Larry Flynt | |
|---|---|
 Flynt at theFree Speech Coalition in 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 |
|
| Years active | 1965–2021 |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Spouses | |
| Children | 5 |
Larry Claxton Flynt Jr. (/flɪnt/; November 1, 1942 – February 10, 2021) was an American publisher and the president ofLarry Flynt Publications (LFP). LFP mainly producespornographic magazines, such asHustler,pornographic videos, and three pornographic television channels namedHustler 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.[1]: 170–71 In 2003,Arena magazine listed him at No. 1 on the "50 Powerful People in Porn" list.[2] The 1996biographicaldrama filmThe People vs. Larry Flynt, directed byMiloš Forman and starringWoody Harrelson, chronicles the life and career of Flynt.
Flynt was born in Lakeville,Magoffin County, Kentucky, the first of three children of Larry Claxton Flynt Sr. (1919–1990), asharecropper,[3] and Edith (née Arnett; 1925–1982), a homemaker.[4] He had two younger siblings: sister Judy (1947–1951) and brotherJimmy Ray Flynt (born 1948). His father served in theUnited States Army in 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.[1]: 12 Flynt was raised in poverty, and said Magoffin County was the poorest county in the nation during theGreat Depression.[5] In 1951, Flynt's sister, Judy,[6] died ofleukemia at age four.[7] 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.[8]: 285 [1]: 12
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 Army using a counterfeit birth certificate.[1]: 16–17 It was around that time that he developed a passion for the game ofpoker. After being honorably discharged, Flynt returned to his mother inIndiana and 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.[1]: 21 He then returned to his father in Kentucky. For a brief period, he became abootlegger but stopped when he learned that county deputies were searching for him.[1]: 22–23 After living on his savings for two months, he enlisted in theUnited States Navy in July 1960. He became a radar operator onUSS Enterprise. He was the operator on duty when the ship was assigned to recoverJohn Glenn's space capsule.[1]: 38 He was honorably discharged in July 1964.
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 tookamphetamines to stay awake.[1]: 56
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 Clubs inAkron,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.[1]: 81
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 Newsletter to 16 pages, then to 32 pages in August 1973. As a result of the1973 oil crisis, the American economy enteredrecession and the revenues ofHustler Clubs declined. Flynt had to refinance his debts or declare bankruptcy. He decided to turn theHustler Newsletter into a sexually explicit magazine with national distribution. He paid the start-up costs of the new magazine by deferring payment ofsales taxes his clubs owed on their activities.
In July 1974, the first issue ofHustler was 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.[1]: 88, 95 Flynt's friendAl Goldstein said thatHustler took its inspiration from his own tabloidScrew, but credited his comrade-in-arms with accomplishing what he had not: creating a national publication.[9] In November 1974,Hustler showed the first "pink-shots", or photos of openvulvas.[1]: 91 Flynt had to fight to publish each issue. 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 apaparazzo who had taken pictures of former First LadyJacqueline Kennedy Onassis while she wassunbathing nude on vacation in 1971. He purchased them for $18,000 (approx. $98,000 in 2022) and published them in the August 1975 issue.[1]: 98–99 That issue attracted widespread attention, and one million copies were sold within a few days. (Goldstein'sScrew magazine had previously published nude photos of Onassis in early 1973.)[10][11] Now a millionaire, Flynt bought a $375,000 (approx. $2 million in 2022)mansion.
On March 6, 1978, during a legal battle related toobscenity inGwinnett County, Georgia, Flynt and his local attorney, Gene Reeves Jr. were shot on the sidewalk inLawrenceville byJoseph Paul Franklin. The shooting left Flyntpartially paralyzed with permanentspinal cord damage, and in need of a wheelchair.[12] Reeves Jr. was shot in the arm and side; but fully recovered.[13][14]
Franklin, a militantwhite supremacist andserial 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 aninterracial photo shoot inHustler.[15] About Flynt and aHustler pictorial, 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."[16] Flynt himself suspected the attack was part of a larger conspiracy involving ultra-right elements surroundingU.S. RepresentativeLarry McDonald also behind theKaren Silkwood case with ties to the Intelligence Community and that Franklin may have been subject toMKULTRA-stylemind control.[17]
Franklin was never brought to trial for the attack on Flynt. Franklin was eventually charged inMissouri with eight unrelated counts of murder and sentenced to death. Flynt expressed his opposition to thedeath penalty and stated he did not want Franklin to be executed.[18] Despite that, Franklin was executed bylethal injection on November 20, 2013.
Flynt was married five times; his wives were:[19]
He married his fourth wife,Althea, in 1976, and they remained married for eleven years[15] until her death at age 33. Larry reported she had ARC (AIDS-related complex), but drowned in a bathtub in 1987.[20][19] Toxicology reports were inconclusive.[21] He married his fifth wife, Elizabeth Berrios, in 1998. Flynt had four daughters and a son, as well as many grandchildren.[22][23] His daughter Lisa Flynt-Fugate died in a car crash in Ohio in October 2014 at age 47.[24]
He said he was anevangelical Christian for 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".[25][1]: 166 He later declared himself anatheist.[26][27]
Flynt said he hadbipolar disorder.[28]
Flynt died fromheart failure in Los Angeles on February 10, 2021, at age 78.[29]
By 1970, he ran eightstrip clubs throughout Ohio inCincinnati,Toledo,Akron, andCleveland.
In July 1974, Flynt first publishedHustler as 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 Onassis in August 1975 was a major coup.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 – though Flynt later said that the meat grinder image was a criticism of the pornography industry itself.
Flynt created his privately held companyLarry Flynt Publications (LFP) in 1976. LFP published several other magazines and also controlled distribution of the various titles.[30] LFP launchedOhio Magazine in 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 movies in 1998, through theHustler Videofilm studio, which purchasedVCA Pictures in 2003. In 2014, Flynt said his print portfolio made up only 10% of his company's revenue, and predicted the demise ofHustler due to competition from the Internet.[31]
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.
Flynt was embroiled in many legal battles regarding the regulation of pornography andfree speech within theUnited States, especially attacking theMiller v. California (1973)obscenity exception 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.[32] One argument resulting from this case was reviewed by theU.S. Supreme Court in 1981.[33] 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 inHustler in 1976,Kathy Keeton, then girlfriend ofPenthouse publisherBob Guccione, filed alibel suit 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.[34] This case is occasionally reviewed today in first-yearlaw schoolCivil Procedure courses, due to its implications regarding personaljurisdiction over a defendant.
During the proceedings inKeeton v. Hustler Magazine, Flynt shouted "Fuck this court!" and called the justices "nine assholes and one token cunt" (referring to JusticeSandra Day O'Connor).[35][36] Chief JusticeWarren E. Burger had him arrested forcontempt of court, but the charge was later dismissed.
Also in 1983, he leaked anFBI surveillance 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".[37] During the subsequent trial, Flynt wore aU.S. flag as adiaper and was jailed for six months fordesecration of the flag.[38]
In 1988, Flynt won a Supreme Court decision,Hustler Magazine v. Falwell, after being sued by ReverendJerry Falwell in 1983, over an offensive ad parody inHustler that 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."[39]
As a result of asting operation in 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 corporateholdings group) 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.[40] He prevailed on the maintrademark infringement issue, but lost on invasion of privacy claims.[41]
In May 2021,Vice News published 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 theKeeton hearing and the unconfirmed claim of a confidential informant that Flynt had asked mercenaryMitchell WerBell III 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.[42]
Flynt was aDemocrat whenBill Clinton was president. In 2013, he said he was "acivil libertarian to the core",[43] though he once attempted a presidential run as aRepublican in 1984.[44] He was a staunch critic of theWarren Commission and 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 election of California governorGray Davis, calling himself a "smut peddler who cares".[45] He finished seventh in a field of 135 candidates with 17,458 votes (0.2%).[46]
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 Clinton in 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.[47]
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 Iraq in 2004 and 2005. He was a strong supporter ofLGBT rights andsame-sex marriage.[43]
In 2012, Flynt offered a $1 million reward for information onMitt Romney's unreleased tax returns and ran two full-page ads inUSA Today andThe Washington Post to promote the offer.[48]
Flynt endorsedMark Sanford in 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."[49]
In January 2015, following the attack onCharlie Hebdo, Flynt criticized the American media for refusing to broadcast the caricatures of Mohammed from the satirical weekly.[50]
In May 2015, Flynt endorsedHillary Clinton in the2016 presidential election.[51] In an interview withMarfa Journal later that year, he described his political views as "progressively liberal".[52]
In October 2017, Flynt offered a $10 million reward for any evidence that would lead to the impeachment of PresidentDonald Trump.[53][54] A 2019 Christmas card from Larry Flynt Publications, sent to several Republican congressmen, depicted Trump'sassassination.[55]
Flynt's daughter, Tonya Flynt-Vega, accused him ofsexually abusing her as a child.[56][8]: 16 In the 1998 book,Hustled: My Journey from Fear to Faith, Flynt-Vega writes about her father showing her images fromHustler and 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]."[8]: 116–117 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."[57][8]: 67 Flynt denied his daughter's accusation of sexual abuse on several occasions,[58] 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.[59][verification needed] In another interview, he stated, "Anyone who knows me knows my sexual preference. It's not children, especially my own."[60]
Hustler cartoonist 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.[61][62][63] Tinsley was convicted of that charge on January 5, 1990.[64] His conviction was overturned in 1992 when an appeals court ruled that the jury should not have seen cartoons drawn by Tinsley.[65] The prosecutor in the case ultimately decided not to retry Tinsley, who served 23 months of a six-year sentence.[66] Flynt claims he did not ask Tinsley about the conviction and "Chester the Molester" cartoons drawn while in prison continued to appear inHustler.[67] 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."[67]
In addition to child molestation, therape of 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.[67] 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 raped by four men. In early March 1983, 21 year-oldCheryl Araujo was gang raped on a pool table by four men inNew Bedford. At the time, some coverage took onxenophobic overtones, blaming the crime not only on the victim but on thePortuguese community 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."[68][67]
Criticizing the sanitizing scope of the 1996 filmThe People vs. Larry Flynt, feministGloria Steinem detailed 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 frombestiality to 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 inHustler for using ourFirst Amendment rights to protest pornography."[69][70] The film's director,Miloš Forman, a native of the formerCzechoslovakia, 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 theNazis,[71] 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".[72] Others also viewed the film ashistorical revisionism, portraying a heroic Flynt.Entertainment Weekly noted the "magazine's racist and anti-Semitic overtones – oneHustler cartoon showed a black man reaching for a watermelon on a giant mousetrap – is also nowhere to be found."[73] His daughter Tonya also spoke out against the film.[74]
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."[75] 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.[76]
Feminist authorLaura Kipnis compared 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".[77]
{{cite AV media}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link) (Based on his life, featuringWoody Harrelson in the title role. Flynt makes cameo appearances as a judge and jury member.){{cite AV media}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link){{cite AV media}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link) (Interview with Flynt)Flynt appears in the music video "Afraid" by the American rock bandMötley Crüe which first aired on June 9, 1997.[79]
In January 2019, Flynt discussed the importance of freedom and voting in America when he was interviewed byWeekly Alibi's August March.[80]
'Stapleton and Flynt formed a fast friendship', which resulted in Flynt's surprising and publicized conversion to Christianity.
I am not saying he do[es]n't believe in God. I am just saying I don't believe in God. That puts me at odds with him.
