Me and Guccione had the same dentist in Manhattan. I’d see him gliding thru the waiting room glittering with bling bling like King Tut. Bob’s testosterone fogged my Italian wraparounds. The cat had presence. 

Bob Guccione, who founded Penthouse magazine in the 1960s and built a pornographic media empire that broke taboos, outraged the guardians of taste and made billions before drowning in a slough of bad investments and Internet competition, died Wednesday in Plano, Tex., The Associated Press reported. He was 79.

NY Times obit here.

Penthouse was to Playboy what The Rolling Stones were to The Beatles. I came down on the side of The Stones.
 
Guccione produced the big-budget soft-core epic Caligula. Here he is commenting on the censoring of the film:
 

 
Poor Bob Guccione.  The Penthouse publisher and Caligula auteur had his Connecticut mansion seized last week and its contents put up for auction.  One of the items sold off was the golden calve below.  Leftover set dressing from Caligula, possibly, but still—how often does life reward you with on-the-nose symbolism like that?!  No stranger to Foster Kane-like ostentation, The Penthouser was also apparently fond of marble commodes and whale teeth.

Long on the losing side of the print vs. internet wars, Guccione is, though, donating the auction’s proceeds to Green Demolitions, an oddly-named non-profit that supports programs for people recovering from various addictions.  And for those of you still with me here on the “irony train,” yes, on the list of Green Demolitions’ treatable addictions, sexual addiction is listed 5th.
 

 
In the Huffington Post: Guccione’s Strangest Auction Items

In the NYT: On The Block, A Glimpse Of The Lifestyle Of Bob Guccione