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: