Penthouse October 1974

Penthouse

October 1974

It's October, 1974, and if we take a look at the top albums on the Billboard Hot 200 chart, If You Love Me Let Me Know by Olivia Newton-John stands at Number One, a clear indicator that she would be one of the best-selling female artists of the decade.

 

 

The latest issue of Penthouse magazine is on the stands, with Laura Doone, a stunning Linda Carter look-alike, as our cover girl.

 

Looking at the Penthouse Forum, alas, 'monopede mania' still endures, having emerged as a Forum obsession about two years previously (where and when K. W. Jeter decided to immortalize it in his 1972 cyberpunk novel 'Dr. Adder'). 

 

In the 'Music' column, coverage is given to some up-and-coming acts that embrace the 'glitter' sensibility. There is Dana Gillespie, a backing vocalist on some of David Bowie's records. Dana is (gasp) a lesbian ! Despite this provocative marketing angle, Dana's LP, Weren't Born A Man, never got much traction among the public. 

There's also an eccentric crossdresser named Wayne Country, who doesn't have an album out yet, but, we are assured, is the Next Big Thing. 

 

Then there is another glitter act, some guys calling themselves 'Kiss,' who are '...having an incredible amount of money pumped into them by Casablanca Records.' 

Kiss, we are informed, '....all wear bats wings and black leather boots, with red spots and stars painted across their faces, and the group's bassist is a dead ringer for Divine, the three-hundred pound drag queen of the film Pink Flamingos.' 

 

What a gimmick ! This band will be dropping out of sight very soon, now.........

 

 

In the magazine's text pieces, we have an article by Robert Sherrill titled 'The Old Shell Game,' which asserts that the oil companies are leveraging the Oil Crisis to extort money from the public. This was a common theme throughout the 1970s.

 

 

Thanks to the success of the movie The Godfather, the 1970s were preoccupied with gangsters and the Mafia, and so we have an excerpt from the book 'The Last Testament of Lucky Luciano' by Martin Gosch and Richard Hammer. Even before the book was published in January 1975, it was being criticized for having fictitious content.

 

 

There's also an excerpt from the novel 'Emmanuelle,' as by Emmanuelle Arsan (it later would be revealed that it was her husband, Louis-Jacques Rollet-Andriane, who in fact wrote the book). 

 

While it chronicles all sorts of sexual escapades on the part of the heroine, 'Emmanuelle' is perhaps a bit too highbrow for the readership of Penthouse. But Bob Gucccione got, what Bob Guccione wanted. The story does have a striking illustration by surrealist artist Paul Birkbeck.

 

Now, on to the nudies. The portfolio for Laura Doone is, in my opinion, one the best that Guccione ever did. Lots of soft-focus, lots of accessories: pearls, scarves, stockings, floppy-brimmed hats. Purely Seventies !

 

Let's not quit while we're ahead, and proceed to another portfolio: this one, 'The Cincinnati Kid,' features the lissome brunette Karen Dermer !

And that's how it was, fifty years ago, in the pages of Penthouse magazine..................