LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — Those in the adult industry in Las Vegas are reflecting on Larry Flynt’s passing and his lasting impact on Las Vegas.
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“I was lucky enough to meet Larry Flynt a few times, coming in and checking out the club,” says Ralph James.
James has been the general manager of the Hustler Club for almost a decade and saw first hand Flynt’s fighting spirit that stretched from strip clubs, all the way to the Supreme Court.
“He’s the namesake of the Hustler Club in Las Vegas, and I think he’s a pioneer and a freedom fighter getting this industry to where it is today,” says James. “The impact will last for a long time to come.”
RELATED: Larry Flynt’s Hustler Club in Las Vegas shares statement on death of its namesake
Flynt was no stranger to legal woes involving pornography regulations and free speech, but that didn’t stop his fight.
The family of a longtime friend of Flynt’s, Harry Mohney, said in a statement that “Flynt changed the landscape of Las Vegas’ entertainment industry as we know it.”
#Throwback photo #LarryFlynt showing his winning cards in 1998 during a game in the #WSOP tournament in downtown #LasVegas.
— KTNV 13 Action News (@KTNV) February 11, 2021
Tonight, @AustinKTNV has a closer look at Flynt's impact on #Vegas: https://t.co/8XhuapQJ9J
(📸:: Lennox McLendon, @AP) pic.twitter.com/bWLS0qYOLT
Las Vegas is certainly home to countless strip clubs, adult sex stores and even an erotic museum.
“We are proud to have some of his personal belongings forever enshrined within the walls of our museum,” says Dr. Victoria R. Hartmann, Executive Director of Harry Mohney’s Erotica Museum.
“He is a larger-than-life tale of how American culture changed forever after the sexual revolution, and must never be forgotten."