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Bob Guccione

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Robert Charles Joseph Edward Sabatini "Bob" Guccione (December 17, 1930 – October 20, 2010) was the founder and publisher of the adult magazine Penthouse. He resigned from his publisher position in November 2003.

Early life

Guccione was born in Brooklyn, New York, and raised as a Roman Catholic in Bergenfield, New Jersey, considered, but rejected, the choice of going into the priesthood.[1] He attended high school at Blair Academy, a prep school in Blairstown, New Jersey. He came from a Sicilian family; his father was an accountant. Guccione married the first of his three wives, Lilyann Becker, before the age of 20, and had a daughter, Tonia.[1] The marriage soon failed. He left wife and child to go to Europe, where he wanted to be a painter. He traveled widely, and had adventures with friends like William S. Burroughs in Tangier. He eventually met an English woman, Muriel, moved to London with her, and married her. They had two children, Bob Jr. and Tony. To support his family he managed a chain of laundromats. He eventually got work as a cartoonist on an American weekly newspaper, The London American, while Muriel started a business selling pinup posters. He sometimes created cartoons for Bill Box's humorous greeting card company, Box Cards.[2] [3] [4]

Career

Penthouse began publication in 1965 in England and in America from 1969. Penthouse was an attempt to compete with Hugh Hefner's Playboy on several levels. One approach Guccione took was offering editorial content that was more sensationalistic than Playboy. The magazine's writing was aimed more at the middlebrow reader than Hefner's upscale emphasis, with stories about government cover-ups and scandals.[2]

Due to his lack of money and other resources, Guccione himself photographed most of the models for the magazine's early issues.[2] Lacking professional training, Guccione applied his knowledge of painting to his photography, establishing the diffused, soft focus-look that would become one of the trademarks of the magazine's pictorials. Guccione would sometimes take several days to complete a shoot.

As the magazine grew more successful, Guccione openly embraced a life of luxury; his former mansion is said to be the largest private residence in Manhattan at 22,000 square feet (2,000 m2). However, in contrast to Hugh Hefner (who threw wild parties at his Playboy Mansions), life at Guccione's mansion was remarkably sedate even during the hedonistic 1970s.[2] Reportedly, Guccione once had a party guest thrown out simply for jumping into the swimming pool fully clothed. [citation needed]

The magazine's pictorials offered more sexually explicit content than was commonly seen in most openly sold men's magazines of the era, being the first to show female pubic hair, then full-frontal nudity, and then the exposed vulva and anus.[2] Penthouse has also, over the years, featured a number of authorized and unauthorized photos of celebrities such as Madonna and Vanessa Lynn Williams. In both cases, the photos were taken earlier in their careers and sold to Penthouse only after Madonna and Williams became famous. In Williams' case, this led to her forced resignation as Miss America in 1984; the issue in which Williams was first featured also included a layout featuring porn actress Traci Lords, who was later revealed to be underage during most of her porn career (including her Penthouse session). By the early 1990s, the magazine was showing sexual penetration in many of its photo layouts,[citation needed] something the American porn magazine industry did not adopt until later in the decade. In the late 1990s, the magazine began to show "fetish" content such as urination, bondage, and "facials".[2]

Guccione used some of his fortune to make a major movie (Caligula (1979) with Malcolm McDowell) and a supporting cast including Helen Mirren, John Gielgud, and Peter O’Toole. Guccione also created the magazines Omni, Viva, and Longevity.[2] Guccione and Alan West of Savannah, Ga started Penthouse Forum magazine primarily for University of Georgia students in Athens, Ga. In the early 2000s, Penthouse published a short-lived comic book spin-off entitled Penthouse Comix featuring sexually explicit stories.

Decline and resignation

Several wildly unsuccessful investments by Guccione—including the Penthouse Boardwalk Hotel and Casino (which lost $160 million),[2] and even a (never-built) nuclear power plant—added to his publishing empire's financial woes. [citation needed] Guccione's efforts to regain sales and notoriety, which included attempts to get Monica Lewinsky to pose for the magazine (which was parodied in a sketch on Saturday Night Live in 1998,[5] but didn't have someone impersonating Guccione) and offering the Unabomber a free forum for his views, failed to increase readership.

With the rise of online access to (often free) pornography in the latter 1990s, Penthouse's circulation numbers began to suffer even more. In 2003, General Media (the publishing company for Penthouse) declared bankruptcy, and Guccione himself resigned as chairman of the board and CEO of Penthouse International, Inc. The magazine as of 2010 was still in publication, and had an online presence; its circulation was estimated at 500,000, roughly a tenth of what it was at its peak.

In 2006 Guccione sued Penthouse Media Group for fraud, breach of contract, and conspiracy, among other charges. Some of the people named in the case included Jason Galanis, Charles Samel, Marc Bell, Dr. Fernando Molina, and Daniel C. Stanton. It was Jason Galanis and Charles Samel who were allegedly working with Guccione to keep his media empire.[6][7]

Other work

Guccione can be credited with helping launch the careers of some notable media professionals. He gave Anna Wintour her first job as a fashion editor for his magazine Viva.[8]

Guccione was an investor in the films Chinatown and The Day of the Locust.[9]

Personal life

Family

Guccione's English-reared son, Bob Guccione, Jr. (b. 1956), was given editorship of Spin, but father and son soon fell out[10] over editorial decisions, and Bob Jr. eventually found independent investors to continue the magazine. Father and son remained estranged despite the senior Guccione's health problems, but are reported to have recently reconciled.[11]

Guccione married his long-time companion, Kathy Keeton, a native of South Africa. She died of cancer in 1997 following surgery, but Guccione continued to list her on the Penthouse masthead as President until he lost control of the magazine.

Guccione suffered a bout with cancer himself. He stated “My cancer was only a tiny tumor about the size of an almond at the base of my tongue,” he explains. “The cure is probably every bit as bad as the disease. It’s affected my ability to swallow . . . the mobility of my tongue . . . it makes it very difficult for me to talk..."[12]

Residence

Guccione brought artisans in from France and Italy to build the largest private residence in Manhattan. As a tribute to Guccione the artisans carved both his and his wife's face into the marble columns near the entrance. According to New York magazine, "It’s one of the biggest private houses in Manhattan, with 30 rooms, and it costs $5 million a year to maintain."[13]

In November 2003, the mansion on Manhattan’s Upper East Side was foreclosed on by Kennedy Funding of New Jersey,[14] the mortgage holder along with an affiliate of multi billion-dollar hedge fund Elliot Associates of New Jersey. In January 2004, a group of investors came to Guccione’s aid during his Sheriff-enforced eviction. A London-based investor named Jason Galanis lead an investment group that purchased the house for $26.5 million in cash.[15][16][17]

The house was purchased by NY Real Estate LLC, an entity set up to acquire the mansion. Galanis contributed $2.6 million, and two New York hedge funds called Laurus Funds and Alexandre Asset management (today reportedly $1.6 [18] and $4 billion respectively) made a mortgage loan of $24 million to NY Real Estate LLC, which was owned by Penthouse International, the parent and debtor-in-possession of General Media.

As a result of the continuing contentious bankruptcy which lasted over a year, the promissory notes due to Laurus were considered in technical breach of covenants which resulted in severe financial penalties in excess of $8 million. Penthouse International elected to forego refinancing the house due to the combination of the penalties and the unfavorable lifetime lease of $1.00/year that was granted to Guccione, which made the property unmarketable. Laurus sued Guccione to take possession of the house from the tenant.[19] It was reportedly sold for $49 Million, well below the asking price of $59 million, to Wall Street financier Philip Falcone.[20]

Guccione also had to sell his country house in Staatsburg, New York. The estate was purchased by actress Uma Thurman and hotelier Andre Balazs.[21]

Art collection

While unsuccessful as a recognized artist, Guccione was a painter and a world-renowned collector of fine art.[22] His art collection included extensive Impressionist Art. Highlights of the Guccione collection included a portrait by Amedeo Modigliani (1884–1920) and a portrait of the artist's son, Paulo, by Pablo Picasso (1881–1973). He also owned paintings by: Sandro Botticelli, Albrecht Dürer, El Greco, Marc Chagall, Salvador Dalí, Giorgio de Chirico, Edgar Degas, Fernand Léger, Gilbert Stone, Henri Matisse, Jules Pascin, Camille Pissarro, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Georges Henri Rouault, Chaïm Soutine, and Vincent van Gogh.

The Guccione art collection was sold at auction by Sotheby's in November, 2002 to pay Guccione's personal debts originally incurred in the Atlantic City venture.[23] The collection was appraised by Christie’s at $59 million two years before. However, September 11, 2001 had depressed the art market and the Guccione collection failed to achieve its appraised price. The aggregate sale price was $19 million, which was used to pay Swiss Re, the lender. Swiss Re sued Guccione in New York State Court for a $4 million shortfall on the loan balance.

Guccione had a history of leveraging his prized asset. He borrowed $20 million from AIG, the insurance company. Subsequently they refinanced with Swiss Re Insurance.[24]

Success

Guccione was once listed in the Forbes 400 ranking of wealthiest people ($400 million net worth in 1982).[25] An April 2002 New York Times article quoted Guccione as saying that Penthouse grossed $3.5 billion to $4 billion over the 30-year life of the company, with a net income of almost 500 million dollars.[26]

Death

Guccione died on October 20, 2010 two months before his 80th birthday due to cancer at Plano Specialty Hospital in Plano, Texas.[1][27]

References

  1. ^ a b c McFadden, Robert D. "Bob Guccione, Penthouse Founder, Dies at 79", The New York Times, October 20, 2010. Accessed October 20, 2010.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h Anthony Haden-Guest "Boom and Bust", The Observer, 1 February 2004
  3. ^ Bob Guccione episode on E! True Hollywood Story
  4. ^ Bob Guccione (Producer), Penthouse (magazine) Caligula Cast and Crew. Accessed September 20, 2007. "Coming from a conventional background--he was born in Brooklyn, raised in Bergenfield, New Jersey, and educated at Blair Academy--Guccione became interested in less than conventional activities after he left school."
  5. ^ SNL
  6. ^ [1]
  7. ^ [2]
  8. ^ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Wintour
  9. ^ [3]
  10. ^ A fact that is alluded to in the Guns N' Roses song "Get in the Ring"; Daily Telegraph Arts review 18.08.07 p29
  11. ^ John Colapinto (2004-04-01). "The twilight of Bob Guccione". Rolling Stone. p. 58.
  12. ^ Bob Guccione - Pentouse - Anthony Haden-Guest - Feature http://nymag.com/nymetro/news/media/features/n_9815/#ixzz0ZQmp3nh5
  13. ^ New York Mag, The Porn King in Winter
  14. ^ Real Estate Weekly, “Kennedy's funds get around,” June 23, 2004
  15. ^ XBiz, IBill Settles With Penthouse Founder Guccione, 2006-05-19
  16. ^ The House that Porn Built
  17. ^ I Bill, You Bill, We All Scream for iBill: Is the check finally in the mail?, By: Dash Hamilton, Sept. 1, 2005
  18. ^ SEC Filing
  19. ^ South Florida Business Journal , “Penthouse owner sued by Guccione”, February 24, 2006, by John T. Fakler
  20. ^ Keil, Braden (March 5, 2008). "The $49M Town House". New York Post.
  21. ^ "IN BRIEF: Uma buys ex-Penthouse mansion; McCartney to headline Super Bowl; more". CBC News. November 23, 2004.
  22. ^ New York Times, “From Bob Guccione, an Exhibition in Shocking Good Taste”, By PETER MARKS, February 18, 1994
  23. ^ Sotheby’s Auction
  24. ^ Kennedy Funding
  25. ^ New York Times, September 25, 2005, Don't Blink. You'll Miss the 258th-Richest American, By NINA MUNK
  26. ^ New York Times, April 8, 2002, Cybersmut and Debt Undermine Penthouse, By David Carr
  27. ^ via Associated Press. "Robert Guccione died at a hospital facility on October 20, 2010 at the age of 79.", The New York Times, October 20, 2010. Accessed October 20, 2010.

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