The news of the death of Bob Guccione was reported today. He is certainly most remembered for his effort to rival Playboy with the slightly more daring Penthouse.
But he had the daring as publisher to launch the science-fiction magazine Omni and an alternative women's monthly, Viva. I find that in my archive I have two covers from Viva, one being that illustrated, with its tease of the story inside devoted to pubic hairstyles! Yes, I have those pages, too! But I'll post them on my Tumblr site rather than here.
I have wasted hours today searching my files for a photo of meeting I attended where we launched a Penthouse tie-in long-playing record... very suave and smoochy big-band jazz. I'll do an update when I find it.
An amusing anecdote about how the finance was found to launch the magazine in London. Guccione ran small ads in the back pages of the then popular men's mags. The offer was something along these lines...
"For ten shillings and sixpence, a hundred artistic nudes!"
And the punter desperate enough to send his postal order for 10/6 received exactly what was promised. But they were simply photographic contact sheets!
[Contact sheet shown is for illustration only, and is not one of those above referenced!]
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