Penthouse Magazine

Penthouse Magazine is an adult publication, which first went on sale in the United Kingdom in 1965 and the US in 1969. The Penthouse Magazine is owned by Friendfinder Networks and before this was owned by General Media, who went into bankruptcy.

The Penthouse Magazine has since its inception featured full female nudity and this meant its more explicit content swept it ahead of Playboy in the late 1960's in the UK.http://www.articlesbase.com/art-and-entertainment-articles/history-of-penthouse-magazine-102512.html

The best selling copy ever of Penthouse Magazine was the September, 1984 issue. This issue is the second largest sales in the US for a magazine ever at 5.3 million copies (November, 1972 Playboy sold 7.1 million copies). This issue featured explicit photos of Vanessa Williams the reigning Miss America. Williams was photod with another model in black and white photos simulating lesbian acts. Williams appeared on the cover of this issue with actor George Burns.http://en.allexperts.com/e/p/pe/penthouse_(magazine).htm

In the late 1990's Penthouse Magazine moved away from just photos to actual oral and vaginal penetration. In addition photos of female models urinating were featured. This caused an outrage and was classed by many as illegal obscenity, sales declined and many retailers stopped selling the Magazine.

Recent publication figures from Penthouse suggest that circulation is about 360,000 copies per issue.http://www.medialifemagazine.com/cgi-bin/artman/exec/view.cgi?archive=170&num=2116

Each year there is a Penthouse pet of the year, the 2010 reigning pet of the year is Taylor Vixen.

The complete list of Penthouse pets of the year is:

• 1970, Evelyn Treacher
• 1971, Stephanie McLean
• 1972, Tina McDowall
• 1973, Patricia Barrett
• 1974, Avril Lund
• 1975, Anneka De Lorenzo
• 1976, Laura Bennett Doone
• 1977, Victoria Lynn Johnson
• 1978, Dominique Maure
• 1979, Cheryl Rixon
• 1980, Isabella Ardigo
• 1981, Danielle Deneux
• 1982, Corinne Alphen
• 1983, Sheila Kennedy
• 1984, Linda Kenton
• 1985 - no pet of the year
• 1986, Cody Carmack
• 1987, Mindy Farrar
• 1988, Patty Mullen
• 1989, Ginger Miller
• 1990, Stephanie Page
• 1991, Simone Brigitte
• 1992 Brandy Ledford AKA Jisel
• 1993, Julie Strain
• 1994, Sasha Vinni
• 1995, Gina LaMarca
• 1996, Andi Sue Irwin
• 1997, Elizabeth Ann Hilden
• 1998, Paige Summers
• 1999, Nikie St. Gilles
• 2000, Juliet Cariaga
• 2001, Zdenka Podkapova
• 2002, Megan Mason
• 2003, Sunny Leone
• 2004, Victoria Zdrok
• 2005, Martina Warren
• 2006, Jamie Lynn
• 2007, Heather Vandeven
• 2008, Erica Ellyson
• 2009, Taya Parker
• 2010, Taylor Vixen