Larry Flynt

Larry Claxton Flynt, Jr. (born November 1, 1942) is the head of Larry Flynt Publications (LFP), producing over twenty pornographic magazines, including Hustler with an annual turnover of around $150 million. He took part in several legal battles involving the First Amendment. He suffers from bipolar disorder and is paralyzed from the waist down after an assassination attempt.

Flynt's enterprises

By 1970, together with his brother and life-long business partner Jimmy, he ran eight strip clubs throughout Ohio in Columbus, Toledo, Akron, and Cleveland.

Related Topics:
1970 - Columbus - Toledo - Akron - Cleveland

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In July 1974, Flynt first published Hustler as a step forward from the Hustler Newsletter which was cheap 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. The magazine targeted working-class men and grew from a shaky start to a peak circulation of around 3 million (current circulation is below 500,000). In November 1974 it showed the first "pink-shots," photos of open vaginas. The publication of nude paparazzi pictures of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis in August 1975 was a major fillip. Hustler has 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. Flynt also has published thousands of racist and anti-semitic cartoons and images. One cartoon, entitled "Chester the Molester", depicted a man's repeated molestations of underage girls, however, the cartoon was discontinued in 1990 when the cartoon's creator, Dwayne Tinsley, was convicted of sexually abusing his own daughter.

Related Topics:
July - 1974 - Hustler - Vagina - Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis - August - 1975 - 1990

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Flynt created his privately held company Larry Flynt Publications (LFP) in 1976. LFP published several other magazines. It also included a distribution business, something that may have angered the Mafia, which traditionally organized the distribution of porn. LFP did not expand beyond pornography until 1986, but later its output included more mainstream work. The distribution business as well as several mainstream magazines were sold beginning in 1996. LFP started to produce pornographic movies in 1998.

Related Topics:
1976 - Mafia - Pornography - 1986 - 1996 - Pornographic movie

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On June 22, 2000 Flynt opened the Hustler Casino, a cardroom located in the Los Angeles suburb of Gardena. After it opened, many observers in the public and in the gaming industry speculated that because of Flynt's past legal troubles he could not get a license to operate a cardroom. This speculation proved to be nothing more than myth when the California Gambling Control Commission confirmed that Flynt is the sole proprietor and gaming licensee of the Hustler Casino.

Related Topics:
June 22 - 2000 - Hustler Casino - Los Angeles - Gardena

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Other ventures either wholly owned by or licensed by Flynt or LFP, Inc. include the Hustler Club, a gentlemen's club, and the Hustler Store, owned by Larry Flynt's brother Jimmy. He also publishes Barely Legal which features young women who recently turned 18, the age of consent in the United States.

Related Topics:
Age of consent - United States

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In 2001, Larry Flynt stated his net worth as $400 million.

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His autobiography is An Unseemly Man: My Life as a Pornographer, Pundit, and Social Outcast. The film The People vs. Larry Flynt (1996) was extrapolated from his life, starring Woody Harrelson as Flynt, Courtney Love as Althea and Edward Norton as Flynt's attorney Alan Isaacman. Flynt himself made a cameo appearance as an Ohio judge. The film was directed by Milos Forman and co-produced by Oliver Stone.

Related Topics:
The People vs. Larry Flynt - 1996 - Woody Harrelson - Courtney Love - Edward Norton - Alan Isaacman - Milos Forman - Oliver Stone

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