Hustle-bustle
Minutes before VIP guests are scheduled to start arriving at Larry Flynt’s Hustler Club in Beverly Hills for Thursday night’s opening party, the red carpet is still rolled and out of sight. General manager Daniel Charbonnier is outside, pacing and talking with Beverly Hills Fire Department officials. When Flynt, the unabashed king of hard-core print pornography, appears in his gold-plated wheelchair, he is told that the gentleman’s club he has been trying to open for two years will not open on time.
“It’s hard to make the city fathers happy, especially when the name is Hustler,” says Flynt, who is intent on building an empire of Hustler clubs around the country. “It’s really not very nice for a city like Beverly Hills to be conducting itself in this manner. They just want to disrupt the grand opening. They’re just playing petty politics.”
As it turned out, the party was delayed 90 minutes, a long time considering the cold gusts blowing on Beverly Drive and the fact that VIPs are not supposed to wait in line -- ever. There were a few reasons for the holdup, but the main one, explained Charbonnier, was a difference in opinion on whether the venue’s permit is for an adult cabaret or a nightclub. Nightclubs are not allowed to open in Beverly Hills before 8:30 p.m., and the opening party was slated to begin at 6.
If there is someone who is well acquainted with obstacles, it’s Flynt, who made the best of his permit woes by sampling the hors d’oeuvres in the club’s plush private room.
Decorated with paintings of Hustler models and furnished in burgundy velvet or leopard-print couches and chairs, iron coffee tables in the form of female sculptures and hand-carved cocktail tables, the Hustler Club feels more like a modern Las Vegas cabaret than the Roaring ‘20s gentleman’s club Flynt describes.
Ceilings and walls are mirrored, and the Plexiglas fiber-optic mirror behind the bar changes colors, giving the illusion of a work of art on the other side. Portraits of Flynt himself abound, with the largest hanging over the restaurant area. Smaller ones spanning his life greet customers as they walk down the stairs into the club.
“One thing is to come in here and cite us for a serious violation and another is to pick on things so that we can’t have our opening,” said Flynt, who blamed city officials for sending the Fire Department at the late hour to cite him for details like fireproofing paintings.
“Let’s walk into any gallery in Beverly Hills and see if the paintings are fireproofed. They’re not. I get treated harshly because I’m Larry Flynt and because the name of my business is Hustler.”
Fire Department officials on the scene declined to explain why they were not allowing Flynt to let his guests in on time. Fire Marshall Ed LaFouge deferred questions to Charbonnier, saying, “It’s the club’s issues, not ours. We’re here because there is an event tonight, and we’re helping out with that.” Calls to Beverly Hills City Hall for comments were not returned on Friday by press time.
One of the most controversial figures in the country, Flynt has been demonized for his “smut peddling” and sometimes idolized for his free speech advocacy. He spent two years wrangling with the city over zoning and building codes -- which almost all new businesses must do -- before he could open the 280-person-capacity club, which he refurbished for $2.5 million.
Marketing the brand
A businessman who owned a string of go-go clubs in Ohio before he became a porn publisher, Flynt has expanded that side of his business with a casino in Gardena and 10 Hustler clubs in the United States and Paris. A new club will open in New York City later this month.
“I’ve always had an affinity for the nightclub business, and when we started to diversify into video, the Internet and the casino business, the club business seemed a natural extension of that,” Flynt said. “When we felt that Hustler had a brand name that could be exploited, it seemed an ideal opportunity to do it.”
The Beverly Hills club, located between Burton Way and Brighton Way, expects to build its core business on traveling businessmen staying in the city’s upscale hotels and other local high rollers who want to be served by beautiful women against the backdrop of a traditional burlesque show and a gourmet dinner, Flynt said. Most of the guests on Thursday fill the latter bill, despite publicity claims that the night would be as star-studded as a Hollywood club opening.
Not that it mattered to Flynt, who, when Bill Maher thanked a television crew for not including him in the shot of Flynt’s table, quipped, “This is precisely the problem. This is not the kind of place he’d want to be associated with.”
Arica, a 26-year-old aspiring actress, declined to give her last name out of that same concern.
“I don’t think my manager would be very pleased to read about me hanging out at the Hustler Club,” she said. “I like the concept of this very much. I think it’s very funny that it’s in Beverly Hills. The crowd is too old for me. But I’d come back to see the show with my girlfriends. It’s not the kind of place I’d come meet a man. A guy who hangs out at the Hustler Club is not a guy I’d give my number to.”
The night featured jazzy bump-and-grind music and a va-va-voom burlesque show that titillates without nudity.
“This is a sexy, romantic atmosphere,” said 46-year-old Tom Diamantidis, who didn’t mind waiting in line for 30 minutes before getting in. “In a traditional gentleman’s club, the women are more scantily dressed and you get lap dances and that sort of thing.
“This goes back to the clubs of the old days, the kind of place you could even bring a date for an excellent dinner and a little dancing.”
Flynt wishes more people in his new neighborhood felt like that: “It’s still aggravating every time you go through something like this. The city of Beverly Hills should be happy we are bringing fun into the neighborhood,” he said, smiling mischievously. “What is there to do in Beverly Hills?”