MONROE — Jimmy Flynt has made a career of gauging the public's sexual appetite, but he admits underestimating Greater Cincinnati's hunger for his Hustler Hollywood store.

        This weekend marks the one-year anniversary in Monroe of the Tristate's largest and glitziest adult entertainment store.

Jimmy Flynt is surrounded by some of his merchandise at the Hustler Hollywood store in Monroe. (Gary Landers photo) | ZOOM |

        Looking back, Mr. Flynt, brother of Hustler founder Larry Flynt and business partner in the company's international pornography and publishing empire, said he was surprised that an estimated 250,000 adult customers would visit his store in the first year.

        Sales are much higher than expected, and he regrets not building a bigger parking lot and larger version of the 7,000-square-foot store.

        “The biggest headache so far is keeping the place stocked,” Jimmy Flynt said recently as dozens of midday customers — men and women — perused his sexually explicit videos, sexual aids and mainstream Hustler apparel.

        The store, near the Interstate 75 and Ohio 63 interchange on the Butler and Warren County border, is the first-ever expansion beyond a Hollywood, Calif., retail outlet. In less than a year, said Mr. Flynt, the Monroe outlet has surpassed the Hollywood store in sales and prompted the Flynts to speed the development pace of a handful of similar retail operations nationwide.

        Though Jimmy Flynt declined to reveal sales numbers, he cited the often-crowded store as proof that local opponents misjudged the popularity of adult entertainment.

        But Phil Burress, president of the Sharonville-based anti-pornography group Citizens for Community Values, disagreed, calling the store's wares “absolute trash.”

        Mr. Burress said he expects that local or county officials will eventually initiate legal action.

        “His (Mr. Flynt's) day is coming when he will be held accountable for the filth in that store,” said Mr. Burress.

        Some anticipated that Monroe might take legal action against Hustler in the last year, but it didn't.

        Monroe officials had reacted to Mr. Flynt's building announcement by hastily passing a city zoning law requiring adult businesses to have an inventory of no more than 40 percent explicit adult materials.

        Monroe Mayor Elbert Tannreuther said city officials continue to monitor the store's inventory but declined to comment further.

        The city is in the middle of a court battle with nearby Bristol's Showclub and Revue — in part over another ordinance designed to control adult entertainment clubs and nudity — and a federal judge recently ordered the case back to Warren County Common Pleas Court.

        The Hustler store's presence “hasn't caused us any problems,” Mr. Tannreuther said, but added that “it bothers me on a personal level to think that in the whole country there is one of these stores in Hollywood, Calif., and one in our fine little city.”

        The downtown Cincinnati Hustler store is smaller and less profitable, Jimmy Flynt said, but continues to operate at its Elm Street location. He said that store, which does not offer sexually explicit videos, serves a symbolic purpose of maintaining a Flynt-owned enterprise in Cincinnati and Hamilton County, which have battled the Flynts in a number of high-profile court cases since the 1970s.

        Jimmy Flynt speculated that the post-Sept. 11 national mood has led to a “re-organizing of priorities” among authorities in pursuing obscenity cases.

        “They realize, and the public already knows, there are much more important issues out there than what adults view or read in the privacy of their homes,” he said.
       

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