AP-016 · ADJACENT: ADULT MEDIA AND THE VICE ECONOMY

Bob Guccione

Sanctioned adult publishing pushed to its limits — and undone in civil court, not criminal.

Edited still: converted to black and white. Source: A&E, Secrets of Penthouse.

Robert Guccione launched Penthouse in London in March 1965 and brought it to American newsstands in September 1969, positioning it directly against Playboy by publishing more explicit photography and pairing it with investigative reporting. The strategy worked commercially: United States circulation reached roughly 4.7 million in 1979, and Guccione put his own figure for annual business volume near $100 million.

He is instructive for this archive as the case of licensed adult publishing pushed to its limits. Guccione fought his fights before regulators and in civil court rather than in criminal court. Penthouse survived a $522 million libel action over the La Costa resort, absolved by a jury in 1982 after litigation costing more than $20 million. His Atlantic City casino never received a New Jersey gaming license; construction stopped in 1980 and the steel frame stood until it was demolished in 1993. Ambitions in film — $17.5 million into Caligula — and in science publishing with Omni drained the magazine's earnings.

The collapse was financial, not penal. General Media filed for Chapter 11 on 12 August 2003, and Guccione left the company he had built. He died of cancer in Plano, Texas, in October 2010.

ALSO KNOWN AS
Robert Charles Joseph Edward Sabatini Guccione

BORN
Brooklyn, New York, 17 December 1930

STATUS
Died 20 October 2010, Plano, Texas, aged 79

ERA
1965–2010

ASSOCIATED WITH
New York City

STANDING
Documented

DOCUMENTED RECORD

Penthouse: UK edition March 1965; US edition September 1969.
US peak circulation approximately 4.7 million, 1979; first annual loss in 1995.
Also published Omni, Viva and Longevity.
Financed Caligula at approximately $17.5 million from 1976; released late 1979.
September 1984 issue published unauthorized nude photographs of the reigning Miss America, who relinquished the title.
La Costa libel litigation 1975–1985: jury absolved the magazine in 1982; settled December 1985.
General Media filed Chapter 11, 12 August 2003; Guccione resigned as chairman and CEO.

NOT ESTABLISHED

No criminal conviction was located in any reliable source. Do not state or imply one.
His account of a 1965 UK summons over posting indecent material is self-reported in a 2010 interview; the disposition is undocumented.
Widely circulated totals for his Atlantic City losses are unsourced and are not published here.
NPR's obituary carries an October 21 dateline; catalog records give 20 October 2010.