(Feb 11): Larry Flynt, who parlayed a string of striptease bars into a multimillion-dollar pornography empire of magazines, books and videos, and successfully defended the enterprise in a First Amendment case before the U.S. Supreme Court, has died. He was 78.
He died Wednesday at his home in Los Angeles, according to the Washington Post, citing his brother Jimmy Flynt. No cause was given.
In 1965, Flynt bought a bar and began setting up Hustler clubs in cities from New York to California. He published the first issue of Hustler magazine in July 1974, following with other publications and decades later turned to the Internet as raunchier digital rivals undercut pornographic periodicals.