My favorite Penthouse Couple Pictorials

[Mr.Bungle]

Originally Posted by Mr.Bungle

The earliest outright hardcore I remember is December '91's 'Romances With Wolves'. I got the feeling they were testing the waters with that one, as they did both hard and softer sets after that for the rest of the decade.

My bad. I've found I'm thinking of a different set: 'Dancing With Wolf', from January/98. To further confuse (me), there's also 'Romancing With Wolves', from March/99.

[Viklas]

Nope, not Jami Dion/Dahlia Grey... I think these shots argue against it.

There's that distinctive mole on her upper lip - does that ring any bells? Anyone?

[Pnin]

Originally Posted by Mr.Bungle

My bad. I've found I'm thinking of a different set: 'Dancing With Wolf', from January/98.

Yep, that Leslie Glass set is what I associate with the PH mag hc plunge.
The shoots before, Cattle Annie, that Andi Sue b/g, etc always had that is-it-or-isn't-it quality, along with some unhelpful airbrushing.

[Mr.Bungle]

Originally Posted by Pnin

Yep, that Leslie Glass set is what I associate with the PH mag hc plunge.

I clearly remember flipping through that issue when it came out and thinking "WTF??" when I came across that layout.

[Mr.Bungle]

Originally Posted by Viklas

I'll have to check that one out! Meanwhile, another site, RAMEguy's Pet Trivia, claims that "...the first honest-to-goodness, no-doubt-about-it, hardcore, penis-inserted-in-an-orifice shot, in my estimation, was in the Sep 95 "Cattle Annie and Little Britches" pictorial, which pretty clearly shows a model with her lips wrapped around a penis on page 153."

Here's what Earl Miller has to say, in an interview I came across online:


Q: So, a lot of the stuff that you shot for PH in the seventies was basically softcore. There wasn’t a lot of penetration.

EM: There wasn’t any. We didn’t even shoot, I mean I personally made it a point not to even shoot dick, you know?

Q: Oh, yeah?

EM: Everything was simulated.

Q: Right.

EM: I did sneak hardcore pornography in a couple of times because it was obscure. I did a piece where I shot a couple through - I spent days trying to find the right textured glass, like a shower door type glass - and I lit them behind it with colored lights and I shot through it and it looked like impressionist art because the textured glass made the images look like they were created by brush strokes and I actually shot it hardcore. Guccione didn’t hesitate to run that.

So, I found ways like that to introduce hardcore sex in an obscure, indirect, kind of creative way. Later, I did the very first obvious hardcore sex in PH in 1996. I shot a couple painted silver in an industrial facility and I had a welder welding in the background so sparks were flying. And the only thing that wasn’t silver were their genitals and their mouths. So, their tongues, her pussy, the pink really popped against the silver and it was very dramatic.

… Guccione was always looking for a way to really get into hardcore sex and just put it out there obviously. So, that was the first hardcore sex in a major magazine.



Everything he says fits but, as I've mentioned before, there's a very similar, earlier b/g (not by him) called 'Ironworks' (with Trica Yen), from March/96, that I'd swear had a full page shot of either a hardcore BJ or reverse cowgirl.

[cutilaie]

Interesting interview with Earl Miller. I don't remember the shower door, texured glass lay-out. I remember the welder layout though. Thanks for the post.

[Viklas]

Originally Posted by Mr.Bungle

Everything he says fits but, as I've mentioned before, there's a very similar, earlier b/g (not by him) called 'Ironworks' (with Trica Yen), from March/96, that I'd swear had a full page shot of either a hardcore BJ or reverse cowgirl.

Just checked that pictorial, it's all "close but no cigar" i.e. no explicit penetration.

[honeylove]

Well, as I've mentioned before, I think P-h*use lost the edge when it went to obvious penetration.

What made the magazine so hot was when there was an undeniable sexual tension between the models, and what started out as only planned kissing and touching, ended up progressing to actual oral or penetration. I think the photographers called that a "working accident".

After the sessions went to planned hardcore, then the magic went away. It was the "are they or aren't they" mystery that made it sexy. Plus, to be blunt, the quality of the women in the shoots was less than stellar once it went to planned HC. When you had an A-list model who got so worked up that she took it further than expected, that was HOT.

[dick1138]

agreed..porn is so much better when they seem to sort of skirt around the idea of penetration and sex, and as a result have to invent incredibly stunning erotic images. Penthouse photographers were the masters of this - too bad they show everything now.

[Mr.Bungle]

Excellent points, MikeLCI & dick1138.
Another aspect, IMO, that made those earlier layouts erotic was the feeling, regardless of the often corny settings, that you were looking in on a private, real moment. That's all gone now thanks to a certain photog with the initials SR, who introduced hyper-stylised sets, contrived facial contortions and meccano-set posing.