States, which have led to obscenity being considered unconstitutionally vague. As a result, they aren’t really enforced anymore.
The thing is, Flynt has had a habit of getting dragged into court for other reasons. This guy has had to legally duke it out over libel charges, has been arrested for contempt of court, and even got locked up for flag desecration.
Of course, Flynt didn’t really calm the situation out by suggesting in an ad that Reverend Jerry Falwell Sr. lost his virginity to his mother. This got Flynt dragged into court for libel in 1983. However, if you ask me, that wouldn’t really surprise me.
After all, we all know about the hypocritical and kinky shit that Fallwell’s son is into. Besides, that there are plenty of other examples of the weird, if not fucked up stuff the hyper-religious do in private – and that’s coming from me.
By the way, if you are looking for a non-pornographic movie recommendation about this affair, look up the flick The People Vs. Larry Flynt.
Then there was the infamous Hustler comic strip
The more notorious thing that Larry Flynt is known for, which got him into plenty of legal trouble, involved his relationship with Dwaine B. Tinsley. Tinsley worked with Flynt as an artist and writer for Hustler and is most known for creating the character Chester the Molester.
As the name suggests, Chester was a sleazeball of a character who had all sorts of creepy exploits, which usually involved preying on k*ds. To be fair, the whole strip was meant to be comedic and not at all taken seriously. Further, when Flynt was briefly religious, Chester turned into Chester the Protector and worked to save minors from being preyed on.
But that didn’t stop feminists and even the American National Institute of Health from going after Flynt. As if that wasn’t bad enough, while we know that Flynt hasn’t ever been convicted of hurting little k*ds, as it turns out his scumbag partner Tinsley did.
By the way, if you want to know more about this not so insignificant affair, check out this section of one of my old blogs here.
Flynt had one hell of a turbulent family life
As successful as Flynt was when it came to business and winning legal and PR battles, he didn’t experience the same winning streak when it came to his home life. In addition to suffering issues handling drugs and alcohol, he couldn’t make any of his marriages work.
Having been married five times, Flynt’s marriages had a pretty short shelflife. Most of the time, he ended up getting divorced, though his fourth wife died of a heroin overdose.
Then there was all that happened with his daughter, Lisa Flynt-Fugate. Not only was she an avid anti-porn activist, but she also accused her father of raping her hundreds of thousands of times. Now, on their face, the charges sounded ridiculous.
This is not only because Flynt would only have time to molest his daughter, but also due to the fact that she had perfect attendance in the time, she was allegedly r*ped.
Still, this didn’t stop Flynt from getting investigated again. Evidently, the charges proved to be bogus, in part due to what I brought up already, but because Flynt passed a polygraph test.
Perhaps the most mundane but still weird thing about this guy was his personal politics. Now, you would think that someone who once wore an American flag as a diaper in public, opposed the Iraq War, supported gay marriage, and called himself a civil libertarian wouldn’t exactly lean right. However, Flynt once attempted to run with the Republican party in ‘84.
He even survived an assassination attempt
In addition to an army of lawyers, prudish legislators, and feminists, even bullets couldn’t keep Flynt down. Back in March 1978, the man along with his attorney was shot outside of a courthouse. Flynt wound up being paralyzed from the waist down and suffered a drug overdose on his prescribed medication.
Fortunately, other than being confined to a wheelchair, Flynt made a decent recovery.
Despite the whole affair being a public shooting in broad daylight, it took years for the shooter to be identified, and that was only after he confessed to the crime. The douche bag in question, Joseph Paul Franklin, said that he did it because he was offended by an interracial shoot that was featured in Hustler.
Eventually, Franklin was tried, locked up, and executed on other charges. However, the racist piece of shit, who also happened to be a serial killer, was never charged for the shooting.
ThePornDude’s final words about Larry Flynt
Okay, for some of you – myself included – this was not the most exciting read. After all, it sucks when anyone dies, especially when they are as inspirational and controversial as the late, great Larry Flynt. However, if you’re looking to bring your spirits up, there are loads of things to look forward to on my blog.
I’ve got several interviews with several hot models, some of whom are going to be featured on my newest big project, Porn Dude Casting. Other fun posts are going to be added throughout the next several weeks, which you are going to want to read.
Other than that, if you want to read up more on the history of Hustler and my opinion of that (in)famous magazine, you can see that post here. And if you have a morbid fascination with dead celebs who were involved in porn or are doing research about the industry, I’ve got a post about that as well.
As always, your support by sharing this post you keep me motivated and promote the website. So, help me out; that way, I can still keep bringing you these awesome uploads.
