Legendary Pornographer Al Goldstein Dead At 77

Posted December 19, 2013 08:33 by Alan

The founder of Screw magazine who, like Larry Flynt, stood up for the First Amendment’s guarantee of free speech, died of renal failure.

Mr. Goldstein did not invent the dirty magazine, but he was the first to present it to a wide audience without the slightest pretense of classiness or subtlety. Sex as depicted in Screw was seldom pretty, romantic or even particularly sexy. It was, primarily, a business, with consumers and suppliers like any other.

The manifesto in Screw’s debut issue in 1968 was succinct. “We promise never to ink out a pubic hair or chalk out an organ,” it read. “We will apologize for nothing. We will uncover the entire world of sex. We will be the Consumer Reports of sex.”