Hustler (magazine)

Hustler is a monthly American pornographic magazine put out by Larry Flynt Publications, or LFP. It debuted in 1974, growing out of the Hustler Newsletter, which founder Larry Flynt had started as a low-cost way to promote his strip clubs. The magazine had a shaky beginning but eventually reached a peak circulation of roughly 3 million in the early 1980s, a figure that has since fallen to about 500,000.

Publisher

Compared to more restrained publications like Playboy, Hustler was among the first major American magazines to show explicit photos of female genitalia and simulated sex. By the 1990s, it, like many of its rivals, began including depictions of penetration and oral sex. Today, Hustler remains more graphic and deliberately lowbrow than competitors such as Playboy and Penthouse, regularly featuring hardcore content like sex toys, penetration, oral sex, and group sex. The Hustler brand is also licensed to the Hustler Casino in Gardena, California, which Flynt personally owned through his holding company El Dorado Enterprises.

Other licensed ventures include the Hustler Club chain of bars and clubs and the Hustler Hollywood store chain, which sells adult videos, clothing, magazines, and sex toys. The flagship Hustler Hollywood store, formerly on Sunset Boulevard in West Hollywood, was demolished in 2016. Both licensed businesses are run by LFP’s partner, Deja Vu.

Founding

The business started in Cincinnati, where Larry Flynt and his brother, Jimmy Flynt, opened a store in 1969. Jimmy wrote a $5,000 check to pay for the Cincinnati club and was listed on the masthead of the magazine’s first issue in July 1974. However, Larry fired his brother in 2009, after which Jimmy started his own venture, Jimmy Flynt’s Sexy Gifts Stand. A former Hustler staff member described their relationship by saying, “Larry is the show, and Jimmy makes it go.”

Hustler is officially published by LFP, Inc., which also produces pornographic films. The initials originally stood for “Larry Flynt Publications.” A Canadian version of Hustler is published by a Quebec-based firm; it is not owned by Flynt but is licensed to use material from the American edition, generally copying its look and tone while adding Canadian content.

In 1999, this version sparked minor controversy in Canada by asking readers to submit sexually explicit stories about Sheila Copps, a left-leaning Liberal cabinet member. There have also been Australian, British, and South African editions. During a bookstore signing in July 2011, Flynt said that less than five percent of his income comes from the print magazine and speculated it would not exist in two to three years.

Regular features

One regular feature is “Asshole of the Month,” which each month selects a public figure for harsh criticism. An illustration shows the person’s head emerging from the anus of a cartoon donkey. After Flynt’s 1977 imprisonment and his claimed conversion to evangelical Christianity, he promised to reform this feature, but as of 2024, no change has occurred. The centerfold is called “Hustler Honey.” Models are sometimes pornographic actresses using pseudonyms; in the mid-1980s, actresses and strippers appeared under their more familiar names.

The comic strip “Honey Hooker” ran from 1975 onward, with Honey having graphic sexual encounters with any man or woman she met, in settings ranging from colonial America to a Super Bowl locker room. It was designed to compete with Playboy’s “Little Annie Fanny” and Penthouse’s “Wicked Wanda,” but unlike those characters, Honey was explicitly a prostitute, reflecting Hustler’s grittier, less romantic view of sex. The “Beaver Hunt” section features explicit nude photos of amateur models submitted by readers. Another heavily criticized feature was the “Chester the Molester” comic strip, which each month showed Chester, a cartoon middle-aged pedophile, joyfully raping or molesting young girls.

After growing criticism, the strip became “Chester and Hester,” with Hester as an unattractive middle-aged woman and Chester’s partner. Following Flynt’s alleged religious conversion, he introduced “Chester the Protector,” a reincarnation of Chester who protected young girls from rape and seduction. The regular feature “Ads We’d Like to See” parodies everyday product ads in sexualized or violent ways.

For example, a 1980 issue featured a parody of Dewar’s Lite Label whiskey called “Doer’s Lite Label,” featuring Kenneth Bianchi, the Hillside Strangler. His listed greatest accomplishment was Cindy Lee Hudspeth, whom he raped and murdered in 1978, and he was quoted as saying, “You gotta treat ‘em rough…”. This section drew heavy criticism for admiring men who committed sexualized crimes against women. Hustler also published special issues, such as the 1978 “All Meat” issue, whose cover showed a naked woman being fed upside down into a meat grinder, and a 1977 issue with a front page reading “First-Time Ever Scratch ‘N’ Sniff Centerfold.”