#Traci lords penthouse magazine how to#

The pageant then was compulsory viewing for much of the public, and winning it was atop many a little girl's to-do list. Miss America isn't a big thing now, is barely a thing at all, but it certainly was when Williams, 20 at the time, a junior at Syracuse University, took the title on September 17, 1983. In 1984, Vanessa Williams was the reigning Miss America. Vanessa Williams being crowned as Miss America 1984. A porn star-an underage one at that-was born because of the issue. A queen was dethroned because of the issue. And then, two years later, the FBI came to the offices and took away all the issues. When it hit stands, I was fielding over a hundred calls a day. Leslie Jay-Gould, Penthouse's then-vice president and director of public relations: 'The issue was beyond huge, was beyond anything. Which meant you had to see the fucking magazine.' But the media couldn't really cover the Penthouse story because the pictures we had were just too scandalous. You'd read about them in newspapers, or watch them covered on TV. But the media could report on those stories. Bloch again: 'I mean, People magazine would do stories on Jackie Kennedy or whoever, and it would be a big story and the issue would sell. There were guys paying-a dollar for a peek. The most important news in the history of our country, having a woman vice presidential nominee, was overshadowed by the fact that we had…well, that we had what we had.' The front page of that paper was our story. Somebody in the press got an advance copy, and released it to the New York Post or the Daily News, one of those, the same exact day that Walter Mondale announced he was picking Geraldine Ferraro as his running mate. Richard Bleiweiss, Penthouse's then-art director: 'The thing about this issue is, it became the biggest news story in the world. So there were guys paying-and this is something I saw with my own eyes-a dollar for a peek. Peter Bloch, Penthouse's then-executive editor: 'It was the best-selling issue of Penthouse of all time.

#Traci lords penthouse magazine how to#

How to convey the magnitude of the frenzy? Because my mind is in the past (the mid-eighties) and in the gutter (the porn biz) for reasons that will become clear, I've spent a lot of time thinking about the September 1984 issue of Penthouse.