Speaker 1: Hey, No by the fifty five carri CD talk station.
Speaker 1: Happy Friday, looking forward to the bottom of the hour
Speaker 1: with Kimberlee from sant Anthea Patowa's Church regarding the Mediterranean
Speaker 1: Festival and hopefully bearer of Kibbi and Taboulie in the meantime.
Speaker 1: Happy to welcome to the fifty five Carssey Morning Show.
Speaker 1: Understatement to say controversial Larry Flint. We all know him,
Speaker 1: especially here in City Cincinnati. His wife, of course, Larry
Speaker 1: passed away. Liz Flint is joining the program. She currently
Speaker 1: runs the entire Empire. She is behind the book and
Speaker 1: author of the book Hustler Fifty Years Hustler fifty fifty
Speaker 1: Years of Freedom. Liz Flint, Welcome to the fifty five
Speaker 1: Carsee Morning Show.
Speaker 2: Well, good morning to you.
Speaker 1: It's a pleasure to have you on and what a
Speaker 1: perfect timing to have you on the show.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 1: I know my listeners, being of the more conservative mindset,
Speaker 1: may not believe in and find the material that has
Speaker 1: been featured in Hustler now since I guess nineteen seventy
Speaker 1: four when it was first published to their liking or tay.
Speaker 1: But as a staunch defender of the Constitution and first Amendment.
Speaker 1: You know, different strokes for different folks, if I may
Speaker 1: be so bold, And I know that Larry Flint was
Speaker 1: subject to a lot of litigation over his life and
Speaker 1: fought a hard challenge, ended up in the Supreme Court
Speaker 1: in the name of free speech, and actually prevailed. You
Speaker 1: feature that in the book, do you not.
Speaker 2: Yes, I too, well. You know what free speech is,
Speaker 2: all speech, even hate speech. Well, we can't start slicing
Speaker 2: and dicing. Well, it's fit. So it's called toleration. We
Speaker 2: have to tolerate those that we don't necessarily like. But
Speaker 2: at the end of the day, we'll always find a
Speaker 2: common ground to.
Speaker 1: Agree on exactly. And I'm a listen you speak in
Speaker 1: my language on that. You know, I appreciate the free speech,
Speaker 1: including you know, there is hate speech out in the world,
Speaker 1: but the freedom of speech allows people to make such utterances,
Speaker 1: and in so doing we at least can identify and
Speaker 1: choose to agree or disagree with him, or at least
Speaker 1: engage in a debate about the merits of what they
Speaker 1: are saying. In a society without free speech, you can't
Speaker 1: even engage in a debate, which is why I am
Speaker 1: appreciative of the first Amendment.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 1: The other thing is speaking of litigation, and Larry was
Speaker 1: in a lot of cases. The Jerry Follwell litigation that
Speaker 1: turned out to his advantage as well, and it's an
Speaker 1: important Supreme Court case. Remind my listeners about that particular one.
Speaker 2: Well, Larry put out a parody satire in Huster magazine
Speaker 2: back in eighty three, and it was a compari ad
Speaker 2: and at the bottom of the ad it said not
Speaker 2: to be taken serious and it was making reference to
Speaker 2: Jarry follow his first time in an outhouse with his mother. Well,
Speaker 2: obviously he didn't like that, and he sued Larry, and
Speaker 2: Larry lost a Laura cart and then Larry appealed in
Speaker 2: went to the US Supreme Court and they accepted his case,
Speaker 2: and well Larry prevailed and had the Chief Justice Rehnquist
Speaker 2: write the majority opinion. Larry was very shocked too, because
Speaker 2: it was the preacher versus the pornographer. But we all
Speaker 2: benefit from this landmark case. It's taught in all law
Speaker 2: schools all over the country.
Speaker 1: Right of course, I went through that case when I
Speaker 1: was in law school, and I mean, Liz, can you
Speaker 1: imagine the internet had Larry lost that case considering. I mean,
Speaker 1: every single day you're confronted with parodies of all shapes
Speaker 1: and forms. You know, quite often they're informative, quite often
Speaker 1: they're extremely funny, sometimes offensive. But I just can't imagine
Speaker 1: a world with the Internet age without that particular case.
Speaker 2: As president absolutely so's comedians all over the country like
Speaker 2: Bill Maher, Jeffrey Ross even back then Jay Leno that
Speaker 2: you could say something to hurt someone's feelings and not
Speaker 2: be charged or prosecuted or jailed.
Speaker 1: Now I have to ask you this, considering you know
Speaker 1: this is the greater Cincinnati area. Does former Hamilton County
Speaker 1: Prosecutor Fred Cardolano or Simon LEAs Junior's name come up
Speaker 1: in the book by any chance?
Speaker 2: No?
Speaker 1: They Okay, I know that Simon Least was not a
Speaker 1: fan of your late husband.
Speaker 2: No. But you know, at the end of the day,
Speaker 2: this coffee table book, it is five decades of Husser
Speaker 2: magazine and the brand meaning the best cartoons, illustrations, publisher statements,
Speaker 2: and there's a lot more are his political views. And
Speaker 2: what makes it so nice it's you see the change
Speaker 2: in the decades and it's the best of And I
Speaker 2: think that I'm bringing something to Cincinnati that they lived
Speaker 2: through it.
Speaker 1: Yes, we certainly did. It was a much more Victorian era,
Speaker 1: and it wasn't even that long ago. I mean, I'll
Speaker 1: be sixty in September, Liz, and I remember when all
Speaker 1: these cases were pending, when he was being prosecuted for
Speaker 1: obscenity and by Simon Leees, and of course I remember,
Speaker 1: and he was having to go through the Supreme Court
Speaker 1: era with the free speech case which was in that
Speaker 1: the movie featuring Woody Harrelson, who I understand did a
Speaker 1: forward in your book.
Speaker 2: Absolutely, I reached out to Woody and asked him he
Speaker 2: could write the forward for this book because obviously he
Speaker 2: played Larry in The People versus Larry Flint, and Woody
Speaker 2: is from Ohio, Lebanon, Ohio. It made perfect sense and
Speaker 2: he will. After the movie, him and Larry became very
Speaker 2: close friends, and it was just a beautiful friendship, relationship,
Speaker 2: loving relationship, and he did write a beautiful forward and
Speaker 2: tribute to it.
Speaker 1: Larry Flint, how about that? Now you know the story,
Speaker 1: you know the movie. Is the movie accurate? I mean
Speaker 1: quite often movies of Hollywood take liberties with facts and issues,
Speaker 1: And I'm just wondering if the movie accurately depicts that
Speaker 1: that period of time, If I may boil it down
Speaker 1: to that, well, I.
Speaker 2: Asked my husband when they were filming down in Nashville, Tennessee.
Speaker 2: I said, Larry, how would you see this movie? Would
Speaker 2: you say they've got a lot right or obviously Hollywood's
Speaker 2: selling a movie. They got to embellish it a little bit.
Speaker 2: And he said, for what was their list, they just
Speaker 2: about got a lot of the scenes, especially at the
Speaker 2: court scenes. And yes, that profile of Simon Leeese was
Speaker 2: depicted thereby James Carmel, and I think that. I think
Speaker 2: Milos Forman did a very excellent job portraying Larry and
Speaker 2: all the other characters in the movie.
Speaker 1: No, I thoroughly enjoyed the film. Again, I just was asking,
Speaker 1: for the sake of historical accuracy, if I should view
Speaker 1: it with a measure of skepticism. I interviewed one of
Speaker 1: the World War Two veterans who was in stalog I
Speaker 1: was three the story behind the Great Escape, and he said,
Speaker 1: with the exception of the motorcycle stunts, that movie accurately
Speaker 1: depicted everything they went through and in escaping from the
Speaker 1: prison camp in World War Two. So nice to know
Speaker 1: the information I see. I have notes here Liz the
Speaker 1: author again of Excuse Me, Hustler fifty to fifty Years
Speaker 1: of Freedom. Pete Rose's name is listed here another local icon.
Speaker 2: Yes, so Larry knew him back in the day when
Speaker 2: he had the Husser clothes down Sound downtown Cincinnati. And
Speaker 2: then later Larry got in touch with Pete Rose. He
Speaker 2: was living in Las Vegas and whenever you would come
Speaker 2: to Los Angeles, he would have lunch with Larry at
Speaker 2: the Peninsula in Beverly Hills. So it was very nice
Speaker 2: to meet him and Larry was It was very beautiful
Speaker 2: for him to connect because Larry passed away and so
Speaker 2: did Pete.
Speaker 1: So yeah, very nice. Well local icon. Pete Rose was
Speaker 1: and a fan of Charles Bukowski, I am. I noted
Speaker 1: from the notes that there were features by Charles Bukowski
Speaker 1: in Hustler. Hustle was not just photographs of scanty or
Speaker 1: without closed women, also contained a lot of interesting writing.
Speaker 1: I think of a guy like Hunter S. Thompson, very
Speaker 1: cutting edge, you know, gonzo journalist, but he also had
Speaker 1: a lot of interesting articles like that Timothy Leary as well.
Speaker 2: Yes, so you know, when my husband was publishing the magazine.
Speaker 2: He was very passionate about his political stories and illustrations,
Speaker 2: and that's where part of the magazine got its vitality.
Speaker 2: It wasn't just a magazine of photo sets of women,
Speaker 2: but it had a little bit more to offer. And
Speaker 2: that's why I call it this book of fifty years
Speaker 2: in entertainment. I know there is something for everyone. There