Bob Guccione

[osceola]

Bob definitely had a relationship with Bonnie Dee (Nov. 1975). He and Kathy Keeton had an open relationship, and Bonnie was his mistress. The way I have read it elsewhere is that Bob was going to name Bonnie POY, but she had a drinking problem and had embarrassed him publicly on a few occasions. Since POY is a public relations position to market the PH brand, any similar drunken episodes by Bonnie would hurt the brand, so he gave the title to Victoria Lynn Johnson instead and created the Runner-Up position as a consolation prize for his mistress.

BTW, I consider VL Johnson the most beautiful woman ever to appear in PH.

[Cheekymonkey]

Originally Posted by FantasiaLeuven

TL was not a redhead in PH sept 84.

Well, brunette then. Looked red to me (as I remember it). Certainly not her 'usual' blonde look.

[Alvin Lucifer]

Originally Posted by deepsepia

Couple of observations on Hef vs Guccione:

Hef was a repressed midwest Protestant overcoming the weight of his moral tradition . . . he really was a "revolutionary" in terms of where he came from.

Guccione was culturally Italian (born in Brooklyn), a painter -- there was nothing "forbidden" about naked chicks for him, no revolution in saying "the body is nice to look at"

Plenty of sexual repression among Italian Catholics. Not to dwell too much on ethnic stereotypes, but there's the whole Madonna/Whore thing. Naked chicks are great, but my mother, my sister, my wife, and my daughter are all the Virgin Mary, or else!

[FantasiaLeuven]

Originally Posted by lawson

I remember reading this in a tabloid at the time, probably Daily Mirror. She arrived in London by plane from Denmark and was photographed wearing a see-through blouse (with no bra) and this PR stunt got a lot of publicity in the press. In her quotes she mentioned BG and that she'd come over to be photo'd by PH and to be present at a porn film festival in London. She gave the impression BG was taking the pics of her but they were credited to someone else in PH

Some of this was indirectly suggested in her Oui fotopages, obviously without any mention of PH or Guccione. Does anyone have a link or scan of the Daily Mirror item from 1974?

[deepsepia]

Originally Posted by Alvin Lucifer

Plenty of sexual repression among Italian Catholics. Not to dwell too much on ethnic stereotypes, but there's the whole Madonna/Whore thing. Naked chicks are great, but my mother, my sister, my wife, and my daughter are all the Virgin Mary, or else!

Yes, but the notion of the body as being beautiful is an Italian (and before that, Roman and Greek) thing. Its not a chilly midwestern Protestant thing, though . . . that was the distinction I was trying to make between Hefner and Guccione.

Guccione's conceit was that he was a Roman Emperor, Caligula isn't an accidental subject. Hefner's conceit was that he was a revolutionary . . . different ideas.

One other interesting thing about Guccione -- the battle with his son, Anthony, sometime publisher of Spin

There's a good piece about Guccione that appered in the New York Observer about ten years ago

Interview Boom & Bust: This Saturday, Bob Guccione, Entrepreneur, Fine Art Collector And Multi-Millionaire Porn Baron, Could Become Homeless. It's The Final Chapter In A Story Which Has Seen Him Lose His Wife, Disown His Sons And Squander His Fortune... Here, The 'Legendary Recluse' Tells Anthony Haden-Guest About His Fall From Penthouse To Pavement


The pictures told the story. The paintings in Bob Guccione's ballroom, that is. The walls that had been hung with Van Gogh, Matisse, Renoir, Chagall, a couple of Degas pastels, a Modigliani nude and a Rose Period Picasso, and were now hung with... Gucciones.

Bob Guccione, the begetter of Penthouse magazine, has occupied this town house at 12 East 67th Street since he moved from London in the mid-Seventies, the better to do battle with Hugh Hefner's Playboy. It's one of the biggest private houses in New York, with 26 rooms, and it costs $5m a year to run. Nowadays, a 'legendary recluse' usually means a famous person without a publicist, but Bob Guccione actually is a legendary recluse. He didn't see many people even when his third wife, Kathy Keeton, was alive, but she would sometimes prevail on him to entertain, either in the city or at their country house in Rhinebeck, an enclave of Old New York Money on the Hudson River. But Keeton died in 1997 and Guccione now sees few people, apart from his staff of 11, and seldom leaves the house. Few come to visit, besides lawyers. Otherwise, he works in his bedroom, or the workroom, or he paints in his studio, all of which lie above the ballroom. When was there last a ball, I ask? 'Not in a while,' Guccione's executive administrative assistant, Susan Moore, says.

In 1985 Forbes magazine put Guccione on its Rich List, figuring that he was worth $200m. At Penthouse’s peak, it sold 5m copies a month. This has slumped to half a million, but with a cover price of $8.99, it remains one of the most expensive buys around. Bob Guccione is now bankrupt, though, and the magazine has been limping on without him since early November.

What went wrong?

I have known Guccione since his London years and have been here from time to time, and at first the house seemed unchanged. There's a barking on the other side of the black wrought iron door, but the five Rhodesian ridgebacks are shut away, and the El Greco still confronts you as you walk in off the street (a female saint, eyes heavenwards). The indoor swimming pool shimmers to your left. The walls are of narrow Byzantine bricks, made to his specifications. 'He designed every inch of the house,' says Peter Bloch, editor of Penthouse. 'It was incredible to watch.' Two lead lions, cast for Napoleon, each with the head of Marie Antoinette, are at the far end of the pool, flanking a Roman statue of Bacchus. Two of the Roman images on the wall are antique bas-reliefs of the Emperors Nero and Vespasian, and the third was a prop from Guccione's X-rated film, Caligula.

. . .[and continues at the link]

http://www.marcbell.com/mediacov/020104.htm

[Jennifersman]

Originally Posted by chuckschick

I recently read in a NY newspaper that a guy who went around and bought up unclaimed storage spaces bought one that contained a trove of Bob Guccione artifacts, including reels of Caligula footage...

Not surprising, there are so many versions of that film around that no one's certain which one is complete, despite any claims of a "Director's Cut" DVD.

[b119a]

I was in college when I first saw Penthouse in the school bookstore for $1.

There was an interview with BG in the early days somewhere and he spoke of a Five Year Plan to overtake Playboy. In the following years, I would choose a Playboy or a Penthouse, and usually buy the Penthouse because the girls appeared to be like the girls in art class or something, or slightly older, and probably more readily attainable.

[cutilaie]

Originally Posted by Jennifersman

Not surprising, there are so many versions of that film around that no one's certain which one is complete, despite any claims of a "Director's Cut" DVD.

I would hope that some of the footage from the hardcore scenes from Caligula, (2 hours worth; only 20 minutes made the cut to final production), existed, but I don't think they are around. Bob would have released them years ago for the money.

[scallywagbill]

I gotta say i wish there were more great sex scenes in Caligula, for example I. E. the two chicks licking the one guys cock. I don't know why the hell Bob Guccione didn't direct the movie himself ? Otherwise I thought the movie sucked.

[cutilaie]

Originally Posted by scallywagbill

I gotta say i wish there were more great sex scenes in Caligula, for example I. E. the two chicks licking the one guys cock. I don't know why the hell Bob Guccione didn't direct the movie himself ? Otherwise I thought the movie sucked.

He did direct over two hours of hardcore filming with his Penthouse Pets, but only 20 minutes of it made it into the movie. The remaining ended up on the editing room floor and lost forever unfortunately.