RIP: Bob Guccione, Lord Of The Soft Focus, Dead At 79

NEW YORK TIMES: 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.  A statement issued by the Guccione family said he died at Plano Specialty Hospital after a long battle with cancer, The A.P. said. His empire began in London in 1965 with a bank loan, an idea and an accident. The loan was for $1,170. The idea was a […]