THE NORTH RIDING PROJECT

Larry Flynt was born in Appalachia, in Magoffin County, Kentucky (then the poorest county in America), the son of a pipe welder, making him very much a product of the white trash demographic his magazine appears to address.  He quit school after the eighth grade, joined the navy at fourteen with a forged birth certificate, got out, worked in a General Motors auto assembly plant, and foresightedly parlayed $1,500 in savings into a chain of go-go bars in Ohio called the Hustler Clubs.  The magazine originated as a two-page newsletter for the bars, and the rest was rags to riches: Flynt’s income was as high as $30 million a year when Hustler was at its peak circulation of over 2 million.  At this point he built himself a scale replica of the cabin he grew up in down in the basement of his mansion.  Its purpose: to remind him of his roots.  The model is said to be replete with chickenwire, hay, and a three foot lifelike statue of the chicken he claims to have lost his virginity to at age eight.

Kipnis/Bound