Guccione capitalized on the magazine’s success and notoriety by going into the movie business. “Nice work if you can get it!” he’d gloat, quoting the old Gershwin song. For many years, he’d unveil each new Pet of the Year with a photo of the girl sitting on his lap. And Bob gloried in his readers’ obsession with his Guccione photos. The models no longer looked lost in reverie or naively unaware of the camera’s presence - they flaunted their sexuality with unprecedented exhibitionism, actively engaging the consumer in the erotic-fantasy encounter. The early eighties brought bolder, sharper focus to the pictorials, and as American women continued to shed their inhibitions (and their pubic hair) and claim their right to sexual satisfaction, Penthouse was the first erotic magazine to expose the clitoris. famous photographs of casually clad models languidly looking away from the camera. In the early seventies, Guccione pioneered full frontal nudity, although the spirit of the laid-back, pot-smoking high times was reflected in the sensual, soft-lens look of his. That was the part that none of our competition understood.” To see as if she doesn’t know she’s being seen. It’s a beautiful combination.”Īt the end of his career, Guccione elaborated on this: “We followed the true philosophy of voyeurism. Joe Brooks, Guccione’s first art director, told Rolling Stone that “Bob used light like a master painter, but he has an incredibly dirty mind. When it came to the selection of models, Guccione - who, as Rolling Stone described him, “carrie himself with an imperial swagger, shoulders back, head high: a Roman ruler sauntering to the lip of a balcony to survey his subjects” - had a more cosmopolitan taste than Playboy’s Hugh Hefner, preferring natural over surgically enhanced sex appeal, giving Penthouse an artistic edge and pictorial versatility. Because of the magazine’s reach, longevity, and uncompromising attitudes, it can be said that Penthouse has to this day influenced Americans’ sexual tastes. In many ways, Penthouse not only reflected its times perfectly but anticipated them as well. But it wasn’t just a public-relations stunt that created a magazine that became a global brand name recognized in every country in the world. issue of Penthouse sold out in a matter of days. The publicity was a great boon, and the first issue of the magazine, which had a press run of 120,000 copies, sold out within a few days of its appearance.”įour years later, in September 1969, with a cover price of 75 cents and a print run of 225,000, financed entirely by high debt and higher hopes, the first U.S. Then he emerged, stood trial, and was fined. All the while he received the proofs of his magazine through the letter box and consulted with his tiny staff over the phone. He simply remained holed up in his house for a fortnight while two police officers awaited him on the street. He contrived, however, to avoid the summonses until the mailing was completed. “An action was started against him under Section 11 of the Post Office Act for sending indecent matter through the post. As an article in Fortune magazine noted in 1975, “Financing the magazine’s debut was a nerve-racking business, for Guccione was unable to raise any capital, apart from a few thousand dollars contributed by his devoted father. Although Vanity Fair called Penthouse “among the greatest success stories in the history of magazines,” it was far from a sure thing. Like most big ideas, Penthouse had small beginnings in the mind of one extraordinarily complicated man - a 34-year-old Brooklyn-born artist and cartoonist named Robert Charles Joseph Edward Sabatini Guccione. With his love of beautiful women combined with artistic genius, Bob Guccione created what Rolling Stone called “the greatest adult magazine in history.” We mark his passing and honor his memory with this special collection of photos.
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