Happy Birthday, Larry Flynt!

[Lefty]

Happy 70th birthday to Larry Flynt. Larry Claxton Flynt, Jr. (born November 1, 1942) is an American publisher and the president of Larry Flynt Publications (LFP). In 2003, Arena magazine listed him as the number one on the "50 Powerful People in Porn" list.

LFP mainly produces sexually graphic videos and magazines, most notably Hustler. Flynt has fought several prominent legal battles involving t

he First Amendment, and has unsuccessfully run for public office. He is paralyzed from the waist down due to injuries sustained in a 1978 assassination attempt.

In early 1965, Flynt took $1,800 from his savings and bought his mother's Dayton, Ohio bar, the Keewee. He refitted it and was soon making $1,000 a week; he used the profits to buy two other bars. He worked as many as 20 hours a day, taking amphetamines to stay awake. He frequently had to break up fistfights between drunken customers.

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 the Hustler Club. From 1968 onward, with the help of his brother Jimmy and later his girlfriend Althea Leasure, he opened Hustler Clubs in Akron, Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati, and Toledo. Soon each club grossed between $260,000 and $520,000 a year. He also acquired the Dayton franchise of a small newspaper called Bachelor's Beat, which he published for two years before selling it. At the same time, he closed a money-losing vending-machine business.

In March 1972, Flynt created the Hustler Newsletter, a four-page, black-and-white publication about his clubs. This item became so popular with his customers that by May 1972, he expanded the Hustler Newsletter to 16 pages, then to 32 pages in August 1973. As a result of the 1973 oil crisis, the American economy went into recession. Revenues of Hustler Clubs declined, and Flynt had to either refinance his debts or declare bankruptcy. He decided to turn the Hustler Newsletter into a sexually explicit magazine with national distribution. He paid the start-up costs of the new magazine by deferring payment of sales taxes his clubs owed on their activities.

In July 1974, the first issue of Hustler 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. In November 1974, Hustler showed the first "pink-shots," or photos of open vulvas. Flynt had to fight to publish each issue, as 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 a paparazzo who had taken nude pictures of former First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis while she was sunbathing on vacation in 1971. He purchased them for $18,000 and published them in the August 1975 issue. That issue attracted widespread attention, and one million copies were sold within a few days. Now a millionaire, Flynt bought a $375,000 mansion.

[pdogg]

nude pictures of former First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis while she was sunbathing

Grace, you either have it or you don't.

Thanks for posting this, a bunch of stuff about Larry that's new to me.

Interesting to read about the pioneers of porn, though Larry started a bit later than Hef.

Talking about Hef, I'm sure Brother Lefty knows who graced the cover of the first issue of Playboy!

A great read concerning the sexual revolution with special emphasis on swinging and porn is Gay (in those days it was merely a synonym for happy) Talese's Thy Neighbor's Wife.

http://www.amazon.com/Thy-Neighbors-Wife-Gay-Talese/dp/0061665436

[SiamSam]

It was Ms. Munro

[ArchieBunker]

As a youngster maybe 15, 16 I did my best to acquire/look at porn!! One day I nicked a copy of Hustler from a buddy's house. It was from his Dad's stash LOL!!! In it there was a photo of a "woman" with a cock. Boy was I confused. I thought it was trick photography. No way that was fucking real!!! For all I know it wasnt but knowing the stuff that Larry published, I doubt it.

Didnt actually try my first LB til about 15 years later!!! True story!!

[SiamSam]

Didnt actually try my first LB til about 15 years later!!! True story!!

Let me guess. Musta been Mrs. Jefferson from next store right?!

[ArchieBunker]

No way!!! WEEZIE is all WOMAN!!!!!!