Robert Charles Joseph Edward Sabatini Guccione ( ; December 17, 1930 – October 20, 2010) was an American visual artist, photographer and publisher. He founded the adult magazine Penthouse in 1965. This was aimed at competing with Playboy, but with more explicit erotic content, a special style of soft focus photography, and in-depth reporting of government corruption scandals and the art world. By 1982 Guccione was listed in the Forbes 400 wealth list, and owned one of the biggest mansions in Manhattan. However, he made some extravagant investments that failed, and the growth of free online pornography in the 1990s greatly diminished his market. In 2003, Guccione's publishers filed for bankruptcy and he resigned as chairman.
Early life Guccione was born in Brooklyn, New York, of Italian (Sicilian) descent and raised Catholic in Bergenfield, New Jersey, the eldest child of Anthony, an accountant, and Nina, a housewife. An altar boy, he considered but rejected entering the priesthood.McFadden, Robert D. (October 20, 2010). "Bob Guccione, Penthouse Founder, Dies at 79". nytimes.com, October 21, 2010; accessed October 1, 2014. He attended high school at Blair Academy, a prep school in Blairstown, New Jersey.
In his teens, Guccione married his first wife, Lilyann Becker. The couple had a daughter, Tonina (1949–2020). The marriage failed, and he left his wife and child to go to Europe to be a painter. He eventually met an English woman, Muriel Hudson, moved to London with her, and married her. They had four children.
To support his family, Guccione managed a chain of laundromats until he got work as a cartoonist on an American weekly newspaper, The London American, while Muriel started a business selling pinup posters. He occasionally created cartoons for Bill Box's humorous greeting card company Box Cards.Anthony Haden-Guest "Boom and Bust", The Observer, February 1, 2004.Bob Guccione episode on E! True Hollywood StoryBob Guccione profile , penthouse.com; accessed September 20, 2007.
Career Penthouse began publication in 1965 in the United Kingdom and in North America in 1969, an attempt to compete with Hugh Hefner's Playboy. Although Playboy had always had a liberal bent and championed the civil rights movement and other social justice causes, Guccione offered editorial content that was more sensational, and the magazine's writing was far more investigative than other men's magazines, with stories about government cover-ups and scandals. Writers such as Craig S. Karpel, James Dale Davidson and Ernest Volkman, as well as the critically acclaimed Seymour Hersh, exposed numerous scandals and corruption at the highest levels of the United States government. On the other hand, Playboy retained a certain conservatism and embraced mainstream American consumerism rather than rejecting it. During the late 1960s, feminist groups criticized the magazine for supporting women's liberation only in terms of making them free to engage in sexual relationships with men. While Playboy devoted extensive print to covering sports, one of Hugh Hefner's great passions, Guccione had no interest in them and never bothered discussing sporting events or athletes in Penthouse, instead preferring to cover the art world. The magazine was founded on humble beginnings. Owing to his lack of resources, Guccione personally photographed most of the models for the magazine's early issues.
As the magazine grew more successful, Guccione openly embraced a life of luxury; his former mansion at 14-16 East 67th Street on Manhattan's Upper East Side was said to be the largest private residence in the borough at . However, in contrast to Hugh Hefner, who threw wild parties at his Playboy Mansions, life at Guccione's mansion was remarkably sedate, even during the height of the sexual revolution in the 1970s. He reportedly once had his bodyguards eject a local radio personality who had been hired as a DJ and jumped into the swimming pool naked."The Twilight of Bob Guccione", rollingstone.com; accessed October 9, 2014.
The magazine's pictorials offered more sexually explicit content than was commonly seen in most openly sold men's magazines of the era; it was the first to show female pubic hair, followed by full-frontal nudity and then the exposed vulva and anus. Up to the end of the 1960s, it was not acceptable to display anything more than a female's buttocks or breasts in mainstream publications and anything more risked obscenity charges. Only low-budget underground magazines displayed female genitals or explicit poses. However, the counterculture movement led to an increasingly liberated sexual attitude after which a series of court rulings struck down most legal restrictions on pornography. Penthouse has also, over the years, featured a number of authorized and unauthorized photos of celebrities such as Madonna and Vanessa Lynn Williams. In both cases, the photos were taken earlier in their careers and sold to Penthouse only after Madonna and Williams became famous. In Williams's case, this led to her forced resignation as Miss America 1984. The September 1984 issue in which Williams was first featured also included a layout with pornographic actress Traci Lords, who was only 15 when the photo shoot was done and was later revealed to be underage throughout most of her career. (Madonna famously responded to the publication of her nude photos by stating "So what?".New York Post, July 9, 1985, page 4) In the late 1990s, the magazine began to show more "fetish" content such as urination, bondage and "facials."
In the early 1970s, Guccione invested around US$45 million in construction of Haludovo Palace Hotel, a luxury hotel resort in Malinska on Krk Island near Rijeka on the northern Adriatic coast of Yugoslavia. He invested an additional $500,000 in advertisement. Despite Yugoslavia being nominally a communist country, it encouraged foreign investments. The entire project was designed by Yugoslav architect Boris Magaš and realized through Brodokomerc, a local company. Prior to that, the project needed to be authorized through a so-called workers' council, a process which Guccione described as "ridiculously easy". The hotel officially opened in 1972. Staff included around 50 Penthouse Pets, and the guests included the later Iraqi president Saddam Hussein. However, the hotel went bankrupt the next year.http://www.blic.rs/vesti/reportaza/uspon-i-pad-jugoslovenskog-hotela-mira-i-pornografije-od-bazena-punjenih-sampanjcem/vvet61s Blic: "Uspon i pad jugoslovenskog hotela mira i pornografije: Od bazena punjenih šampanjcem do ruine", accessed at 27-03-17 (in Serbian)http://hotelijeri.com/hotel-haludovo-palas-najraskosniji-hotelski-kompleks-bivse-jugoslavije/ Hotelijeri: "Hotel Haludovo Palas – najraskošniji hotelski kompleks bivše Jugoslavije", accessed at 27-03-17 (in Serbian)
In 1976, Guccione used about US $17.5 million of his personal fortune to finance the controversial historical drama erotic film Caligula, with Malcolm McDowell in the title role and a supporting cast including Helen Mirren, John Gielgud and Peter O'Toole. The film, released in late 1979, was produced in Italy (made at the Dear Studios in Rome) and was directed by Tinto Brass. Guccione also created the magazines Omni, Viva, and Longevity. Later Guccione started Penthouse Forum, which was more textual in content. In the early 2000s, Penthouse published a short-lived comic book spin-off entitled Penthouse Comix featuring sexually explicit stories.
In 1982, Guccione was listed in the Forbes 400 ranking of wealthiest people, with a reported $400 million net worth.Munk, Nina (September 25, 2005)."Don't Blink. You'll Miss the 258th-Richest American". The New York Times. An April 2002 New York Times article quoted Guccione as saying that Penthouse grossed $3.5 billion to $4 billion over the 30-year life of the company, with a net income of almost $500 million.Carr, David (April 8, 2002). "Cybersmut and Debt Undermine Penthouse", The New York Times; accessed October 9, 2014.
Awards and recognition Guccione's editorial content was praised and recognized by some in the academic field. In 1975, for example, he was honored by Brandeis University for focusing "his editorial attention on such critical issues of our day as the welfare of the Vietnam veteran and problems of criminality in modern society."
Guccione was also praised by certain professional groups and associations for his dealings with them. In April 1978 he was named "Publisher of the Year" by the Atlantic Coast Independent Distributors Association in gratitude for his "leadership, his fair treatment and his continuing friendship with our members".
In 2013, director Barry Avrich made a film about Guccione's life entitled Filthy Gorgeous: The Bob Guccione Story. The film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 9, 2013. It was later broadcast in Canada on The Movie Network and Movie Central and in the United States on Epix in November 2013.
Decline and resignation Several wildly unsuccessful investments by Guccione—including the Penthouse Boardwalk Hotel and Casino (which lost $160 million) and a (never-built) nuclear fusion power plant—added to his publishing empire's financial woes.Rolling Stone, "The Twilight of Bob Guccione"; accessed October 20, 2010. Guccione's efforts to regain sales and notoriety, which included attempts to get Monica Lewinsky to pose for the magazine (which was parodied in a sketch on Saturday Night Live in 1998) and offering the Unabomber a free forum for his views, failed to increase readership. With the rise of online access to (often free) pornography in the late 1990s, Penthouse's circulation numbers suffered even more.
In 2003, General Media, Penthouse publisher, filed for bankruptcy protection. Guccione resigned as chairman of the board and CEO of Penthouse International, Inc.
Legal dispute In 2006, Guccione sued Penthouse Media Group for fraud, breach of contract, and conspiracy, among other charges. Some of the people named in the case were Marc Bell, Jason Galanis, Fernando Molina, and Daniel C. Stanton.
Other ventures Film
In 1974, Guccione invested in the film Chinatown and the end credits read A Paramount - Penthouse Presentation. He also invested in The Day of the Locust.Bosworth, Patricia. "The X-Rated Emperor". Vanity Fair. February 2005; accessed October 9, 2014.
In 1976, Guccione invested around $17.5 million U.S. dollars of his personal funds for financing the historical drama erotic film Caligula.
In 2001, Penthouse Presents began running on Hot Choice.
Publications Guccione also created the magazines Omni, Viva, and Longevity. Guccione gave Anna Wintour her first job as a fashion editor at his magazine Viva.
Later Guccione started Penthouse Forum, which predominantly featured erotic writing and stories. In 1993, Penthouse published an adult comic book spin-off entitled Penthouse Comix, featuring sexually explicit stories. After an initial success, Penthouse Comix expanded into a line of four illustrated magazines with the addition of Penthouse Max, Penthouse Men's Adventure Comix and Omni Comix. In 2023 Penthouse revived the comic label as Penthouse Comics. The first issue launched in February 2024 to 30,000 copies sold.
Penthouse Variations is a monthly magazine containing ostensibly reader-generated erotic stories (primarily) and some pictures and reviews. It is a spin-off magazine from Penthouse Letters. It was initially published in 1978. Variations focuses on "kinkier" topics of sexuality, such as bondage, fetish clothing, exhibitionism, voyeurism, foot fetishism, water sports, female dominance, bisexual exploration, transsexualism and sadomasochism, among others.
Home video In 1983, Penthouse teamed up with Vestron Video to launch the Penthouse Video label. In 1991, Penthouse Video signed a deal with A*Vision Entertainment to release videos designed for an adult audience.
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