Publisher Bob Guccione died 20 October 2010, after a long battle with cancer. Born Robert Charles Joseph Edward Sabatini Guccione in Brooklyn, New York, on 17 December 1930, he built a publishing empire out of Penthouse magazine, which he founded in 1965 to compete with Playboy.
Penthouse was known for publishing more explicit, racier photos of naked women than Playboy, but also known for its fiction, political commentary, and interviews, and featured work by the likes of Alan Dershowitz, Stephen King, Philip Roth, and Joyce Carol Oates, as well as interviews with Germaine Greer, Gore Vidal, and Isaac Asimov. Guccione built on that success, launching 15 other magazines, including Omni, which ran from 1978 to 1995.
Omni blended the boundaries of science and science fiction, and published some of the biggest names in sf. The magazine ran through many editors, including Ben Bova, who was the first fiction editor, and promoted to editor soon after the magazine’s launch. Bova left in 1981. Ellen Datlow took over as fiction editor in 1981, and held that position until the magazine folded in 1998.
Two stories from Penthouse were nominated for Nebula Awards: Edward Bryant’s “The Hibakusha Gallery” (1977) and Gardner Dozois’ “Disciples” (1981).
Award-winning stories published in Omni include: George R.R. Martin’s “The Way of Cross and Dragon” (1979, Hugo winner and Nebula nominee); George R.R. Martin’s “Sandkings” (1979, Hugo and Nebula winner); Gardner Dozois’ “Morning Child” (1984, Nebula winner); Greg Bear’s “Tangents” (1986, Hugo and Nebula winner); Roger Zelazny’s “Permafrost” (1986, Hugo winner and Nebula nominee); Kate Wilhelm’s “Forever Yours, Anna” (1987, Nebula winner and Hugo nominee); George Alec Effinger’s “Schrödinger’s Kitten” (1988, Hugo and Nebula winner); Connie Willis’ “At the Rialto” (1989, Nebula winner and Hugo nominee); and Ted Chiang’s “Tower of Babylon” (1990, Nebula winner and Hugo nominee). In addition, Omni published at least 11 other Hugo nominees and 22 other Nebula nominees.
According to his New York Times obituary, Guccione amassed a fortune of $400 million by 1982, putting him on the Forbes 400 wealthiest list. He also put together a remarkable art collection, with works by Chagall, Dali, Degas, Matisse, Picasso, Renoir, and more.
His empire began disintegrating with a few bad investments, and then a 1986 federal antipornography report, which lost Penthouse its newsstand distribution. Then, of course, the rise of the internet with free access to pornography rang the death-knell for Penthouse.
After graduating from Blair Academy in Blairstown, New Jersey, Guccione thought of entering the priesthood, but instead turned to art. He married Lilyann Becker at the age of 18, and the couple had a daughter, but the marriage soon failed. Guccione traveled in Europe and North Africa for the next two years, pursuing his art and working a series of odd jobs. In 1955, he married English singer Muriel Hudson, and they had four children. Hudson left him in the early 1960s, following a string of business failures. He then met South African dancer Kathy Keeton, who would become his business partner, and later his wife. She died of cancer in 1997, but Guccione left her name on the magazines’ masthead as President until he lost control of the company.