Guccione started Penthouse in 1965 in England to subsidize his art career and was the magazine's first photographer.
His wife, April Dawn Warren Guccione, had said he had battled lung cancer for several years. Guccione's family said in a statement that he died at Plano Specialty Hospital in Plano. His company, his world-class art collection, his huge Manhattan mansion - all of it, sold off. Williams, who went on to fame as a singer and actress, was forced to relinquish her crown after the release of the issue, which sold nearly 6 million copies and reportedly made $14 million.īut Guccione's empire fell apart thanks to several bad investments and changes in the pornography industry, which became flooded with competition as it migrated from print to video and the Internet. In 1984 it was the magazine that took down Miss America, publishing nude pictures of Vanessa Williams, the first black woman to hold the title. He was listed in the Forbes 400 ranking of wealthiest people with a net worth of about $400 million in 1982. He estimated that Penthouse earned $4 billion during his reign as publisher. It worked for decades for Guccione, who died Wednesday in Texas at the age of 79. Even more sensational letters that began, "Dear Penthouse, I never thought I'd be writing you." Where Hefner's Playboy magazine strove to surround its pinups with an upscale image, Guccione aimed for something a little more direct with Penthouse. DALLAS -Bob Guccione had tried the seminary and spent years trying to make it as an artist before he found the niche that Hugh Hefner left for him in the late 1960s.
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