anything for the First Amendment...

 

Flynt makes his way through a crowd at a rally in Cincinnati in 1977  (AP)

--------------------- [excerpt from Larry Flynt obituary in the Washington Post, written by Paul W. Valentine]

February 10, 2021.

Larry Flynt, one of America's most notorious pornographers and self-proclaimed champions of First Amendment freedoms, who built his business interests on the hardcore 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 thrived on controversy....

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....

[end / excerpt] --------------------------

I don't really understand why it's supposed to be "blue-collar"...

Anyway -- during my growing-up years -- from junior high on through high school, I acquired an impression, from peers I think, that there were "dirty magazines" --

Playboy - which was not that "dirty"

Penthouse - which was more explicit, and maybe not very nice

and Hustler - which "went further" and was Really not-very-nice.

I remember hearing it in the news somehow, somewhere, when someone shot Larry Flynt, in an attempt to kill him.  Though he survived, he was unable to walk and had to use a wheelchair for the rest of his life.  

That was so weird, I thought, because it was the same thing that happened to southern politician George Wallace -- a would-be assassin shot him with a gun, in Maryland (I think), and Wallace did not die, but had to use a wheelchair to get around, from then on.

I thought it was a terrible thing to do to someone:  took away their ability to walk.  Awful.

Of course George Wallace himself was somewhat awful, and Flynt specialized in being awful, but that doesn't give anyone a right to kill them or cripple them:  it was horrible, I thought.

May 15, 1972 - George Wallace shot in Laurel, Maryland.

March 6, 1978 - Larry Flynt shot in Gwinnett County, Georgia

     The "seventies"...

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