Larry Flynt, pornographer and self-styled First Amendment champion, dies at 78
Source: Washington Post
Larry Flynt, one of Americas most notorious pornographers and self-proclaimed champions of First Amendment freedoms, who built his sprawling business interests on the hard-core raunch and grotesque parody of Hustler magazine, died Feb. 10 at his home in Los Angeles. He was 78. His brother Jimmy Flynt confirmed the death but did not cite a specific cause.
Repeatedly sued, prosecuted, jailed for contempt, gagged for obscene outbursts in court and, in 1978, shot and paralyzed by a would-be assassin, Mr. Flynt always thrived on controversy. After the shooting, he used a wheelchair gold-plated and velvet-lined to his specifications. In a grit-to-glitter saga like few others, the ninth-grade dropout from the hills of east Kentucky used street smarts, gutsy business instincts and, when necessary, his fists to parlay a string of shabby Ohio bars into a $100 million nationwide porn empire of magazines, private clubs, a swank casino in suburban Los Angeles, an online sex toy store and other ventures.
Hustler, whose circulation peaked above 2 million in the late 1970s, thumbed its nose at sleeker skin publications such as Playboy and Penthouse. Mr. Flynt proudly offered Hustler as a blue-collar and taboo-smashing alternative with its raw frontal nudity of men and women, and crude cartoons. Playboy and Penthouse, he once told an interviewer, were parading their pornography as art, with the air-brushing and the soft lens. I realized that if we became more explicit, we could get a huge piece of this market. . . . I sensed that raw sex was what men wanted. And I was right.
Equally reviled and celebrated for his depictions of close-up female genitalia, gang rape, bondage, bestiality, mutilation and, most famously, a naked woman being put through a meat grinder on the cover of the June 1978 Hustler, Mr. Flynt reveled in the nations collective gasp at his pornographic derring-do.
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/larry-flynt-porn-king-and-self-styled-first-amendment-champion-dies-at-xxx/2021/02/10/5240626c-6bf0-11eb-ba56-d7e2c8defa31_story.html
No comment.
hlthe2b
(102,564 posts)I kept thinking he'd go after Trump as he had other RW figures in the past, but he never did.
alphafemale
(18,497 posts)It is a testament to pure stubborn meanness he managed to survive this long.
hlthe2b
(102,564 posts)so a decade of not hearing from him tells me he may have gone downhill some time ago.
BigmanPigman
(51,674 posts)LeftInTX
(25,813 posts)I always got the impression the bullet was fairly high up his spine and was probably within a hair of his thoracic spine
TexasBushwhacker
(20,256 posts)that would lead to Trump's impeachment and removal from office. It was a full page ad in the Washington Post.
FarPoint
(12,486 posts)He went for the gusto...had a big heart...Did an amazing feat of fighting for our First Amendment ... He has been a friend to Ohio...
Skittles
(153,314 posts)there was simply nothing phony about the man
Warpy
(111,470 posts)and I think he'd appreciate that description of himself. He never pretended to be anything else.
I will always appreciate his fighting Falwell all the way up to the USSC and winning.
herding cats
(19,569 posts)He's gone. He was a scumbag who did both bad and good things. Also, he'd have taken pleasure in this description of him.
left-of-center2012
(34,195 posts)The People vs. Larry Flynt is a 1996 American biographical drama film directed by Milo Forman and starring Woody Harrelson, Courtney Love, and Edward Norton. It chronicles the rise of pornographer Larry Flynt and his subsequent clash with religious institutions and the law.
The film, written by Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski, spans about 35 years of Flynt's life, from his impoverished upbringing in Kentucky to his court battle with Reverend Jerry Falwell, and is based in part on the U.S. Supreme Court case Hustler Magazine v. Falwell. Though not a financial success,
The People vs. Larry Flynt was lauded by critics. It garnered Harrelson, Love, Norton and Forman multiple accolades and award nominations, including nominations for an Best Actor for Harrelson and Best Director for Forman at the 69th Academy Awards.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_People_vs._Larry_Flynt#:~:text=The%20People%20vs.%20Larry%20Flynt%20is%20a%201996%20American%20biographical,religious%20institutions%20and%20the%20law.
BumRushDaShow
(130,063 posts)BigmanPigman
(51,674 posts)I learned a lot about the 1st Ammend.
Gore1FL
(21,177 posts)69th... Nice...
Hotler
(11,484 posts)the size of a full size blueprint. I was 18-19 working in the steel shop and I would hide them under my shop prints. I'd call one of the other shop guys over and say, "take a look at this drawing." and then flip the drawings back exposing a a full size hoo-haa. Seeing the shock on their face was priceless.
Raine
(30,547 posts)DinahMoeHum
(21,839 posts)n/t
dalton99a
(81,708 posts)BobTheSubgenius
(11,580 posts)Rebl2
(13,611 posts)died years ago.
MicaelS
(8,747 posts)Tarc
(10,478 posts)lapfog_1
(29,243 posts)15 years ago I played poker with him at his casino... along with Barry Greenstein and Phil Ivey... and a few other very rich people.
I lost more than I could stand and exited the game ( 7-stud ). He had one or two Hustler "honeys" next to him to help him look at his cards or push his chips in.
Seemed like a regular guy... for a billionaire.
MrsCheaplaugh
(183 posts)A shameless misogynist is still a misogynist. He gloried in it.
Vivienne235729
(3,391 posts)orangecrush
(19,666 posts)Read about the "Hellfire Club" sometime.
Archae
(46,377 posts)When he wrote that book exposing the sexual peccadillos of the guys in the House who were impeaching Bill Clinton.
The "No comments" and lame excuses (remember Henry Hyde's excuse for his own multi-year affair?) flew fast.
DinahMoeHum
(21,839 posts)He did an interview with Salon magazine back in 2004 to promote the book and he had some rather choice commentary about harpie Ann Coulter (remember her?):
https://www.salon.com/2004/07/08/flynt_4/
Pluvious
(4,348 posts)Said it was used as retubution which is morally wrong.
RIP
OnlinePoker
(5,730 posts)Larry Flynt was there playing solo blackjack, 3 spots at something like $25k per spot. He was being comped by the hotel. At the time, he was down over $1 million. He turns to the camera and deadpans "It ain't winners that build these places, you know". He then said he'd probably be moving hotels. The next day, at the new hotel, he got all his money back and another million or so.
orleans
(34,098 posts)flying rabbit
(4,648 posts)probably did more good than harm.
jb5150
(1,187 posts)But he wasn't a saint .. and he never claimed to be.