Somehow our mega-busy Photo Editor and Director of Pet Projects Sam Phillips found time to compile a dazzling list of Penthouse facts from obvious to arcane. Some of us want to know if Sam ever sleeps, while others want to sneak into her house to see if she has an old picture up in her attic.
Don’t be Puzzled — The Answers are at Your Fingertips
Growing up, I used to watch my Uncle Mike do the crossword puzzle in the local paper every Sunday. That was his thing. He loved to do it and was really good at it. Me? I had never completed a crossword in my life. Either I didn’t know all of the answers, or I didn’t understand some of the clues, so every attempted puzzle of mine went unfinished. [Do you wonder if that fact ever led to a “cross word” or two? -Ed.]
My uncle came to visit recently, and while he was sitting doing his crossword, something clicked for me. What if we had a puzzle focused on a subject I knew a lot about, like Penthouse magazine, or Bob Guccione? And what if the answers were super easy to find — or even provided somewhere?
I’d definitely complete that puzzle!
Inspired, Uncle Mike and I did a deep dive on the internet, looking up every cool factoid we could find about Penthouse and Bob that we could use as a question and cross-referenced for an answer. Well, what we found will absolutely blow your mind!
In fact, you see the result before you — Penthouse magazine’s first-ever Trivia Edition Crossword Puzzle. We designed this specifically to allow readers to copy and paste the questions into a web browser to find the answers — if they don’t immediately come to mind. [They’re also on page 75, of the Penthouse magazine, May/June 2023 edition, so you might want to Subscribe to avoid missing any other crucial information. -Ed.]
I can promise that when you’ve completed this puzzle, you will know more about the illustrious history of our Penthouse Brand and the iconic man who created it all, Bob Guccione.
Obviously — well, maybe not “obvious” but still true — we could not spend the time necessary to code this fancy puzzle Sam built so that you might be able to fill it in online. We can, however, build a handy-dandy PDF that you can download and print to fill it in with a pencil/pen like Sam’s uncle. If you decide to do that, you will need the clues which we have helpfully included here. Without clues it would be super hard to fill out a crossword puzzle.
Crossword ACROSS
2) Which legendary artist of Alien fame was featured in Penthouse with drawings of hard-core penetration?
4) Kathy Keeton and Bob Guccione published ________ magazine, an anti-aging, health and wellness magazine launched in the USA in 1989.
7) Name the Penthouse Pet of the Century.
9) Who was the first celebrity on the cover of Penthouse magazine, appearing in July 1979?
10) Last name of the martial artist and action film star who appeared on the cover of Penthouse magazine in August 1992.
15) Bob Guccione personally financed the creation of the world’s first ________ fusion reactor in the 1980’s.
16) Name the June 1993 Penthouse Pet and star of Phantasm 2 who is the current photo editor of Penthouse magazine. [If you do not know this one, you have not been reading very carefully here. -Ed.]
19) Guccione produced what 1979 historical erotic epic described as the most controversial film of all time?
20) What is a common nickname for Bob Guccione?
22) Name the July 2007 Pet of the Month who went on to crossover mainstream fame starring in Steven Soderbergh’s, The Girlfriend Experience.
29) In the early 80s Guccione invested in a music magazine called ________, of which his son, Bob Jr., became the founding editor and publisher.
33) In 1969 Penthouse was published in the United States to compete with ________ magazine.
35) This 4-time Grammy Award winning band famous for the song Walk This Way was on the cover of Penthouse magazine July 1993.
37) The Penthouse Boardwalk and Casino was a proposed hotel and casino that was to be built in ________ New Jersey in the 1970’s.
38) Which Baywatch star’s honeymoon photos were printed in the pages of Penthouse magazine June 1996?
43) Penthouse published a short-lived comic book spin-off entitled Penthouse ________ featuring sexually explicit stories.
45) Which actor from the movie A Clockwork Orange starred in Caligula?
47) Which Bill Clinton accuser had pictures published in Penthouse?
48) Which former professional boxer with a grill business was on the cover of Penthouse June 1992?
50) Name the “1x” car driver sponsored by Penthouse in the World of Outlaws sprint car series.
52) Name the automotive magazine that Bob Guccione sold to Petersen Publishing Company in 1999.
55) In March of 1970 Penthouse showed the first glimpse of a ________ on the cover.
57) In 2010 what was the cause of Bob Guccione’s death in Plano, Texas?
60) Penthouse was the first men’s magazine to publish female pubic ________ on its pages.
62) Bob Guccione branched out into Hollywood, investing money into the film ________.
64) The magazine of sexual marvels, Penthouse ________ brings you our readers’ own sizzling tales of forbidden desires, insatiable needs, and unspoken lusts, as well as erotic fiction.
67) Name the founder of Penthouse magazine.
68) The Penthouse brand logo that incorporates the Mars and Venus symbols in its design is called the Stylized ________.
69) Name the Science/Science Fiction magazine that Kathy Keeton founded in 1978 with Bob.
71) Whose short story “Children of the Corn” was first published in Penthouse magazine March 1977? [Movie, about the time she was also trying to stay around long enough to give birth to John Conner. – Ed.]
72) Name of Vogue magazine current Editor-In-Chief whom Guccione gave her first job as the Fashion Editor of his women’s periodical, Viva magazine.
73) Bob Guccione was born in ________, New York.
74) Name the German supermodel who appeared on the cover of Penthouse magazine in December 1993.
75) Name the star of the film The Naked Gun who appeared on the cover of Penthouse magazine in August 1993.
Crossword DOWN
1) Which 28-year-old singer and actress stripped off for Penthouse magazine in a patriotic shoot photographed by publisher Bob Guccione in 1983?
3) Name the Pulitzer Prize author who penned the X-rated epic Caligula.
5) Which Penthouse Pet of the Year announced her candidacy as a mayoral candidate for Toronto City?
6) What female academy award winner starred in the movie Caligula?
8) Which late editor of GQ magazine got his start as the Editor-In-Chief of Penthouse magazine from 1976 – 1977?
9) Name the lead singer of new wave band Blondie who was on the cover of Penthouse magazine in Feb. 1980.
11) Name the Penthouse Pet of the Month who went on to television sitcom fame playing Terri Alden on Three’s Company.
12) Mark Wahlberg went by the name ________ on the March 1993 cover of Penthouse magazine.
13) Penthouse ________ magazine is filled with titillating stories and readers’ first-hand account of their kinkiest sexual fantasies and experiences.
14) The name of the Presidential mistress that told all and showed all in the Dec. 1992 issue of Penthouse would be Gennifer ________.
16) Name the first Asian Pet of the Month in January 1981 who was an American model-turned-actress and starred in the movie, Big Trouble in Little China.
17) Penthouse was the first and only magazine to publish nudes of this iconic singer/actress in the September 1985 Special Anniversary issue.
18) Which notorious ice skater’s wedding night video outtakes were featured in Penthouse magazine, September 1994?
19) Name the supermodel famous for her face mole who graced the cover of Penthouse magazine in February 1993.
21) Name the youngest heavyweight champion in history who appeared on the cover of Penthouse magazine in May 1993.
23) Name the Penthouse Pet of the Year for 2004 who is considered by many to be the world’s most famous adult performer and “The Queen of Porn.”
24) This stand-up comedian known for his dark, neurotic and self-deprecating humor appeared on the cover of Penthouse magazine in October 1993.
25) Whose Manifesto did Penthouse publish in October 1995?
26) Bob Guccione at one point considered, but rejected, entering which vocation?
27) Penthouse Variations was the first magazine to publish an unknown erotic writer named A.N. Roquelaure aka ________.
28) Name the actor, comedian and composer who starred in the movie 10 that appeared on the cover of the April 1992 Penthouse magazine.
30) Last name of the Penthouse Pet of the Year Runner Up for 1990 who was the nurse on the cover of the Blink-182 album, “Enema of the State”?
31) Guccione sold his country house in Staatsburg, New York to actress ________.
32) Name the 2015 Penthouse Pet of the Year Runner Up who was cast as the role of Dylan Quinn in the Showtime series, Submission.
34) Frequency that Penthouse magazine currently gets published.
35) Guccione amassed an amazing ________ collection over the years, once appraised at $59 million.
36) Name the former professional basketball player who was on the cover of Penthouse magazine in Dec. 2005 and changed his name to Metta World Peace in 2011.
39) Name the 1983 Penthouse Pet of the Year who came in 3rd place on season 9 of the reality show Big Brother.
40) Stephen Hawking bet physicist Kip Thorne a year’s subscription to Penthouse magazine over what recently discovered cosmic object?
41) Which radio shock jock appeared on the cover of Penthouse magazine in Sept. 1992 and in April 1997?
42) Which Miss America was forced to resign her crown in 1984 after appearing in Penthouse magazine?
43) Name the Penthouse Pet of the Year that starred in Spring Break and was married to Wiseguy actor, Ken Wahl.
44) What was Bob Guccione famous for wearing?
46) Name the stand-up comic actor known as The Diceman who was featured on the front cover of the April 1991 issue of Penthouse.
49) Which actor played Bob Guccione on the Hulu series, Pam and Tommy?
51) Which former president of production of Paramount Studios and former president of Columbia TriStar Pictures got her start as a merchandising director of Penthouse from 1967–1975?
53) Guccione published the first ever tech-oriented magazine for men called ________ magazine.
54) Name the Italian film director and screenwriter that directed Caligula.
56) Penthouse magazine centerfold models are known as “Penthouse ________”.
58) Name the star of TV’s Two and a Half Men who appeared on the cover of Penthouse in Jan. 1993.
59) Name the breed of dogs Bob Guccione owned, Rhodesian ________.
61) This legendary comedian is famous for playing God in three films and appeared on two Penthouse magazine covers with Vanessa Williams.
63) The name of the rivalry between Penthouse and Playboy during the 1960’s and 1970’s (pun on the Punic Wars).
65) In what city was Penthouse magazine established in 1965?
66) Penthouse ________ was started in March 1968 featuring fan letters, articles on health, medicine, psychology, and social relationships.
70) Name the International magazine for women that Bob Guccione and Kathy Keeton published from 1973 to 1980.
We gave no small amount of thought as to how to provide the answers to these many and fascinating questions, finally settling upon a method Sam suggested. If you pop over to the contact form and write in for them, we’ll send you a PDF with the answers on it. That may not be the most elegant solution, but it will work, and you will never hear from us again (well, unless you sign up for the newsletter). And even if you do not want the answers, we figured you deserved something for making it all the way down to the bottom of this very long page, so we’ve posted a picture of Sam Phillips some 30 years or so before she made up this crossword puzzle. We were going to just put in her cell number, but we envision way too many cross words, honestly.
@Penthouse & @BobbyoGuccione in his passing only leaves undeniably a criticism of this story? Like many journal juggernauts emphasizing a legendary importance to femininity? I think looking even at the crossword puzzle, gave me perspective like every event in history? Although, I am esquire’ d in telling a tale of tales!