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Hustler (magazine)

American pornographic magazine

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 14, 2026
Entity authorityQ823373 ↗
Source-derived summary

Hustler is an American pornographic magazine published monthly by Larry Flynt Publications (LFP). Introduced in 1974, it was a step forward from the Hustler Newsletter, originally conceived by founder Larry Flynt as cheap advertising for his strip club businesses at the time. The magazine grew from an uncertain start to a peak circulation of around 3 million in the early 1980s; it has since dropped to approximately 500,000. Hustler was among the first major American-based magazines to feature graphic photos of female genitalia and simulated sex acts, in contrast with relatively modest publications such as Playboy. In the 1990s, Hustler, like several of its competitors, began featuring depictions of sexual penetration and oral sex.

Today, Hustler is still considered more explicit (and more self-consciously lowbrow) than such well-known competitors as Playboy and Penthouse. Hustler frequently depicts hardcore themes, such as the use of sex toys, penetration, oral sex and group sex.

Larry Flynt Publications also licenses the Hustler brand to the Hustler Casino in Gardena, California, which was owned directly by Flynt as an individual through his holding company El Dorado Enterprises. Other enterprises include licensing the Hustler name to the Hustler Club chain of bars and clubs and the Hustler Hollywood store chain that sells adult-oriented videos, clothing, magazines and sex toys. The chain's flagship store, formerly located on Sunset Boulevard in West Hollywood, was torn down in 2016.

Editorial summary

“Hustler (magazine)” enters the record as american pornographic magazine. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Hustler, magazine and American can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA dependable orientation record for establishing vocabulary, names and a first evidence trail. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1974, 2016—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1974. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Hustler, magazine and American.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“Hustler (magazine)” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Hustler, magazine and American provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 14, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q823373. VIAF identifies the subject as 499149196263574790517. The Library of Congress control number is n2011034917. 2 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1974 and 2016.

Critical limits

A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
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  2. Expand the search: follow Hustler (magazine) primary sources, Hustler (magazine) archive and Hustler research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Hustler (magazine)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.