On October 20, 2010, Bob Guccione, creator of PENTHOUSE magazine, died at the age of 79 after a long bout of cancer.
No one could accuse Bob of being “classy”PENTHOUSE Magazine was first published in the UK in 1965, first printed in the USA in 1969, and swiftly became the porn of the proletariat. Where Hugh Hefner tried to make PLAYBOY more of an up-market, discerning gentleman’s magazine, Guccione shamelessly pushed the envelope on what would be shown in print (ahem!), invited readers to send in their fantastical letters, and went so far as to include nude men in Penthouse’s pictorial spreads.
In the 1970’s he produced the now infamous CALIGULA, written by Gore Vidal, that would go on to be the first film to feature prominent actors (Peter O’Toole, Malcolm McDowell, John Gielgud and Helen Mirren) to also include an explicit sex scene. The film was released with different edits over the years, the most recent being a “Director’s Cut” released in 2007.
If you’re over 35, you probably remember why this was such a scandal.
Throughout his life he was an ardent investor and collector of art, which would serve to be his retirement fund after a number of bad investments left him financially crunched in the last decade of his life.
For some he was a Hugh Hefner wannabe, for some he was a low-rent smut peddler…but whether we want to admit it or not, he (along with Hugh Hefner) was responsible for advancing the public conversation about the First Amendment in the last four decades more than anyone else.
