CRIME STORIES: LARRY FLYNT: THE PEOPLE'S PORNOGRAPHER (TV)
Summary
One in this series of programs exploring true crimes and criminals. This episode, introduced by Richard Belzer and hosted by June Grasso, uses archival footage, interviews with legal experts, and footage from the film "The People vs. Larry Flynt" to chronicle the debaucherous life and unique legal history of pornographic publisher Larry Flynt. The program opens with a brief overview of the first case that questioned the possible obscenity of Flynt's Hustler magazine. In Cincinnati in 1977, city prosecutor Simon Leis tried Flynt for obscenity, and Flynt was sentenced to serve twenty-five years in prison. Many politicians and officials quietly said that they thought Flynt's trial was riddled with corruption, viewers learn, but Flynt was forced to appeal his case all the way to the United States Supreme Court himself. He won the case and vowed from that point forward to accept any challenges to his belief in the First Amendment. A high-profile Hollywood film starring Woody Harrelson was made about Flynt's life, and in 1997 Flynt openly returned to Cincinnati to open a branch of his Hustler adult book and video stores. Flynt's old nemesis, Leis, had in the interim become the sheriff of Cincinnati. In an interview clip, a flustered Leis tells an interviewer, "That man Flynt does not belong in our town!" Flynt stayed in the news during the Bill Clinton sex scandal by working a publicity stunt that offered $1,000,000 to anyone who could prove that a politician had committed adultery. Days after Flynt made the offer, Republican Congressman Bob Livingston (R-La.) resigned as a House Speaker delegate after admitting to several affairs. The episode goes on to cover some other significant moments from Flynt's life with a series of brief segments, intercut with modern interview footage of Flynt's comments on the following matters: his attempted assassination in Georgia in 1978 by a white supremacist who disapproved of Hustler's interracial sex spreads, his wife Althea's death from AIDS following a battle with the drugs that Flynt used to recover from his shooting, his involvement in the trial of controversial auto magnate John DeLorean, and his lifelong battle with conservative Christian leader Jerry Falwell. At the end of the episode, Falwell himself addresses Flynt and his magazine. Commercials deleted.
Cataloging of this program was made possible by The New York Community Trust - Haas Foundation Fund.
Details
- NETWORK: Court TV
- DATE: November 30, 1998
- RUNNING TIME: 0:45:40
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: T:65943
- GENRE: Public affairs/Documentaries
- SUBJECT HEADING: Freedom of speech; Periodicals, Publishing of; Pornography; Publishers and publishing
- SERIES RUN: Court TV/TruTV - TV series, 1998-2010
- COMMERCIALS: N/A
CREDITS
- Bonnie Dry … Executive Producer
- Susan Steinberg … Producer, Director
- Susan Levit … Co-Producer, Writer
- George Small … Music by
- Sarah Larson … Music by
- Richard Belzer … Host
- June Grasso … Host
- Bill Clinton
- John DeLorean
- Jerry Falwell
- Althea Flynt
- Larry Flynt
- Woody Harrelson
- Simon Leis
- Bob Livingston