What better location for a honeymoon hotel? According to Bloomberg News, Larry Flynt has decided to sell his flagship Hustler store in West Hollywood, and someone has raised with the city’s Community Development Department the notion of erecting a hotel there.
Flynt opened the Hustler Hollywood store at 8920 Sunset Blvd. near Hilldale in 1998. It was an effort to take advantage of the brand he created with the Hustler porn magazine that he launched in 1974. One of the most sexually explicit magazines of its time, Hustler’s circulation eventually grew to three million copies a month. It since has declined to about 500,000. The store sells lingerie and sex toys and is one of 12 in the Hustler chain.
In an interview on Bloomberg TV, Flynt said he didn’t see a great future for Hustler magazine. “I don’t think Hustler is going to be around very much longer,” he said. “It’s making money now. As long as it makes money, I’ll continue to publish, but we can see the handwriting on the wall.”
Bloomberg reports that the store is in escrow, with the buyer unidentified. Hustler Hollywood also is home to one of West Hollywood’s two porn “blocks of fame.” The sidewalk outside its entrance contains footprints and handprints of porn stars such as Jenna Jameson, Gloria Leonard and Ron Jeremy. The other porn “block of fame” is in front of Studs, the gay porn theatre at 7734 Santa Monica Blvd. across from Genesee.
Flynt sold his headquarters building in Beverly Hills last year to Douglas Emmett Inc. for $89 million.
this was one of the first “sites” i went to when i moved to weho.