Penthouse founder Bob Guccione dies
Posted on 21. Oct, 2010 by Leon Kennedy in Entertainment
Your first thought regarding the motivations of the founder of an adult magazine might be that they were less the noble; after all, they just started a “wank-mag” right? Woop tee doo! Bob Guccione, on the other hand, seems to have felt differently about his contribution to the earth by founding Penthouse Magazine. “I think we made a very serious contribution to the liberalization of laws and attitudes,” said Guccione in the past. Guccione, now 73, died yesterday in Texas of cancer.
Although we usually think first of “Playboy” as the no.1 adult magazine, in 1985, Forbes magazine estimated Guccione’s wealth at $200 million; perhaps making Penthouse the Pepsi to Playboy’s Coke. Sadly though, the rise of adult Internet sites over the next 15 years caused the magazine’s profits to fall sharply; eventually filing for bankruptcy in 2003. Originally inspired by Playboy, Guccione wanted to make a magazine that would push the envelope even farther, one that was even raunchier and saucier in adult content.
Guccione, however, did not see this quest for raunchiness in a petty or opportunistic light; rather, he believed (or at least said he believed) that Penthouse was contributing to a revolutionary liberalization of American values. Guccione went so far as to say that, if not for Penthouse, HBO would not be able to get away with what it does today. So, because of Penthouse magazine, David Duchovny can say the F-word on television? Awesome.
Guccione, due to the aforementioned rise of the internet, eventually lost his business and even his home, before retreating from the earth in the midst of a battle with cancer and creditors.
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