Penthouse started publication in 1965 in England as well as in North America in 1969, an effort to compete with Hugh Hefner’s Playboy. Guccione offered editorial content that was more sensational as well as the magazine’s writing was much more fact-finding than other men’s magazines, with narratives about government coverups and scandals. The magazine was set up on humble beginnings. Guccione would occasionally take several days to finish a shoot. As the magazine grew more successful, Guccione openly adopted a life of luxurious; his former mansion can be said to function as the biggest private residence in Manhattan at 22,000 square feet (2,000 m2). Yet, in contrast to Hugh Hefner, who threw outrageous parties at his Playboy Mansions, life at Guccione’s mansion was unusually sedate, even through the hedonistic 1970s. He apparently once had his bodyguards eject an area radio personality who was hired as a DJ and jumped to the swimming pool nude.