Hustler Publisher Larry Flynt Dies at 78 – Entertainment News

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By Geoffrey Huchel

Hustler Magazine founder Larry Flynt died February 10, 2021, in Los Angeles, California, of heart failure. He was 78.

Flynt was a publisher and president of Larry Flynt Publications, which mainly produced pornographic magazines such as Hustler, and videos. A free-speech activist, Flynt is also known for fighting several legal battles involving the First Amendment.

The term “sex sells” was not lost on Flynt. He built his empire with the exploitation of pornography. Despite the controversy it may have caused by some, his enterprise ultimately gave him great success and made him a millionaire.

In the 1960s Flynt opened a high-class bar and named it the Hustler Club. He later opened additional Hustler Clubs all over Ohio, including Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati and Toledo. In 1972 he created the Hustler Newsletter, a two-page publication. The publication became so popular he expanded it to 16 pages, and then by 1973 it was expanded again to 32 pages. After revenue from the Hustler Clubs declined, he transformed his newsletter into a sexually explicit magazine that was distributed nationwide.

On March 6, 1978, during a legal battle related to obscenity in Gwinnett County, Georgia, Flynt and his local lawyer, Gene Reeves Jr., were returning to the Gwinnett County Courthouse when they were shot on the sidewalk in front of 136 South Perry Street in Lawrenceville by a gunman standing near an alley across the street. The shooting left Flynt partially paralyzed with permanent spinal cord damage, and in need of a wheelchair.

In 1996 Flynt published his autobiography, An Unseemly Man: My Life as a Pornographer, Pundit and Social Outcast.

The film THE PEOPLE VERSUS LARRY FLYNT (1996), was based on his life and starred Woody Harrelson in the title role. Flynt made a cameo in the film as an Ohio judge.

Ringside Report sends our condolences to Larry Flynt’s family during their time of grief.

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