Bob Guccione, who founded Penthouse magazine and created an erotic corporate empire around it, only to see it crumble as his investments soured and the world of pornography turned toward video and the Internet, died Wednesday. He was His wife, April Dawn Warren Guccione, had said he had battled lung cancer for several years. Penthouse reached the pinnacle of its popularity in September , when it published nude pictures of Vanessa Williams, the first black Miss America.
He introduced the magazine to the American public in at the height of the feminist movement and the sexual revolution. He added that he attained a stylized eroticism in his photography by posing his models looking away from the camera. That was the part that none of our competition understood.
Guccione built a corporate empire under the General Media Inc. Guccione and longtime business collaborator Kathy Keeton, who later became his third wife, also published more mainstream fare, such as Omni magazine, which focused on science and science fiction, and Longevity, a health advice magazine.
Keeton died of cancer in following surgery, but Guccione continued to list her on the Penthouse masthead as president. Distributors shunned the film, with its graphic scenes of lesbianism and incest. Guccione also lost millions on a proposed Atlantic City casino. He never received a gambling license and construction of the casino stalled.
Legal fees further eroded his fortune. Among those who sued were televangelist Jerry Falwell, a California resort, a former Miss Wyoming and a Penthouse Pet who accused Guccione of forcing her to perform sexual favors for business colleagues. The next year, U. Circulation dropped after the Meese commission report and years later took another hit with the proliferation of X-rated videos and Web sites. In , General Media Inc.
