RIP Bob Guccione
October 20, 2010 7:55 PM Subscribe
Porn mogul and entrepreneur Bob Guccione is dead at 79. I'll never forget sneaking peeks at my mom's copy of Viva, submitting my first post-Clarion story to Omni, and leaving the room when my college housemates were watching Caligula. Rest in peace, sir.
.!.
posted by louche mustachio at 7:58 PM on October 20, 2010 [10 favorites]
posted by louche mustachio at 7:58 PM on October 20, 2010 [10 favorites]
Pours one out on the curb.
posted by Cookiebastard at 8:00 PM on October 20, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by Cookiebastard at 8:00 PM on October 20, 2010 [1 favorite]
"Hugh Hefner still survives."
posted by crunchland at 8:02 PM on October 20, 2010 [2 favorites]
posted by crunchland at 8:02 PM on October 20, 2010 [2 favorites]
☉☉
posted by tomierna at 8:04 PM on October 20, 2010 [6 favorites]
posted by tomierna at 8:04 PM on October 20, 2010 [6 favorites]
Barbara Billingsley, Bob Guccione. The universe remains in balance.
posted by Slarty Bartfast at 8:05 PM on October 20, 2010 [9 favorites]
posted by Slarty Bartfast at 8:05 PM on October 20, 2010 [9 favorites]
Ah, I remember the early years of my marriage, when no road trip was complete without a purchase of Penthouse so my wife could read aloud the letters. Endless entertainment.
R.I.P. Bob, you old deviant.
posted by Ber at 8:06 PM on October 20, 2010 [3 favorites]
R.I.P. Bob, you old deviant.
posted by Ber at 8:06 PM on October 20, 2010 [3 favorites]
I never thought this would happen...
posted by bondcliff at 8:08 PM on October 20, 2010 [50 favorites]
posted by bondcliff at 8:08 PM on October 20, 2010 [50 favorites]
Odd that we just had a FPP about OMNI.
Bob, your love of pubic hair is legendary. As was your not being Hugh Hefner.
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posted by inturnaround at 8:12 PM on October 20, 2010
Bob, your love of pubic hair is legendary. As was your not being Hugh Hefner.
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posted by inturnaround at 8:12 PM on October 20, 2010
This thread is less than it could be without images.
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posted by never used baby shoes at 8:12 PM on October 20, 2010 [3 favorites]
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posted by never used baby shoes at 8:12 PM on October 20, 2010 [3 favorites]
Penthouse was the first magazine i had to steal and hide.
posted by clavdivs at 8:13 PM on October 20, 2010 [3 favorites]
posted by clavdivs at 8:13 PM on October 20, 2010 [3 favorites]
Dear Penthouse Forum,
I never thought this could happen to me, but I see a bright light that seems to be beckoning me forward....
posted by jonmc at 8:15 PM on October 20, 2010 [24 favorites]
I never thought this could happen to me, but I see a bright light that seems to be beckoning me forward....
posted by jonmc at 8:15 PM on October 20, 2010 [24 favorites]
His publication meant a lot to me at age 14.
I mean the intriguing interviews and the thought-provoking essays and such.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 8:22 PM on October 20, 2010 [5 favorites]
I mean the intriguing interviews and the thought-provoking essays and such.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 8:22 PM on October 20, 2010 [5 favorites]
I'm still a little upset that he became so enamored of women urinating that he had to put it in every issue. That's a real boner-killer for me. But hey, I didn't come in here to piss on his grave...
posted by Saxon Kane at 8:23 PM on October 20, 2010 [3 favorites]
posted by Saxon Kane at 8:23 PM on October 20, 2010 [3 favorites]
I'm still a little upset that he became so enamored of women urinating that he had to put it in every issue.
I thought that was Hustler.
posted by jonmc at 8:26 PM on October 20, 2010
I thought that was Hustler.
posted by jonmc at 8:26 PM on October 20, 2010
I'm still a little upset that he became so enamored of women urinating that he had to put it in every issue.
"Well, if that's what you're after, I suggest you try Hostess or Sara Lee! "
posted by UrineSoakedRube at 8:31 PM on October 20, 2010 [7 favorites]
"Well, if that's what you're after, I suggest you try Hostess or Sara Lee! "
posted by UrineSoakedRube at 8:31 PM on October 20, 2010 [7 favorites]
You know that there is a FPP about OMNI a few posts down.
I posted there my salute to Guccione.
Omni was a joy to discover every month, like fresh air with alien breezes.
posted by bru at 8:37 PM on October 20, 2010
I posted there my salute to Guccione.
Omni was a joy to discover every month, like fresh air with alien breezes.
posted by bru at 8:37 PM on October 20, 2010
.
posted by felix betachat at 8:43 PM on October 20, 2010
posted by felix betachat at 8:43 PM on October 20, 2010
Viva. I remember it well. My Dad caught my little sister perusing my issues and told her he thought she was a little young for that. She told me later that she learned a lot and thanked me.
.
posted by wv kay in ga at 8:47 PM on October 20, 2010 [3 favorites]
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posted by wv kay in ga at 8:47 PM on October 20, 2010 [3 favorites]
.
I wrote a sociology paper based on the linguistic differences between the Forum and romance novels when I was in college. Like Ber's wife, I'd read those letters aloud to friends too many times; it wasn't the plots that got me, but the 'powerhouse pepperonis'.
posted by immlass at 8:49 PM on October 20, 2010
I wrote a sociology paper based on the linguistic differences between the Forum and romance novels when I was in college. Like Ber's wife, I'd read those letters aloud to friends too many times; it wasn't the plots that got me, but the 'powerhouse pepperonis'.
posted by immlass at 8:49 PM on October 20, 2010
This thread is incomplete without a comment from porn in the woods.
posted by GuyZero at 8:55 PM on October 20, 2010 [4 favorites]
posted by GuyZero at 8:55 PM on October 20, 2010 [4 favorites]
Those Letters to the Editor were REAL, man!
(ah, to be a teenager again. also, thanks for the whole OMNI/SPIN thing...)
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posted by djrock3k at 8:59 PM on October 20, 2010
(ah, to be a teenager again. also, thanks for the whole OMNI/SPIN thing...)
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posted by djrock3k at 8:59 PM on October 20, 2010
Those Letters to the Editor were REAL, man!
in OMNI? Of course.
posted by jonmc at 9:00 PM on October 20, 2010 [1 favorite]
in OMNI? Of course.
posted by jonmc at 9:00 PM on October 20, 2010 [1 favorite]
I bet I'm not the only kid who, thanks to one of his magazines, saw his first....OMG a vuh-jinuh! GUYS! GUYS! Come look! Lookit! Wait. Ten cents.
posted by mreleganza at 9:00 PM on October 20, 2010
posted by mreleganza at 9:00 PM on October 20, 2010
A great loss, and that's just for shares on Kleenex. Among discerning teenage smut-mongers, Penthouse was lightyears ahead of Playboy.
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posted by Ghidorah at 9:02 PM on October 20, 2010
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posted by Ghidorah at 9:02 PM on October 20, 2010
Penthouse Forum was to me the first place I learned of other guys being into other guys. The stories of sexual conquest and random experience occasionally depicted homo sex. It was rare, like one letter every two-or-three issues. But after I learned the rhythm, I scoured those magazines for just one more letter about a guy being with another guy. Yes, more often than not a wife or girlfriend was involved. But that just made it all the better for me. I was bisexual! It meant that I wasn't a myth or aberration! These letters gave me hope!
Wow. When I say scoured Penthouse and Penthouse Forum, I mean I studied them so hard [ah] I learned to notice both form and formatting. As in, since I was so dedicated to studying and seeking out these letters, I memorized them all—as well as where and how the section was distributed throughout the magazine. Details were like significant marks on a very special roadmap.
I want everyone and the world to know that Penthouse Magazine, Bob Guccione, and Penthouse Forum had as much to my development as an artist and a writer and my love for writing and graphic design as much as the Bradbury novels and the comic books and the literature classics I devoured. And that love has paid off over my entire life.
God bless you, Bob Guccione. However you lived your life and for whatever reason you did what you did, the consistent style and editorial and art direction Penthouse adhered to did more for me than every issue of Playboy ever did. You taught me subtlety and detail and graphic boldness and even self-worth, by God, and for that I will hold your name and memory in high esteem. Standing tall, Mr Guccione, from here in a future my teenage self and I would not have imagined or enjoyed without you—don't even get me started on the impact of OMNI—we salute you!
posted by Mike Mongo at 9:06 PM on October 20, 2010 [21 favorites]
Wow. When I say scoured Penthouse and Penthouse Forum, I mean I studied them so hard [ah] I learned to notice both form and formatting. As in, since I was so dedicated to studying and seeking out these letters, I memorized them all—as well as where and how the section was distributed throughout the magazine. Details were like significant marks on a very special roadmap.
I want everyone and the world to know that Penthouse Magazine, Bob Guccione, and Penthouse Forum had as much to my development as an artist and a writer and my love for writing and graphic design as much as the Bradbury novels and the comic books and the literature classics I devoured. And that love has paid off over my entire life.
God bless you, Bob Guccione. However you lived your life and for whatever reason you did what you did, the consistent style and editorial and art direction Penthouse adhered to did more for me than every issue of Playboy ever did. You taught me subtlety and detail and graphic boldness and even self-worth, by God, and for that I will hold your name and memory in high esteem. Standing tall, Mr Guccione, from here in a future my teenage self and I would not have imagined or enjoyed without you—don't even get me started on the impact of OMNI—we salute you!
posted by Mike Mongo at 9:06 PM on October 20, 2010 [21 favorites]
Instead of posting a period in remembrance, I'm going to hide my computer under my mattress tonight.
posted by Tube at 9:08 PM on October 20, 2010 [17 favorites]
posted by Tube at 9:08 PM on October 20, 2010 [17 favorites]
At least he's with God now.
posted by Avenger at 9:09 PM on October 20, 2010 [2 favorites]
posted by Avenger at 9:09 PM on October 20, 2010 [2 favorites]
I just remember my mom throwing away all my Penthouse mags. She left the Playboys because they were "less filthy".
Mom...how was it that you knew the difference? Hmm?
posted by swimming naked when the tide goes out at 9:13 PM on October 20, 2010 [3 favorites]
Mom...how was it that you knew the difference? Hmm?
posted by swimming naked when the tide goes out at 9:13 PM on October 20, 2010 [3 favorites]
made billions before drowning in a slough of bad investments and Internet competition
Easy cum...etc, etc.
posted by sourwookie at 9:17 PM on October 20, 2010 [1 favorite]
Easy cum...etc, etc.
posted by sourwookie at 9:17 PM on October 20, 2010 [1 favorite]
I sent a letter to Penthouse this last week. Really.
posted by cjorgensen at 9:17 PM on October 20, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by cjorgensen at 9:17 PM on October 20, 2010 [1 favorite]
Mom...how was it that you knew the difference? Hmm?
Your father told her you could read them for the articles.
(The tits. A pussy. An ass.)
posted by pracowity at 9:26 PM on October 20, 2010 [4 favorites]
Your father told her you could read them for the articles.
(The tits. A pussy. An ass.)
posted by pracowity at 9:26 PM on October 20, 2010 [4 favorites]
.
May the angels greet you naked. And unshaven. And very happy to see you. Very.
posted by strixus at 9:27 PM on October 20, 2010 [1 favorite]
May the angels greet you naked. And unshaven. And very happy to see you. Very.
posted by strixus at 9:27 PM on October 20, 2010 [1 favorite]
I remember my first experience with...using an article from Omni to flesh out a college freshman paper...
posted by Greg_Ace at 9:28 PM on October 20, 2010
posted by Greg_Ace at 9:28 PM on October 20, 2010
Penthouse Forum was to me the first place I learned of other guys being into other guys.
It was the first place I learned about a lot of things, from butt seks to water sports to, geez, stuff that still makes me scratch my head. It was the "rule 34" internet porn before there was an internet -- sold everywhere, totally mainstream, and yet dirty and perverse far beyond the boundaries of most openminded perverts.
It was kind of a genius publication, really. We used to trade it around under the desks in Catholic school, but more in a freakshow kind of way because our tastes were so pedestrian in comparison.
And Caligula? They just don't make movies like that anymore.
posted by Forktine at 9:33 PM on October 20, 2010 [1 favorite]
Penthouse Forum was to me the first place I learned of other guys being into other guys.
Better that than Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex* (But Were Afraid to Ask).
posted by blucevalo at 9:42 PM on October 20, 2010 [1 favorite]
Better that than Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex* (But Were Afraid to Ask).
posted by blucevalo at 9:42 PM on October 20, 2010 [1 favorite]
I have this vague recollection of Mr. Spock looking at a Hustler, and when someone knocks (or space-knocks) at the door, he flips a dust jacket over the magazine making it look like a copy of Omni.
Did I dream that?
posted by device55 at 10:38 PM on October 20, 2010 [1 favorite]
Did I dream that?
posted by device55 at 10:38 PM on October 20, 2010 [1 favorite]
A true story about Bob Guccione & his late (and last) wife, Kathy Keeton.
I was a regular customer of Penthouse for years. Bought most of them from about 1985 - 1998, roughly. During the 90's, I began to notice a shift in Penthouse's photography themes. More & more, there were shots of girls holding running water hoses between their legs, or standing under water streams so that it poured off of their crotches, or spouted between their legs. "OK, whatever: it's evoking male ejaculation," I thought.
Then, it shifted: two-woman pictorials would include one model drinking the water that trickled off the crotch of the other.
Anyone want to guess where it went next? Yep. In fact, Penthouse even sponsored a contest, asking readers to send in sexy shots of themselves/their wives or GFs peeing.
Suddenly, it was everywhere. Water play, golden showers, girls were peeing in pornography everywhere I looked (except, of course, Playboy). The WWW was dawning, and "pissing" porn categories were on virtually every site.
All of this grew from Penthouse's lead, I believe. Bob spent literally years "warming up" his audience to the idea of water sports being sexy. You couldn't just "immerse" them in it cold; it's something they had to dip their toes in first (and with that, I'll leave off the puns). But he did it. It's a fairly easy thing to document, by flipping through randomly chosen editions from those years: the pictorials gradually go from slight suggestion to all-out urine drinking, but all photographed with the budget & "Frederick's of Hollywood"-level glitz of all Penthouse porn shoots.
The point? Bob wielded so much power in the industry, he was capable of single-handedly popularizing a fetish throughout the porn world. For a while there, piss porn was more prevalent than foot fetish porn, but I really don't believe that plays out in the viewer fetish demographics (that is, from everything I've read, foot fetishism is the most prevalent of fetishes, and urine-related fetishes are far behind). To this day, you're as (or more) likely to see a category of "pissing" on a porn site than you are "foot sex" (the latter is often lumped in under the catch-all title of "kinky", which is a bit ironic, when you think about "pissing" being elsewhere).
There are three big names in the porn world, and each symbolizes something different.
Hef was "classy porn": he'd stay 5 years behind the curve, whether it was showing crotch, pubic hair, or labia, and of course took photo-manipulation to its glossy extreme.
Larry Flynt was the vulgar provocateur: running photoplays with themes of daddy & daughter, buck slave & plantation wife (including the slave getting caught & whipped), and an endless, unoriginal parade of racist, violently misogynistic, and homophobic cartoons, but at the same time daring to fight the big battles against the establishment, legalizing the public's right to bawdy, even disgusting, entertainment.
Bob was in-between: one part class plus one heavy dose schmaltz, but his porn was graphic enough to fan the onanistic fires that Playboy only smoldered, without the hatemongering of Flynt's Hustler.
One last, important note about Bob: he made black models into centerfolds years before Playboy. Playboy was too sensitive to offending their market; Bob was genuinely more interested in a woman's beauty than her skin color's "market penetration". I don't recall Penthouse even making a point of a black model's race; she was described by her looks & personality, period.
posted by IAmBroom at 11:29 PM on October 20, 2010 [14 favorites]
I was a regular customer of Penthouse for years. Bought most of them from about 1985 - 1998, roughly. During the 90's, I began to notice a shift in Penthouse's photography themes. More & more, there were shots of girls holding running water hoses between their legs, or standing under water streams so that it poured off of their crotches, or spouted between their legs. "OK, whatever: it's evoking male ejaculation," I thought.
Then, it shifted: two-woman pictorials would include one model drinking the water that trickled off the crotch of the other.
Anyone want to guess where it went next? Yep. In fact, Penthouse even sponsored a contest, asking readers to send in sexy shots of themselves/their wives or GFs peeing.
Suddenly, it was everywhere. Water play, golden showers, girls were peeing in pornography everywhere I looked (except, of course, Playboy). The WWW was dawning, and "pissing" porn categories were on virtually every site.
All of this grew from Penthouse's lead, I believe. Bob spent literally years "warming up" his audience to the idea of water sports being sexy. You couldn't just "immerse" them in it cold; it's something they had to dip their toes in first (and with that, I'll leave off the puns). But he did it. It's a fairly easy thing to document, by flipping through randomly chosen editions from those years: the pictorials gradually go from slight suggestion to all-out urine drinking, but all photographed with the budget & "Frederick's of Hollywood"-level glitz of all Penthouse porn shoots.
The point? Bob wielded so much power in the industry, he was capable of single-handedly popularizing a fetish throughout the porn world. For a while there, piss porn was more prevalent than foot fetish porn, but I really don't believe that plays out in the viewer fetish demographics (that is, from everything I've read, foot fetishism is the most prevalent of fetishes, and urine-related fetishes are far behind). To this day, you're as (or more) likely to see a category of "pissing" on a porn site than you are "foot sex" (the latter is often lumped in under the catch-all title of "kinky", which is a bit ironic, when you think about "pissing" being elsewhere).
There are three big names in the porn world, and each symbolizes something different.
Hef was "classy porn": he'd stay 5 years behind the curve, whether it was showing crotch, pubic hair, or labia, and of course took photo-manipulation to its glossy extreme.
Larry Flynt was the vulgar provocateur: running photoplays with themes of daddy & daughter, buck slave & plantation wife (including the slave getting caught & whipped), and an endless, unoriginal parade of racist, violently misogynistic, and homophobic cartoons, but at the same time daring to fight the big battles against the establishment, legalizing the public's right to bawdy, even disgusting, entertainment.
Bob was in-between: one part class plus one heavy dose schmaltz, but his porn was graphic enough to fan the onanistic fires that Playboy only smoldered, without the hatemongering of Flynt's Hustler.
One last, important note about Bob: he made black models into centerfolds years before Playboy. Playboy was too sensitive to offending their market; Bob was genuinely more interested in a woman's beauty than her skin color's "market penetration". I don't recall Penthouse even making a point of a black model's race; she was described by her looks & personality, period.
posted by IAmBroom at 11:29 PM on October 20, 2010 [14 favorites]
Oops...! I got so involved in recanting my understanding of Penthouse's evolution during those years, I forgot to mention Kathy.
Bob's devotion to his wife was ever-present. She was Editor-in-Chief, IIRC, and of course founding editor of Omni - the Bible of young science fiction fans in the '80s. Her influence on the magazine could be palpably felt, as could Bob's devotion to her. As one of the three titans of the porn industry, Bob was ironically the model husband.
At the time, my best guess as to the growing obsession with water sports in Penthouse's photoshoots was a bit weird in retrospect: I imagined that Kathy had become incontinent due to cancer treatments, and Bob had sexualized this downside into an upside. OK, it was a kooky conclusion, but I got there from a perception of how important Kathy was to Bob - and isn't that a surprising thing to delve from the world's 2nd-best-selling pornagraphic magazine?
posted by IAmBroom at 11:49 PM on October 20, 2010 [4 favorites]
Bob's devotion to his wife was ever-present. She was Editor-in-Chief, IIRC, and of course founding editor of Omni - the Bible of young science fiction fans in the '80s. Her influence on the magazine could be palpably felt, as could Bob's devotion to her. As one of the three titans of the porn industry, Bob was ironically the model husband.
At the time, my best guess as to the growing obsession with water sports in Penthouse's photoshoots was a bit weird in retrospect: I imagined that Kathy had become incontinent due to cancer treatments, and Bob had sexualized this downside into an upside. OK, it was a kooky conclusion, but I got there from a perception of how important Kathy was to Bob - and isn't that a surprising thing to delve from the world's 2nd-best-selling pornagraphic magazine?
posted by IAmBroom at 11:49 PM on October 20, 2010 [4 favorites]
What blows me away is the stuff he did with his porn money... investing in Chinatown, Spin magazine, the art collection, nuclear fusion research, while so-called respectable CEOs like Larry Ellison spend their money on bullshit like yacht dicksize waving contests.
posted by rodgerd at 11:59 PM on October 20, 2010 [7 favorites]
posted by rodgerd at 11:59 PM on October 20, 2010 [7 favorites]
I still have all of my OMNIs, from about vol 2 in 6th grade through about vol 10. Classic shit, one of my hugest influences. Somehow I didn't turn out like RU Sirius, but maybe the techno-hippies still bought OMNI in the later, Longevity-oriented years.
Penthouse, but of course, and don't forget SPIN Magazine.
posted by rhizome at 1:15 AM on October 21, 2010
Penthouse, but of course, and don't forget SPIN Magazine.
posted by rhizome at 1:15 AM on October 21, 2010
Isn't life strange? When I was a kid pubic hair was regarded as a no-no. And here we are again.
Stop it with the waxing, you stupid brats.
posted by Decani at 2:45 AM on October 21, 2010
Stop it with the waxing, you stupid brats.
posted by Decani at 2:45 AM on October 21, 2010
Your father told her you could read them for the articles.
(The tits. A pussy. An ass.)
I guess in Mike Mongo's case that would have been the indefinite articles.
posted by The 10th Regiment of Foot at 4:26 AM on October 21, 2010
(The tits. A pussy. An ass.)
I guess in Mike Mongo's case that would have been the indefinite articles.
posted by The 10th Regiment of Foot at 4:26 AM on October 21, 2010
if they go out in threes, Larry Flynt and Hugh Hefner might want to check in with their family doctors...
posted by liza at 4:44 AM on October 21, 2010 [2 favorites]
posted by liza at 4:44 AM on October 21, 2010 [2 favorites]
.
posted by Faint of Butt at 4:50 AM on October 21, 2010
posted by Faint of Butt at 4:50 AM on October 21, 2010
I recall fondly when Penthouse first hit the stands, back during my formative adolescence. Until then, I indulged in the occasional stolen Playboy from my grandfather's stash. And, then, Penthouse appeared and changed everything, primarily because they had the balls to show...pubic hair!!!!
(I know this might come as a surprise to the younger MeFites, considering today's culture of the smooth-as-the-day-you-were-born pubis.)
There was an actual debate in the men's magazine world as to whether Guccione's mag was going to force Playboy to follow suit and show the model's pubes. Of course, then Hustler showed-up and really shook things up.
Bob does get serious cred for Omni, though.
Thanks for my teens, Bob!
.
posted by Thorzdad at 4:58 AM on October 21, 2010
(I know this might come as a surprise to the younger MeFites, considering today's culture of the smooth-as-the-day-you-were-born pubis.)
There was an actual debate in the men's magazine world as to whether Guccione's mag was going to force Playboy to follow suit and show the model's pubes. Of course, then Hustler showed-up and really shook things up.
Bob does get serious cred for Omni, though.
Thanks for my teens, Bob!
.
posted by Thorzdad at 4:58 AM on October 21, 2010
Always a big fan of Guccione and all of his works. His photo magazine was always just the perfect mix of smut and beauty. Where Playboy's women always wore expressions of beauty under glass and hardly ever smiled: "you can't touch this." Penthouse's women were always so much more inviting, "come and get it." Those photo shoots pretty much built my definition of hot.
posted by seanmpuckett at 5:44 AM on October 21, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by seanmpuckett at 5:44 AM on October 21, 2010 [1 favorite]
Mark me down as someone else who thought, back in the day (that is, the eighties) that Penthouse hit the sweet spot between Playboy's increasingly-weary man-of-the-world posturing and Hustler's sleazy, bottom-of-the-barrel crap. Yeah, you had some vaseline-on-the-lens pics, and occasionally things like their flogging the nude pics of then-Miss America Vanessa Williams (IIRC, one of those issues is actually illegal to own because it features pics of then-underage Traci Lords), but hey, nobody bats a thousand.
.
posted by Halloween Jack at 5:45 AM on October 21, 2010
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posted by Halloween Jack at 5:45 AM on October 21, 2010
For Country Porn, if nothing else, he shall always be remembered with a smile by this iPod jockey. OMNI, Spin, Penthouse and all the rest are just frosting (so to speak) on the cake.
posted by 1f2frfbf at 6:26 AM on October 21, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by 1f2frfbf at 6:26 AM on October 21, 2010 [1 favorite]
Here is a press release: Bob Guccione Death: Bob Guccione Died at 79
Thursday, October 21st, 2010 at 10:31 am , filed under Breaking, World by Natalie Brown
Bob Guccione Death: Bob Guccione, founder of ‘Penthouse’ magazine died at an age of 79. Bob Guccione family members revealed the details regarding his death.
Bob Guccione family said that Bob died at Plano Specialty Hospital in Plano, Texas. Bod has been struggling with lung cancer since many years.
Bob Guccione is the longtime editor-in-chief for the ‘Penthouse’ magazine. Guccione started the ‘Penthouse’ magazine in 1965 in England. Later, he launched in USA in 1969 and became a big competitor for the world’s most popular magazine, ‘Playboy’.
Due to financial and resources problems, Bob Guccione himself photographed several models for his ‘Penthouse’ magazine in many occasions. Slowly, he became one of the richest persons in USA.
Guccione has made lot of investments in Penthouse Boardwalk Hotel and Casino and lost $160 million in that business. In November 2003, Bob Guccione resigned chairman of the board and CEO of Penthouse International, Inc.
Bob Guccione married South African native, Kathy Keeton and both have son, Bob Guccione, Jr. Kathy Keeton died in 1997 due to cancer.
posted by grizzled at 6:32 AM on October 21, 2010
Thursday, October 21st, 2010 at 10:31 am , filed under Breaking, World by Natalie Brown
Bob Guccione Death: Bob Guccione, founder of ‘Penthouse’ magazine died at an age of 79. Bob Guccione family members revealed the details regarding his death.
Bob Guccione family said that Bob died at Plano Specialty Hospital in Plano, Texas. Bod has been struggling with lung cancer since many years.
Bob Guccione is the longtime editor-in-chief for the ‘Penthouse’ magazine. Guccione started the ‘Penthouse’ magazine in 1965 in England. Later, he launched in USA in 1969 and became a big competitor for the world’s most popular magazine, ‘Playboy’.
Due to financial and resources problems, Bob Guccione himself photographed several models for his ‘Penthouse’ magazine in many occasions. Slowly, he became one of the richest persons in USA.
Guccione has made lot of investments in Penthouse Boardwalk Hotel and Casino and lost $160 million in that business. In November 2003, Bob Guccione resigned chairman of the board and CEO of Penthouse International, Inc.
Bob Guccione married South African native, Kathy Keeton and both have son, Bob Guccione, Jr. Kathy Keeton died in 1997 due to cancer.
posted by grizzled at 6:32 AM on October 21, 2010
if they go out in threes, Larry Flynt and Hugh Hefner might want to check in with their family doctors...
I think if they go in threes Mr Guccione IS number three - in some bizarre trinity related to artificiality of media portrayals of love, marriage, and sex; the hypotenuse of which is anchored by Barbara "June Cleaver" Billingsly and Tom "Howard Cunnigham" Bosley.
posted by dirtdirt at 6:42 AM on October 21, 2010 [1 favorite]
I think if they go in threes Mr Guccione IS number three - in some bizarre trinity related to artificiality of media portrayals of love, marriage, and sex; the hypotenuse of which is anchored by Barbara "June Cleaver" Billingsly and Tom "Howard Cunnigham" Bosley.
posted by dirtdirt at 6:42 AM on October 21, 2010 [1 favorite]
Bob's House in Manhattan is fairly spectacular. From the New York Magazine article, "It’s one of the biggest private houses in Manhattan, with 30 rooms, and it costs $5 million a year to maintain."
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 6:44 AM on October 21, 2010
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 6:44 AM on October 21, 2010
Maybe Bob wasn't so ahead of the curve as we may think. He probably just reviewed his weekly shipment of Europorn and internet smut to adjust his content along the lines of what his customers in the US were more likely to demand. Looking back, as a twelve year-old, I would probably be very confused right now if my first images of sex were of two women micturating upon each other. That being said, I think he did a great job of establishing his core audience and riding it through with them.
On a personal note, as a young, shipboard Marine in the late '80s, some of my fellow shipmates would subscribe to Penthouse, it being allowed material as long as it was delivered in those plastic covers. The mail would be delivered to the detachment for later dispersal and if the subscriber in question was standing his post in another part of the ship at that time, someone would invariably open up the plastic cover and peruse the contents, with the magazine delivered to its recipient at a later time somewhat molested. This problem was pervasive enough aboard ship that at one point the captain had to get on the PA system and address the entire crew, warning of brig time if the mail was interfered with in any way, to include Penthouse magazines. I always imagine him feeling conflicted about that.
posted by jsavimbi at 6:45 AM on October 21, 2010
On a personal note, as a young, shipboard Marine in the late '80s, some of my fellow shipmates would subscribe to Penthouse, it being allowed material as long as it was delivered in those plastic covers. The mail would be delivered to the detachment for later dispersal and if the subscriber in question was standing his post in another part of the ship at that time, someone would invariably open up the plastic cover and peruse the contents, with the magazine delivered to its recipient at a later time somewhat molested. This problem was pervasive enough aboard ship that at one point the captain had to get on the PA system and address the entire crew, warning of brig time if the mail was interfered with in any way, to include Penthouse magazines. I always imagine him feeling conflicted about that.
posted by jsavimbi at 6:45 AM on October 21, 2010
Well, besides the fact that I could write a not-so-short story about my rather colorful and extensive business dealings with Bob and Kathy, as the creator of Penthouse Interactive (my own personal Frankenstein monster), it needs to be said that Bob was also a really decent artist and painter - this is often overlooked, but was tremendously important to him.
He never really got over Kathy's passing, and even though all the official stuff said he got cancer in 1997, the reality was that he was dealing with it at least a few years before that date.
RIP, Bob, there are more than a few folks who owe some degree of their sexual expression to you.
posted by dbiedny at 6:55 AM on October 21, 2010 [2 favorites]
He never really got over Kathy's passing, and even though all the official stuff said he got cancer in 1997, the reality was that he was dealing with it at least a few years before that date.
RIP, Bob, there are more than a few folks who owe some degree of their sexual expression to you.
posted by dbiedny at 6:55 AM on October 21, 2010 [2 favorites]
Add me to the list of folks who learned a great deal about sex--and tolerance--from Penthouse. I read a lot of my dad's Penthouses and Penthouse Letters (always on the sly, of course), probably starting around age 11 or so. What I remember clearly is what Mike Mongo and Forktine already talked about--these magazines were so levelheaded about presenting gay sex, fetishes, etc., as ordinary and mainstream, and that's pretty much how I, as a kid reading without a filter, learned how to take things like that, and how I ended up with a pretty healthy attitude toward sex in general.
(And that's also how I learned to blow off the kind of "think of the children!" mentality that believes that kids are so impressionable that if they read or hear something unorthodox they're immediately going to run out and do it in imitation. As I recall, I had absolutely no issues with being able to say to myself, OK, this is something that some people do--it doesn't sound like something I'm interested in, but if they like it, fine with me. Didn't run out and experiment immediately with sex--well, with anyone other than myself--didn't get diseases, didn't get pregnant, and didn't become a freak, or at least not much of one. And I continue to give kids credit for having more sense than many people think.)
Sort of a shame that porn's become such a visual thing and has moved away from writing as much as it has. I will miss Guccione and his aesthetic (especially because I think I somehow missed the whole women-peeing thing, thanks).
posted by dlugoczaj at 7:07 AM on October 21, 2010 [3 favorites]
(And that's also how I learned to blow off the kind of "think of the children!" mentality that believes that kids are so impressionable that if they read or hear something unorthodox they're immediately going to run out and do it in imitation. As I recall, I had absolutely no issues with being able to say to myself, OK, this is something that some people do--it doesn't sound like something I'm interested in, but if they like it, fine with me. Didn't run out and experiment immediately with sex--well, with anyone other than myself--didn't get diseases, didn't get pregnant, and didn't become a freak, or at least not much of one. And I continue to give kids credit for having more sense than many people think.)
Sort of a shame that porn's become such a visual thing and has moved away from writing as much as it has. I will miss Guccione and his aesthetic (especially because I think I somehow missed the whole women-peeing thing, thanks).
posted by dlugoczaj at 7:07 AM on October 21, 2010 [3 favorites]
immlass:
it wasn't the plots that got me, but the 'powerhouse pepperonis'.
Thanks immlass, as an often frustrated writer and semi-retired deviant, I think you've composed my epitaph.
As for my personal Guccione legacy, I was never too familiar with mainstream straight pornography but I do remember when it came to discovering illicit magazines, as a fledgling gay, I always preferred Penthouse to the others that were hidden in the proverbial (and sometimes not) tree trunks. I'm not sure what that means.
posted by MCMikeNamara at 7:58 AM on October 21, 2010
it wasn't the plots that got me, but the 'powerhouse pepperonis'.
Thanks immlass, as an often frustrated writer and semi-retired deviant, I think you've composed my epitaph.
As for my personal Guccione legacy, I was never too familiar with mainstream straight pornography but I do remember when it came to discovering illicit magazines, as a fledgling gay, I always preferred Penthouse to the others that were hidden in the proverbial (and sometimes not) tree trunks. I'm not sure what that means.
posted by MCMikeNamara at 7:58 AM on October 21, 2010
I have delicate tastes in wank-fodder, so I never bought Penthouse. And I wasn't even as big an OMNI fan as many of the commenters on my post. But Spin magazine turned me on to a lot of very good music that I might not have encountered otherwise. For that alone, he'd get my dot.
And Caligula? They just don't make movies like that anymore.
I remember when he bought an entire movie theater near East 57th Street in Manhattan to exhibit it, after all the existing theaters refused.
And you know what? People still seek it out and watch it for pleasure. More than can be said of, say, Reds - a "prestige" picture that came out around the same time.
posted by Joe Beese at 8:55 AM on October 21, 2010
And Caligula? They just don't make movies like that anymore.
I remember when he bought an entire movie theater near East 57th Street in Manhattan to exhibit it, after all the existing theaters refused.
And you know what? People still seek it out and watch it for pleasure. More than can be said of, say, Reds - a "prestige" picture that came out around the same time.
posted by Joe Beese at 8:55 AM on October 21, 2010
His publication meant a lot to me at age 14.
I mean the intriguing interviews and the thought-provoking essays and such.
- fapjax at midnite?
I read a story in a TOP TEN FORUM LETTERS OF THE DECADE type round-up where a couple of lads came home drunk late one night, and one grabbed his mum's cream sponge cake out of the fridge and proceeded to fuck it into oblivion. I thought it was hilarious at the time. And so completely off the wall in the pre internet, "rule 34" era.
I sometimes wonder if the writers of American Pie read it.
posted by uncanny hengeman at 9:17 AM on October 21, 2010
I mean the intriguing interviews and the thought-provoking essays and such.
- fapjax at midnite?
I read a story in a TOP TEN FORUM LETTERS OF THE DECADE type round-up where a couple of lads came home drunk late one night, and one grabbed his mum's cream sponge cake out of the fridge and proceeded to fuck it into oblivion. I thought it was hilarious at the time. And so completely off the wall in the pre internet, "rule 34" era.
I sometimes wonder if the writers of American Pie read it.
posted by uncanny hengeman at 9:17 AM on October 21, 2010
Those Letters to the Editor were REAL, man!
posted by uncanny hengeman at 9:21 AM on October 21, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by uncanny hengeman at 9:21 AM on October 21, 2010 [1 favorite]
For giving Robert Anton Wilson his start in the writing biz, without which we might never have come to have his legacy
.
posted by Fupped Duck at 9:29 AM on October 21, 2010 [1 favorite]
.
posted by Fupped Duck at 9:29 AM on October 21, 2010 [1 favorite]
There will always be a soft spot in my heart, as the first nudie mag I was ever able to buy (two issues in 8th grade before the dude at the record store lost his job/quit!)
When I was a Freshman at college, one of my professors drunkenly told me that half of the Fiction Department staff's first (secret) paid writing credit was a letter to Penthouse
A few years ago, someone told me about cheap magazine subscriptions on eBay, and I got a year of Penthouse for a flat rate of $3 bucks. I was surprised to find out how decent it was, like what Maxim and FML wanted to be but with less frat humor and more actual sexy sex. There was a surprising diversity to the images. Usually one photoset with big hair and big fake tits, one photoset that was stark and realistic in a Richard Kern/Vice Magazine vein, and then one or two more. Even more surprising was the music reviews. I don't remember if this was always a staple of the magazine (given that Bob Guccione also founded Spin) but the records that were being reviewed were shit like The Fall sideprojects and underground projects.
Fast forward a couple years and my sweetie works at Playboy and that rag is a mess. Literally. The layout is so jumbled I can hardly read it.
I don't know if Bob Guccione exercises the same kind of control as Hugh Hefner does over his baby. I salute him if he made the better magazine with a guiding hand, or by getting the hell out of the way, but between the Penthouses I hid under the bed and the riot grrl issue of Spin (pretty much an issue of Bust wrapped in Spin's format, that had a fairly equal profound impact on me in the early '90s), and for contributing to the mainstreamization of smut in general... I salute him.
.
posted by elr at 10:01 AM on October 21, 2010
When I was a Freshman at college, one of my professors drunkenly told me that half of the Fiction Department staff's first (secret) paid writing credit was a letter to Penthouse
A few years ago, someone told me about cheap magazine subscriptions on eBay, and I got a year of Penthouse for a flat rate of $3 bucks. I was surprised to find out how decent it was, like what Maxim and FML wanted to be but with less frat humor and more actual sexy sex. There was a surprising diversity to the images. Usually one photoset with big hair and big fake tits, one photoset that was stark and realistic in a Richard Kern/Vice Magazine vein, and then one or two more. Even more surprising was the music reviews. I don't remember if this was always a staple of the magazine (given that Bob Guccione also founded Spin) but the records that were being reviewed were shit like The Fall sideprojects and underground projects.
Fast forward a couple years and my sweetie works at Playboy and that rag is a mess. Literally. The layout is so jumbled I can hardly read it.
I don't know if Bob Guccione exercises the same kind of control as Hugh Hefner does over his baby. I salute him if he made the better magazine with a guiding hand, or by getting the hell out of the way, but between the Penthouses I hid under the bed and the riot grrl issue of Spin (pretty much an issue of Bust wrapped in Spin's format, that had a fairly equal profound impact on me in the early '90s), and for contributing to the mainstreamization of smut in general... I salute him.
.
posted by elr at 10:01 AM on October 21, 2010
.
posted by localroger at 10:04 AM on October 21, 2010
posted by localroger at 10:04 AM on October 21, 2010
One of the great things about Walden Books was that the porn was sequestered in a blind corner, making it easy to snag, then disguise in a copy of Sports Illustrated or American Spectator or Billboard or whatever.
posted by klangklangston at 10:27 AM on October 21, 2010
posted by klangklangston at 10:27 AM on October 21, 2010
I read a story in a TOP TEN FORUM LETTERS OF THE DECADE type round-up where a couple of lads came home drunk late one night, and one grabbed his mum's cream sponge cake out of the fridge and proceeded to fuck it into oblivion.
I remember at least TWO letters about oven-ready chickens. I think I was more amazed that there was more than one person who had done this (and were willing to admit to it) than that it had actually been done in the first place.
posted by dlugoczaj at 10:49 AM on October 21, 2010
I remember at least TWO letters about oven-ready chickens. I think I was more amazed that there was more than one person who had done this (and were willing to admit to it) than that it had actually been done in the first place.
posted by dlugoczaj at 10:49 AM on October 21, 2010
I'm still a little upset that he became so enamored of women urinating that he had to put it in every issue. That's a real boner-killer for me.
Can anyone confirm I wasn't imagining this short lived fetish in Penthouse... It would be a normal photo spread, but somewhere amongst the pics there would be some shots of the model with a shallow, 5cm cut to her skin, usually on an outer thigh, that was weeping blood along its length. Sometimes two or three parallel to each other, IIRC.
I'm pretty sure I saw it in a number of different photo spreads. But I was very young and never really got into porn and would never keep it at home. So the memory is only limited to fleeting sessions of looking at "found porn" and maybe if I came in contact with a friend's dad's stash or something.
Never saw the act in magazines again as I got older.
posted by uncanny hengeman at 12:01 PM on October 21, 2010
Can anyone confirm I wasn't imagining this short lived fetish in Penthouse... It would be a normal photo spread, but somewhere amongst the pics there would be some shots of the model with a shallow, 5cm cut to her skin, usually on an outer thigh, that was weeping blood along its length. Sometimes two or three parallel to each other, IIRC.
I'm pretty sure I saw it in a number of different photo spreads. But I was very young and never really got into porn and would never keep it at home. So the memory is only limited to fleeting sessions of looking at "found porn" and maybe if I came in contact with a friend's dad's stash or something.
Never saw the act in magazines again as I got older.
posted by uncanny hengeman at 12:01 PM on October 21, 2010
.
posted by Crabby Appleton at 7:47 PM on October 21, 2010
posted by Crabby Appleton at 7:47 PM on October 21, 2010
One of the great things about Walden Books
Actually, at the Walden where I worked, the magazines were directly across the store from the row of registers, probably about 20-25 feet of space, with the new/bestseller islands in between. I was still in high school, but old enough to buy them on my own. Much more fun was when a couple of us were up front and a couple kids would come in to try to steal a magazine. For one thing, they were all the way at the top of the rack, nearly impossible to reach. They were also at the opposite end from any form of men's magazines. We'd surrounded them with home and gardening, child rearing, older women's health, all that sort of magazine. We always got a kick out of a 14 boy trying to look like he was interested in those, and we'd wait with baited breath for that sweet moment when they worked up the courage to make a grab for it. I'd wait until just before their hands were about to touch the magazine, then, in as booming as my voice could get, I'd say
CAN I HELP YOU, YOUNG MAN?
The speed with which they always left the store was more than worth it.
posted by Ghidorah at 10:47 PM on October 21, 2010 [3 favorites]
Actually, at the Walden where I worked, the magazines were directly across the store from the row of registers, probably about 20-25 feet of space, with the new/bestseller islands in between. I was still in high school, but old enough to buy them on my own. Much more fun was when a couple of us were up front and a couple kids would come in to try to steal a magazine. For one thing, they were all the way at the top of the rack, nearly impossible to reach. They were also at the opposite end from any form of men's magazines. We'd surrounded them with home and gardening, child rearing, older women's health, all that sort of magazine. We always got a kick out of a 14 boy trying to look like he was interested in those, and we'd wait with baited breath for that sweet moment when they worked up the courage to make a grab for it. I'd wait until just before their hands were about to touch the magazine, then, in as booming as my voice could get, I'd say
CAN I HELP YOU, YOUNG MAN?
The speed with which they always left the store was more than worth it.
posted by Ghidorah at 10:47 PM on October 21, 2010 [3 favorites]
I only bought Penthouse once, but it was great fun. I was 19 when the Vanessa Williams issue went out. I was home from college for break, so I put on my MHC Lesbian Alliance t-shirt with camo pants, grabbed my very gay brother and headed down to some suburban strip mall book store to buy Penthouse.
The saleswoman would not take money from my hand. I had to put it down. My brother had to run out of the store, he was laughing so hard at her.
It was very empowering. I snickered for days.
The Williams stuff was pretty boring, but the letters...those were lots of fun! Quite eye-opening. Had I not been so hung up on politics in those days, I may well have subscribed.
posted by QIbHom at 10:21 AM on October 22, 2010
The saleswoman would not take money from my hand. I had to put it down. My brother had to run out of the store, he was laughing so hard at her.
It was very empowering. I snickered for days.
The Williams stuff was pretty boring, but the letters...those were lots of fun! Quite eye-opening. Had I not been so hung up on politics in those days, I may well have subscribed.
posted by QIbHom at 10:21 AM on October 22, 2010
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