A shocking new documentary has provided a grim insight into the life of Penthouse magazine mogul Bob Guccione, showing how he coaxed young models into performing sex acts and made them live in his sprawling mansion in New York City.
Secrets Of Penthouse is a four-part limited series airing on A&E that sheds light on the sordid American baron, who launched the infamous publication to rival Hugh Heffner’s Playboy in 1965.
At the height of his fame and fortune, multimillionaire Guccione – who had an estimated net worth of $400 million at the height of his success – lived with his third wife, Kathy Keeton, in the largest private residence in Manhattan, which stood at an impressive height. 22,000 square feet.
However, plenty of shady antics played out behind the doors of the gargantuan stately home, with former Penthouse Pets claiming they were shown bestiality pornography and coaxed into X-rated acts.
Porn lord: Penthouse was founded in 1965 by American businessman Bob Guccione (photo 1976)
Magnate: Guccione, pictured here in 1972 with Penthouse models, launched the infamous publication in 1965 to rival Hugh Heffner’s Playboy
Shocking documentary: Secrets Of Penthouse reveals a grim insight into the life of the magazine’s wealthy owner. He is pictured here with models in 1995
A former Penthouse Pet, Jane Hargrave, claimed she had to watch bestiality porn with Guccione while wife Keeton was out of the house.
She was only 18 and lived in Guccione’s dressing room for four years in 1975.
“When Kathy was gone for a few days, he asked me into the bedroom,” she recalls. “In it was a huge bed, about twice the size of a king.
“Of course he had a video of women having sex with animals. A girl with a pig. I never realized pigs had corkscrews. I think he wanted to shock me or something.’
She added, “He started coming into my room and wanted to be intimate to some degree. I wasn’t sure I was comfortable with that because Kathy was in the other room and I didn’t like that happening.’
Guccione married four times in his lifetime, the first wedding to Lilyann Becker in his late teens.
He then married British woman Muriel Hudson, with whom he had four children: Bob Jr, Nick, Tony and Nina.
After his divorce in 1979, Guccione married his third wife, longtime companion Keeton.
Keeton died at the age of 58 from complications resulting from surgery to clear an obstruction in her digestive tract after a long battle with cancer.
Hargrave also talked about starring in Guccione’s box office flop Caligula, a controversial erotic film starring Dame Helen Mirren and John Gielgud, in which he invested $17.5 million of his own fortune.
“I didn’t know I was going to suck someone’s dick that I had never met before and I had never even done that before,” she said when she appeared in the film’s infamous orgy scene.
“I just had my 19th birthday. Little I realized how insignificant I was to a man I had to trust.’
Humble beginnings: Due to Guccione’s lack of resources in the early days of Penthouse, he personally photographed most of the models. Pictured in 1978
X-rated antics: Former Penthouse Pets revealed that Guccione (pictured 1980) asked them to perform lewd sex acts and made them live in his sprawling mansion in New York City
Living together: Several of the magazine’s models lived in the porn baron’s giant mansion in New York
Explicit: According to former Penthouse Pets, Guccione and his wife, Kathy Keeton, would persuade the models to have sex with them. The couple pictured in 1989
Another former “Penthouse Pet,” Sheila Kennedy, alleged that Guccione asked her to perform a golden shower on his bed.
“Bob was into some really bizarre things that got him excited,” she said. “One night Kathy was in Europe and I went to his bedroom, and I don’t know how he got on this, but he said, ‘You know honey, there’s something I’d really like you to do. .”
“He says, ‘Have you ever heard of a golden shower?”‘
Sheila initially refused to perform the kink on him because she was a bed-wetter in her youth, so he suggested taking things to the bathtub.
“He had all his gold chains on, all naked, and I just peed on him,” she said. “I just thought it was such a strange fetish, who would do that, who likes that? He was all excited about it.’
Horrific encounter: Jane Hargrave claimed she had to watch bestiality porn with Guccione while his wife was out of the house
Fired: Sheila Kennedy burst into tears after claiming she was fired by Guccione after he persuaded her to have a threesome with him and wife Kathy
Sick: Guccione’s Only Daughter Nina Was Disgusted After Realizing Why Her Dad Made Penthouse Models Use Birth Control
Sheila also claimed she was fired from the Penthouse mansion after having a threesome with him and his wife Kathy at his request.
“In the end he destroyed me,” she said. “It was the first time in my life that I thought, ‘It’s not you, you didn’t have to do this,’ but I just knew that if I didn’t do it, I would leave.”
“If there’s one thing I regret about Penthouse, it’s that,” she continued. “After I got to Kathy, they fired me. I do not know why. It shocked me, it really did.’
Guccione’s own children shared somewhat poignant stories from their formative years.
His only daughter, Nina, told how her father made the Penthouse Pets take birth control pills.
“He’d say the girls look more lecherous for a shoot, and that made perfect sense to me because I know your boobs get a little bigger,” she said.
“But I noticed he was probably trying to keep the girls from getting pregnant. It’s disgusting, but he didn’t care.’
Massive wealth: Guccione, pictured here in 2002, posing at home in front of a Modigliani painting worth an estimated $11 million, was once one of the richest men in the world
Grizzly ending: Guccione, pictured here in 1994, was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer and passed away on October 20, 2010, at age 79
Guccione was one of the richest people in the world. Forbes reported in 1982 that he had a net worth of $400 million.
In April 2002, he was quoted in The New York Times as saying that Penthouse had grossed $3.5 billion to $4 billion over its three-decade lifespan.
However, in the late 1990s, Penthouse’s circulation numbers began to dwindle, thanks to the rise of free online pornography.
In August 2003, the magazine’s parent company, General Media, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, and just two months later, Penthouse was put up for sale by creditors.
By November of the following year, Guccione had resigned as chairman and CEO of Penthouse International.
Guccione was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer and died on October 20, 2010 at the age of 79.