Part 2 of a three-part special report on LFP Inc. in the aftermath of Larry Flynt's passing in February.
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif.—For this story, I was put in touch with department heads. I do not blame the LFP executives for viewing these interviews the way a vampire views a crucifix—and can only imagine the bother of being asked to comment on the subject matter. But there was no agenda and whether we spoke in person or not, I had but one basic question: Is it business as usual for your division in the wake of Mr. Flynt’s passing? In the end, of course, everyone was engaging, accessible, and frequently moving in their remembrances, and even the written statements somehow managed to convey a deep anguish combined with an equal determination to carry on.
Fabio Pinto
Fabio Pinto is chief executive officer for LFP, Inc., a position he officially assumed late last year after joining the company as its CFO. “I've been with a company for three years, and in that time, I was able to connect with Larry in a way that I understood his strategy for the company,” he told me during a conversation via phone. “We connected very fast, and I was able to help him carry on the strategy that he had in his mind, plus work with him to prepare a strategy for the future.”
He said he had no problem jumping into adult. “It really was natural,” he said. “It’s just a matter of helping. I have a lot of experience in finance, manufacturing, and distribution of other products, and that is pretty much what they do here. It’s just an adult product, so there's not much difference.”
His ascension to chief executive was fast but fits the pattern of Larry moving quickly once he found what he wanted. “I have always been in operations in all my life, and I came to work as a CFO,” explained Pinto. “Larry opened the door for me also to be in operations here, and with the challenges the company had with the COVID, plus there was a lot of expansion at the company, I was helping Larry with that process, and that's when he decided to invite me to be the CEO of the company.”
He said working with Larry was a breeze. “Oh, it was a great experience,” said Pinto. “It was good because any problems, any issues, any challenges, any ideas, we would take care of it right away, we didn’t have to wait, and that was great. Every day, I would have lunch with him, we would discuss business, and we would implement whatever we discussed, and he was great. I mean, I loved that.”
Did Flynt ever bring up life after Larry? “No, we never talked about that,” he said. “We talked about business. When we talked, it was about strategy, the long-term strategy of the company, how he envisioned the company, and he always wanted the company to grow. We can never be the same, we always have to innovate, look for new business, new opportunities, growth, profit, that's what it is. So, the strategy of the companies is what we discussed most of the time.”
I ask Pinto whether the will exists in the company to make the tough decisions Larry was famous for? “Yes,” he said. “As any other company, we are here to be profitable, but we also need to add to that the legacy of Larry. Even though we have to be profitable, we have to do it the same way as Larry. What I'm trying to say is that there is an extra element to the business, which that we have to make sure we do things the way Larry wanted, keep the brand, keep the name, and keep the image of the company.”
Central to doing that is maintaining the company’s incomparable culture. “The culture of the company, the image that the company had before, is the image we will carry into the future,” he said. “That culture is like having Larry here with us every day. His presence is still here with us.”
I asked if there was anything under development he wanted to mention. “I'm very excited about the expansion of the retail stores,” he said. “We are going to take this to another level. We are a national chain of retail stores now, and we're going to be even stronger. Besides that, we have four or five new projects we are working on, and the company is just growing. We are a multinational company, very strong, and we will be even more so in the future.”
On the question of further diversification, he said, “The company is well diversified and we're going to keep it like that. We have a nice portfolio of companies, and we're probably going to add some more, but that is the idea; growth, keep the culture, and maintain Larry's legacy.”
Tony Cochi
Tony Cochi, executive vice president for Broadcasting & Internet at LFP Broadcasting LLC., worked at Vivid before moving over to LFP six years ago. “I relaunched Vivid into the television space,” he recalled during a phone call from his office. “I was the guy behind Vivid TV.
“What happened was, Michael [Klein] left here. I was still at Vivid. I decided to apply for the job because it was a much larger operation. At Vivid, I did operational stuff, but it was much smaller. Here, it was a big, international company. So, I applied and landed the job immediately. Larry really liked me."
I asked him about global broadcasting and how competitive it is, who the biggest players are in adult. “We are the biggest player,” said Cochi. “We control the lion's share of the marketplace, both domestically and worldwide. We have 11 linear channels, which no one even comes close to in the US, and six in Europe, which are not ported over from the U.S. These are unique European channels. So, when you think of global, Hustler is the only brand that is recognized worldwide."
He told a story to underscore the point. “When Larry came out with his $10 million bounty for anybody who came forward with information that would lead to Donald Trump’s impeachment, I was just leaving for a European trade show, and in every meeting that's what the topic was about. Will Mr. Flynt really pay that money? So, Larry's been followed all around the world. The fact that he's a freedom of speech guy and a fighter for that has made him an icon worldwide. People know him and recognize him.”
Another anecdote. “Several years ago, Larry and I took a trip with Mrs. Flynt to Philadelphia to visit a major client of ours in the broadcast space, and the driver made a mistake and dropped us a block away from the restaurant. So, it was cold out and Larry's bodyguard is pushing the wheelchair, and I'm walking beside him, and women in their 40s and 50s are running up to him. ‘Is that you, Mr. Flynt?’ It was unbelievable. He was a mainstream icon, a real visionary, and a true mentor. I really enjoyed working with him. It was fun. He could be stern, but what a super smart businessman. You don't get any smarter than Larry.”
I wondered how Flynt mentored. “First of all,” said Cochi, “Larry would hire the top executives. When he hired me, it was because he knew that I was one of the strongest people in the broadcast business, someone who understood the broadcast world but also had all the sales contacts at senior levels to wow all the cable and satellite providers around the U.S. So, he looked for managers that he felt could do the job. Then, once you started, it was a test. You’d start working with him closely, and he would look at the numbers, and if the results show, you've got a good track record. He looked at the way you present yourself in meetings, how you speak, your writing style. And once he had that true level of confidence in you, yes, he would leave you alone.”
“But still,” he continued, “if it was a major decision, they had a multi-million-dollar contract, I would go to Larry with it and present him with the whole picture, and say, ‘OK, here's the deal. This is what we're doing. This is what we have to lock into, how many years, and this is the potential savings, or this is the potential revenue you get out of this deal.’ You would float those by him, and he would always say yes, because he trusted you, but you did the courtesy of floating big things past him. He left us alone on the regular day-to-day operational minutiae stuff. I mean, with certain of the [business] units he would get more into the minutiae, but once you established that trust and confidence with Larry, he really let you be an executive in this company.”
“As far as continuing, it's business as usual,” Cochi added. “I know what the mission was, I know what Larry liked, because I also oversee the video on the internet group. I know Larry's style. I know what type of girls he liked to see on covers and what should represent the Hustler brand, and we're going to stay true to that. It's my mission and my role to carry on Larry's legacy. Larry did a lot to get the company here, and it's on me to keep that going. And, you know, we have strong partners with the cable operators. A bunch of them reached out on Larry's passing, some of them did Hustler-specific stunts to honor Larry. It was an outpouring of support because of who he was, and people still respect that, and they expect us to keep a certain brand integrity.”
On a roll, Cochi continued, “From the broadcast side, Larry always told me, content is king, which is true. And we've got very strong partners to run as many channels as we run. It's not all Hustler movies. We have strong partners, like Jules Jordan, Zero Tolerance, Elegant Angel, and Metro. These are our partners, and I've got strong relationships with all of them, and all of that is going to continue. So, you know, for us the future is bright. We're looking to continue on and keep growing the company as much as possible. We're always looking for new opportunities. As you know, the broadcast landscape keeps changing, especially with cord cutters, so we're looking at different ways to generate incremental revenue.”
I mention the 40th anniversary of Hustler magazine story to him, how Larry said he would have no problem shelving it if it lost money. “He was a driven guy,” said Cochi. “When he told you if Hustler magazine doesn't make money, he'll get rid of it, he wasn't lying to you. Trust me, he kept us on our toes at all points. If sales went down a little, you were analyzing your costs quick to make sure that the EBITDA number still held. When you run a business, there are many ways to generate that bottom line. Some of it is incremental sales, some of it is cost savings and staying on top of technology. There's lots of cost savings and potential new revenue out there via technology, direct to consumer, etcetera.
"We're evaluating all options. And you know, Mr. Flynt trained Mrs. Flynt. He did a great job with her. He hired a great CEO, and took years looking for him. Through my whole tenure he was looking for the right guy and he finally found him. Really smart, and he and Mrs. Flynt get along very well. But, yeah, Larry laid all the groundwork for the day that he would no longer be with us. And trust me, I saw a lot of people come and go, many executives. Less than half the executives who were here when I started are still here.”
Was there a general reason why someone would not make it? “Yes,” he said. “Performance and personality. You had to know how to deal with Larry. Larry expected succinct answers. Don't give him an answer in 15 sentences that you could have delivered in one. He would get really irritated at that. Sometimes it was OK to just say yes or no, but you didn't have to go into this super in-depth explanation. Just give him the yes or no, and if he has more questions he will ask. He was a very smart guy. One of his passions was gambling. He was a great blackjack player, and he sort of did that in his business sometimes. He would evaluate something, and you would be looking at it and going, this could be risky, and he would go for it, and it would typically work out, because that was that's the way his mentality worked: super analytical, but he was willing to take risks, which was good.”
Are you ready to make those decisions? “Oh, yeah. I made them all along with Larry here. There were a couple of brand lines that we got rid of because the numbers weren't working anymore, and I presented it to Mr. Flynt. The way it works now is, I would go to Fabio since he's the CEO, and the two of us would walk into Mrs. Flynt as a group and say, this is what we feel is the right decision.’ But she trusts us, and she and I have worked together for many years.”
“But Larry really tested people and developed a level of confidence in them,” he continued. “For instance, I wrote some stuff for the press a couple of times. He looked at it and said, ‘Who wrote this?’ And I'm like, I did. ‘That was pretty good, Tony.’ So, one time, he was away in Maui, but still working, and a memo comes out that says no one is authorized to speak to the press other than our PR person. Coincidentally, I had a request from a Canadian newspaper for an interview, so I called Larry up and said, ‘Larry, I saw this memo. Do you want me to just pass it on to PR or do you want to handle it?’ He goes, ‘You know, Tony, I trust you. You're the only one that I will let…’ It was that kind of stuff.
"If you won over his confidence, he trusted you. When I spoke on panels at XBIZ or AVN, he knew that I would never divulge numbers. I've been doing this for a long time. I came from the mainstream. I spent 15 years at Warner Bros., eight years at CableVision. We were trained by professional PR people about the do's and don'ts when you're speaking to an audience. So, I know how to handle those things.”
I mentioned to him that Mrs. Flynt had told me retail was Larry’s passion, but the magazine was the company’s spirit. “Think about it,” Cochi said. “You've seen the way Playboy magazine has changed over the years, and how Penthouse has changed. Mrs. Flynt knows what Mr. Flynt's strategy was with the magazine, right? He was trying to be outrageous, and she is going to continue that—making sure she watches all the political shows like Larry did, so that she has a political opinion, because a lot of what he would write in the magazine was about politics, about freedom of speech, and yes, he would attack politicians. But it was his feeling that that person was doing things the wrong way and needed to change.
"So, none of that is going to change, and the thought that the vision and strategy might change in this company is not possible. Mrs. Flynt is fired up. You can see she's very excited. It's still difficult for her, she's mourning her husband, but she is taking the reins. We've all met with her separately, we’re having our weekly executive staff meetings, and she's very respectful to all of us, letting us do our jobs and showing appreciation, which is really good. I'm super excited to continue on this journey and carry Larry's legacy into many, many years from now.”
Does still hear Larry’s voice in his head? “Oh, yeah, I can never forget it.”
Philip Del Rio
Philip Del Rio, executive vice president for Retail, e-Commerce & Licensing, has been with the company for almost eight years. “I was hired to come in and run the retail division,” he said from the car while driving home from work. I told him about what Mrs. Flynt said about retail being the soul of the Hustler brand.
“Mr. Flynt was very excited about retail,” he concurred. “He saw it as an opportunity to introduce his brand, the Hustler brand, to a mainstream consumer. We are located on very busy streets in many major cities across the country. I'm talking about Sunset Boulevard, Hollywood Boulevard, Miami, New York City, Nashville. Really prominent locations. So, he thought about it as a way to really deliver the Hustler brand and lifestyle in this really mainstream kind of way. And let's be honest, Mr. Flynt had plenty of money. He didn't need to diversify and keep growing, but he really was excited about retail. I think he got tickled to be able to go into a store and see customers really embracing and getting excited about sex toys and lingerie and that whole intimacy experience. He and I probably met four or five times a week, and I saw a very genuine excitement about retail."
Right up to the end? “Yes,” said Del Rio. “I spoke with Mr. Flynt about two weeks before his passing, and it was a long conversation. He was really excited to talk about business, and talk about which stores were opening next, and where we were looking. He even told me one time, when we were sitting maybe four years ago and talking about retail expansion. I asked him, ‘You have all the money in the world, you work very hard. When are you going to enjoy life?’ And he was like, ‘You know what, Philip? I don't have to continue to grow the business, but I'm excited about it. I'm excited about retail. It gets me going.’ So, that's the best way I can explain it. He just smiled when he talked about retail.”
What went into the decision making about whether to buy or lease? “Mr. Flynt was always about a good deal,” explained Del Rio. “A good deal was a good deal. We have a diversified portfolio of locations, a total of about 37 today, and I would say about 40 percent of them are purchases, where we own the real estate, and the other 60 percent are leases. It was always about, ‘What is the rent? What would be the purchase price? What would be our sales? When are we going to make back our investment if we were to purchase? So, it was always about the numbers and the pro forma, and when can I make my money back. Larry was a numbers guy, a numbers guy, a numbers guy, and we evaluated every transaction uniquely. If it was a good purchase, we would purchase, and if it was a good lease, we would lease. It was down to each transaction.”
You even opened stores during the pandemic. “Yes, during the pandemic, we opened a total of seven stores, and prior to that, we opened eight stores,” Del Rio said. “We kept our momentum; it wasn't like we slowed down. And this year, we're going to open up four stores, and the only reason it’s four and not eight is because I couldn't travel. I literally couldn't travel. Most of the stores that we’re opening this year happen to be in California, so I was able to drive, but if I was able to travel more last year, we would have been opening more stores this year. It became an issue of COVID and travel, but I got to tell you, our retail business is moving. The pandemic did not stop our customer from shopping brick-and-mortar, I think because of having to stay home and entertain themselves. What better way to do it, being intimate at home, either with yourself or with a partner?”
I note that the pandemic, as bad as it has been for some companies, might have been a boon for Hustler in terms of acquiring new properties. “Absolutely,” said Del Rio. “It’s sad that so many businesses have had such a hard time, but we fell in a really nice pocket of retail, where it made a lot of sense, and just the synergy of what was happening in the world worked. And, during these times, if you could expand, there were great rents out there. Now that things are opening, it’s a little different, but again, Mr. Flynt was about the good deal. I told him, we can strike while the iron is hot to open stores; nobody else is looking, but we could be that person, we could be that company out there that can take advantage of the time, and then we did.”
I returned to the theme of Larry being unsentimental, being able to cut something loose that is no longer working, and whether that type of gutsy decision-making will continue. “Absolutely,” he responded immediately. “I don't think he really had a place for emotion and being sentimental in the business. It was about how can we grow the business. How can we grow the numbers? That's why he said when the magazine doesn't make money, then it’s gone. But one thing that I would like to mention is that the spirit of Hustler started with the magazine, and that spirit of sexual liberation, of not conforming to standards, and being open, and sexuality and intimacy—that will continue to permeate throughout the company in all of its forms, and it's our job to be creative, but also to stick to that DNA.”
And like everyone else I would speak with, Del Rio also had Larry’s voice firmly implanted in his head. “Oh, my God, yeah,” he said when asked. “There are little moments personally for me, and I think it would resonate for other people as well, where I literally think to myself, ‘What would Mr. Flynt do right now?’ I mean, naturally, I make decisions and they flow out of me, but when it is a hard decision or a complex decision, I take a moment and think, what would Mr. Flynt want? And we have some new leadership in our company, people that have been with the company for about a year, and when I'm dealing with them, and they don't have as much of a connection with Mr. Flynt as I do, I will tell them, ‘This is what Mr. Flynt would do.’ And I'm able to clearly communicate that to them with reasoning, and I feel like…it's like he's talking through me, and that's a beautiful thing.”
“I think he trained us in a very natural way,” he continued. “There were moments when he said to all of us, ‘Listen, I want you to remember this,’ and there was a moment or two when he did that with me, but I think it has all been very natural training for me over the last eight years. Because we talked about…that one day he's not going to be around, and he felt comfortable and confident I think in me, and Mrs. Flynt, and Fabio, and Tony, and some other some other executives, where he knew that we were going to be able to carry on his mission and vision. So, to answer your question, yes, absolutely!”
I mention that I know how difficult Larry could be at times, but it's always a mixed bag with brilliant people. “Yeah, he challenged me like no other person in my entire career,” agreed Del Rio. “But even though I went through really difficult times with him, I had many more great times. He really rewarded you once he put you through those times. He took care of people and not everybody saw that or experienced it, but I definitely did.”
I asked him if Larry’s passing was a surprise. He paused before answering, choosing his words with care. “Yes, it was. It was a very, very difficult weekday, and here's the thing. He was such a fighter. There are so, so many examples of that, right? And even with his health and his physical body, he fought back so much that I just felt like, ‘Oh, he's a little sick right now, in the hospital for a moment. Oh, don't worry, he always bounces back. He always bounces back.’ And so, when I found out that morning, I was in a state of shock, because I just felt like it wasn't time. I felt like, God, can’t we have at least another 10 years with him, another seven years? He was only 78 years old. It wasn't like he was 92. He had years, but his poor body was just done. Just a beautiful life and a beautiful story, and for me just cut too short.”
Anne Denbok
Anne Denbok, editorial director for Hustler magazine, submitted a written statement:
“After 33 years of working with Mr. Flynt, nothing seems ‘usual’ without him. He was engaging and so intelligent, and he always challenged me and the entire Publishing Department to do our absolute best. That said, Mr. and Mrs. Flynt worked hand in hand these past many years, approving layouts and covers for all of the magazines, and so the work has continued seamlessly under Mrs. Flynt’s direction. I fully expect LFP to keep publishing America’s best adult magazines, in print and online, for years to come.”
Shaun Yapple
Shaun Yapple, general manager of Hustler Casino, provided the following statement on behalf of both the Hustler and Larry Flynt’s Lucky Lady Casinos:
“I’m relatively young to the company (two years) and cherished my time working with Mr. Flynt. He loved the casino business, and his passion was evident and appreciated. He was demanding, engaging, and much funnier than I ever expected.
“Mr. Flynt’s fingerprints are all over the casino properties. He was a constant presence who always had his finger on the pulse of the business. You don’t replace Mr. Flynt. In that sense, it will never be business as usual.
“In my time with the company, Mrs. Flynt has been with Mr. Flynt for all business decisions. I have full confidence that she will not only continue, but substantially expand Mr. Flynt’s business empire.”
Coming Next: Part 3: Paul Cambria
For Part 1 of this report—an interview with Liz Flynt—click here.
Photography courtesy of LFP Inc.
