Monique Gabrielle - Penthouse Pet, December 1982

Monique Gabrielle, Pet of the Month for December 1982 and shot by famed photographer Earl Miller, is a classic example of an ugly duckling turning into a swan. However, in her version of the story, she is an American girl growing up in the 1960’s without a flowery vocabulary. “The kids at school called me ugly dog,” Monique reported to Jewel Shepard in the 1992 book, 

. “I had a volatile temper so I would fly off the handle. They also called me ‘witch’ but I’m sure they meant ‘bitch.’ This was a private Christian school that I attended from the seventh to the eleventh grade. But they didn’t have the best Christian attitude. They were spoiled rotten rich kids. So if you were a little different you didn’t come from money, you were an outcast.”

said, “I wanted to work instead of go to school. I took voice lessons. I wanted to act and sing. I even skipped school a lot so I could stay home and write songs or stories. I was not interested in school. But there was not much use for developing entertainment talents in Colorado. I went to modeling agency in Hollywood, and then to Japan. During the day you modeled, but at night, you did go-go dancing. It was the greatest learning experience of my life. I learned to deal with certain kinds of men, like our boss who wanted to sleep with all of us. You learn how to get out of the situation without insulting him. You need to know all that stuff when you get to California.” 

When Monique got back to California, she put that knowledge to use, but it still took her a while to find a manager. “My manager was under the impression that he could make a girl a star by making her a sex symbol first. So he got me into the whole T-and-A scene. But I didn’t know anything and it sounded like a good plan to me.” After 

 Petdom, she went on to star in other roles, including 

 and in exploitation franchises such as, 

“I feel like I’ve done really well, but I haven’t really accomplished what I wanted,” Gabrielle concluded in her interview with Shephard. But don’t we all feel that way sometimes?” It seems not to have gone uphill for Monique since then, as her films subsequently lists her as a producer for some hardcore shorts featuring husband, Tony Angove, and after 2003, nothing. 

Michelle Bauer - Penthouse Pet, August 1981

Michelle Bauer, photgraphed by Carl Wachter, is not just a vintage 

 Pet, but a genuine cult figure. By the late '80s and early '90s Bauer was a certified “Scream Queen”, well known for her dynamic screen presence. She had MILF or cougar appeal well before either of those designations had been coined.

She was one of the those Pets for whom nude modeling did not lead to hardcore porn. However, her debut appearance under the name “Pia Snow” in the notorious cult-art-porno 

 to this day excites fans. There was a “did she or didn’t she” speculation, but Bauer insists the hardcore stuff was body-doubled. The film had a theme similar to the exploitation genre with its kitsch appeal and a small potential path to mainstream success. Jewel Shepard wrote all about the scream queen in her book, Invasion of the B-Girls.

Michelle recounted how she got into the skin game: “I was looking for a part-time summer job but my ex-husband said I could only do part-time if I made full-time money. I’m thinking, 

Well, I saw an ad that said 'Figure models wanted for $75 a day.' I thought, 

 So I checked into it and I found out it was nude figure modeling. I thought about it and thought about it… see, I never really felt that confident about myself physically, but I figured, ‘If they want me, give it a try.’ And I did and it was pretty successful.”

Successful enough to make Pet of the Month in August of 1981 shot by Carl Wachter, and then to go on to such sleaze cinema classics as 

, which she described to Jewel: “The chainsaw comes in when I seduce a man at a bar and take him to my room, get him going by dancing around, get him all excited. Then I make him close his eyes and come out with a shower cap and a chainsaw and chew him up into bits. But it wasn’t very gory, but funny. See, we’re a cult. We’re these hookers that go out and get victims so we can sacrifice them to the god Annubis, who we worship. Linnea [Quigley] does the dance of the chainsaw and kills our master, which breaks me out of my trance and we have this big battle where she kills me. My mother loves these movies. She gets big kicks out of them.”

She wasn’t the only one. To watch Michelle handle her claque of blood-and-boobs nuts at the likes of New Jersey's Chiller Theatre Expo was to see a genuine pro at work. Always friendly, outgoing and delightfully sassy when engaging even the most dire-looking of droolers, she made being a scream queen look like fun. How’d she do it? Sounds like she just kept a cool head on her. Speaking of ardent fans, she told Jewel, “There’s this one guy in Canada who writes this stuff like ‘Your body is a love temple!’ I just write him back on a normal level. I don’t feed the fire, I just write “Thank you very much’ and send him nice, smiley pictures of myself.” There you go.

Michelle’s still in the exploitation movie game: her most recent credit has her sending herself up alongside B-girls’ Brinke Stevens and Linnea Quigley in a inside-baseball serial killer spoof, 

Tamara Kapitas - Penthouse Pet, January 1980

Tamara Kapitas, photographed by Pat Hill, is a very attractive vintage 

 Pet with an extremely peculiar post-Pet trail, shot by Pay Hill. The original information in her January 1980 pictorial, and cover model, has her hailing from New York. However, if you go to Wikipedia and look under “

” and click on the link with her name in that grid, you are directed to the bio of an actress and musician of another name, one born in London but trained in New York. This actress and musician has collaborations with Nile Rodgers and Prince to her credit, and is practically an absolute double for the Penthouse model known as Tamara Kapitas.

But wait, it gets odder. There’s a 2012 feature on the vintage erotica website Venus Observations devoted to the January 1980 spread, with lots of info on both the photographer, Pat Hill (a onetime protégé of “Great Day In Harlem” photographer, Art Kane) and the model. Or, rather, a certain amount of information on the model. The entry on the site stated: “originally this post was much longer but, at her request, we have deleted anything that refers to Tamara’s current life. We loathe to delete all the pictures as she looks so splendid. She very kindly offered a few snippets on her experiences.”

She is later quoted about her experience with Bob Guccione: “Guccione was another fussy man who was very involved in the details. He wanted more explicit pics than I was willing to give the mag. I didn’t mind being nude, as I had grown up on the beaches of the Riviera and Italy, where everyone is half nude anyway. As long as the pictures felt natural, without being contrived. But I was uncomfortable, very uncomfortable. I refused to shoot with him. His directions for poses were out of the question for me. I wanted to walk around in the Everglades and have her photograph me the way I was, not the way he wanted to see me. The only way I agreed to do it was if the photographer was a woman. I insisted there was no one else on the shoot other than a female make-up artist. And of course, my name was never to be used, nor any information about me. Guccione always thought I was difficult to control. And he was right.”

Joanne Latham - Penthouse 10th Anniversary Edition

Joanne Latham, the Penthouse 10th Anniversary Pet, photographed by Bob Guccione, is a legend among vintage Penthouse Pets. She was the first Pet to set off a bidding war between the masters of erotica. She was barely legal when she first made a splash as a Page Three girl and the subject of a British TV documentary. Hugh Hefner of Playboy wanted her but so did Bob Guccione. In the end, Guccione succeeded in getting her and made her the 10th Anniversary Pet of the U.S. Penthouse magazine. It was reported that he paid a lot of money for the privilege, approximately 70,000 Pounds British Sterling. If various currency converters are to be believed, 

that equals almost 500,000 U.S. dollars today.

However, the investment paid off. Until the infamous September 1984 issue of Penthouse, this edition was the best-selling one, and earned Bob Guccione a profit of $18 million. By Latham’s account, though, she did not do it for the money. Back in the day, on her under-construction website, she has claimed that she was brought around to posing for 

because she was promised certain promised perks, which she cites as being mostly in the education department. In addition to a desire for classical piano and French lessons, Latham wanted enrollment in the Actors Studio.

Latham never went on to attend the Actors Studio, she didn’t file suit against Guccione. According to Wikipedia, her contract was “terminated” when she “fell in love with the boss’s son.” Wikipedia does not reveal which son it was and neither did Latham’s site. After her account of being bummed out ‘cause she didn’t make the Actors Studio, she alludes to a life of sipping the finest champagne and eating the best caviar and says, “I was like Alice in Wonderland…I came down to Earth when I was fired for falling in love.” 

Corinne Alphen - Penthouse Pet of The Year 1982

The late, great Roger Ebert was a critic of unstinting honesty, but also had enough of an open heart and mind that even when watching a movie that bored or irritated him, he remained open to any aspect of it that could provide redeeming value. And so, in the middle of a thoroughly-earned pan for the extremely mediocre 1983 teen sexploitation movie 

, he writes about something in the picture he noticed, and liked: 

Movie producers were apparently not visionary enough to take Ebert’s implied advice and build a movie around Alphen. In 1983 she married the seemingly very accident-prone actor, Ken Wahl. We cannot say whether it was that, or her domestic life with Wahl, who also never made it to movie stardom despite turns in the acclaimed 

 that made the difference. What we do know is that this two-time vintage 

 Pet of the Month, June 1978 and August 1981 and then Pet of the Year of 1982 is single nowadays, and is a professional tarot card reader of no small reputation. She was photographed by Bob Guccione.

Dark haired, mysterious beauty Jami Dion, photographed by acclaimed Suze Randall, has been known by several names: her birth name, Dahlia Grey, and her alter ego, Tami Dion. This busty and slender brunette knockout was born on February 14, 1972 in Seattle, Washington to parents of Latin descent. Grey started out in the adult entertainment industry as astripper when she was 19 years old. It was during that period of time in her life that an agent approached her to pose for various men’s magazines. In 1992, she became the Pet of the Month in the March issue of 

 for that same exact month. However, it was Grey’s 

 pictorial that caught the eye of noted adult filmmaker Andrew Blake, who convinced her to act in his next hardcore movie. Grey went on to be featured in many Andrew Blake productions, where she is often credited as Jami Dion.

 Pet of the Month in March 1992, lovely Latina Dahlia Grey started showing off her 36C-24-35 frame doing girl-girl scenes in X-rated flicks like 

, Dahlia went completely nude with topless babe Adriana Sage. Although she went into the hardcore porn scene, Dahlia remained a brunette goddess whose sensual presence and lusty demeanor livened up any of the small handful of films that she graced in. She was, and still is, a gorgeous girl with a beautiful body. With deep, brown, pools for eyes and silky, black hair cascading down her smooth skin, she was one hot porn star for the ages.

 pictorials were shot by the famed Suze Randall, who was interested in her unique and exotic look. While many women in the porn industry are used to being in front of the camera, Suze worked behind the lens. Susan “Suze” Randall is known for being a pioneer for women in both the field of photography and pornography. As one of the first female staff photographers for both 

, she broke into the male dominated world of erotic magazines. It was during the 1980′s that she became one of the earliest female porn producers, paving the way for other women to follow. From there, she went on to provide Penthouse with photos that exhibited her erotic style and labeled her as one of the world’s leading erotic photographers for more than 35 years.

Jane Hargrave - Penthouse Pet, April 1978

One of the qualities that distinguished a 

 Playmate, or any of the other girlie-mag personae of the Golden Age of Newsstand Erotica, was a certain air of refinement and sophistication. Despite the fact that 

 girls were baring much more than Hef’s, there was often a kind of enigmatic aura about them. This had to do with the way the models were photographed, looking away from the camera, as if captured in a moment of private thought. Out of all the vintage Pets to come out of Penthouse, Jane Hargrave helped set the standard for what it takes to become an icon.

At age 18, Jane began applying for modeling jobs, and quickly came to the attention of Bob Guccione which ultimately launched her career. Beginning in July of 1975, she appeared on the cover of three different 

 Pet of the Year in 1978. Jane’s persona in front of the camera combined her natural beauty with a sense of mystery, was best captured on the cover of the April 1978 issue of 

. This cover featured the young, tan, and fit, Jane, standing provocatively in an open spaghetti-strap top and a single seashell pendant necklace. Jane’s relaxed but gorgeous demeanor on that cover is considered one of the most defining moments of the early Guccione era.

Jane’s low profile followed her throughout her career, despite Bob Guccione’s attempts at keeping her in the spotlight. She was one of the Pets that Guccione sent to Rome for the shooting of his Ancient Roman epic film, 

, which started shooting in September 1976. Unlike Anneka Di Lorenzo, she was not coaxed into performing anything explicit. Instead, she was cast as a Priestess of Isis in which she performed magnificently as a beautiful ornamental function for the film. In 1979, Jane left the 

 empire to commence upon a new career in mainstream fashion modeling and then in 1980, she turned to art.

When asked about her career change from model to artist, Jane stated, “I am undertaking a deeper meaningful journey, at times a difficult path, of curiosity and the questioner, a voyage of discovery, of seeking and becoming, developing my own artistic language and eclectic imagery with inspirations and insightful observations of the Universe.”

Priscilla Barnes - Penthouse Pet, March 1976

Priscilla Barnes, photographed by Jeff Dunas, known for her role as Terri Alden on Three’s Company, had a career that stretched beyond her famous TV role, and one that began in an unexpected place—Penthouse magazine. Born on December 7, though records conflict on whether it was 1955 or 1958, in Fort Dix, New Jersey, Barnes grew up the daughter of an Air Force commander, which meant she moved frequently during her youth. Eventually, her family settled in Lancaster, California, where she graduated from Antelope Valley High School and then moved to San Diego to pursue dancing and waitressing.

In 1976, using the alias Joann Witty, Barnes posed for Penthouse as the “Pet of the Month” in the March issue. Her photoshoot, glamorous and bold, depicted her lounging in a fur-lined jacket and knee-high boots, a gold necklace hanging between her breasts. Despite the revealing nature of her spread, Barnes aimed for a bigger career in Hollywood and soon transitioned into acting, beginning with bit parts in shows like Wonder Woman and Columbo.

Barnes’s breakthrough role came when she was cast in Three’s Company in 1981, replacing Suzanne Somers as the new roommate, nurse Terri Alden. The tension-filled atmosphere on set made her three years on the show difficult, and during an interview on E! True Hollywood Story, she admitted they were the worst years of her life. Regardless, she gave her character a fresh sense of intelligence and stability, helping her win over fans.

Before her time on Three’s Company, Barnes appeared in various television shows like Starsky and Hutch, Kojak, The Rockford Files, and The Love Boat. She also had roles in films like Texas Detour and Delta Fox during the late 1970s. Despite facing struggles in an industry that didn’t always offer substantive roles to women of her age, Barnes continued to work steadily through the 1980s and beyond.

Her film credits include notable appearances in License to Kill (1989), where she played the tragic bride of a CIA agent, and cult-classic Mallrats (1995), where she portrayed a quirky fortune teller. Barnes has also remained active in theater, with performances in productions such as Born Yesterday and A Streetcar Named Desire.

In the 2000s, Barnes appeared in horror films like The Devil’s Rejects (2005) and Thr3e (2006). More recently, she had a recurring role on the CW series Jane the Virgin as Magda.

Barnes’s ability to adapt and evolve in her career has kept her relevant in Hollywood. She has been married to actor Ted Monte since 2003, and, at 60-plus years old, she shows no signs of slowing down. Through all the ups and downs of a career that has spanned decades, Priscilla Barnes remains a symbol of resilience and adaptability in the entertainment industry.

Sasha Vinni - Penthouse Pet of The Year 1994

 presented the stunning Sasha Vinni as 1994 

 Pet of the Year, photographed by Bob Guccione. When she first posed for Penthouse, she was independent, adventurous, outspoken, and young. She embraced the newfound spirit and hope of her motherland. “Hopefully, Boris Yeltsin‘s victory as president of the Russian Republic will make a whole new period of growth and prosperity.”  

Sasha, 35-22-34, has become one of the most popular vintage 

 Pets. She has had many friends and legions of admirers, but with her natural shyness, she preferred studying music at the local conservatory. Her musical expertise helped her to heat up her rare relationships. "It makes you go in the special mood of seduction,” she said, “and as you lie in front of the fire, put a little Prokofiev or Rachmaninoff on the machine.”  Who could resist? 

Along with her multiple appearances in gentlemen’s magazines, Vinni also starred in adult films. One of her most famous performances was in the film, 

. In this 1996 film, Vinni performed with the 1995 Pet of the Year Gina LaMarca, and 1999 Pet of the Year Nikie St. Gilles. The film included visually elaborate set pieces, extravagant costuming, make-up and body painting, and expensive filming techniques such as underwater photography not normally seen in pornographic films.

After retiring from her life as a porn star, she went on to become an escort in the New England area. Unfortunately we don't have her number.

Seana Ryan - Penthouse Pet, September 1992

In the world of gentlemen’s magazines, young women are the most featured models. However, the lovely Seana Ryan, photographed by Suze Randall, was almost 30 years old when she posed for 

 Pet, has done her Irish forebears proud. What nationality wouldn’t be thrilled to claim the beautiful and intelligent September 1992 Pet of the Month as one of their own? 

“I love being in front of the camera,” said the leggy brunette, “and posing for 

 gave me the chance to really strut my stuff!” 36-25-36 wild Irish rose has been known to engage in some racy activities apart from modeling: “I love fast motorcycles and fast horses. But the most daring thing I’ve ever done is go skydiving. You have to do it with someone you feel secure with, because it’s really scary. I was so nervous about my first jump, I thought I was going to die! But once I left the plane, it was great… a total rush!”

Not only was Seana Ryan a daredevil and a model, she also enjoyed reading astrology. “I believe in horoscopes and astrology,” once confided the sultry Leo. “I like reading the predictions for my sign and then waiting to see if everything comes true. My future in modeling is looked good – I started by doing beer and hair-care commercials, then posters and catalog work, and then onto modeling in 

! I’m very lucky to have had a career that I enjoy.” 

While astrology might not have been able to predict her love life or where her career would take her, in Seana’s opinion, location wasn’t as important if the company’s good. “I like a man who’s aggressive in his manner but gentle in his touch,” she says. “A guy who lacks self-confidence will lose out on being with me. I could be faithful to one man, if he’s the right man. I don’t go for casual dating. I have to feel an initial magnetism with someone before I pursue anything else.”

Teresa Ann Savoy - Penthouse Magazine's 'Caligula' Star

Before Cersei Lannister was even imagined, Teresa Ann Savoy was already the original incestuous sister on screen. Cast as Julia Drusilla, the sister and lover of Caligula in Bob Guccione’s Caligula, Savoy helped transform the film into one of the most iconic and controversial of the late 1970s. Caligula went on to gross $23 million at the box office, making it the highest-grossing pornographic film ever independently produced. Though Savoy was never a Penthouse Pet, Bob Guccione, the publisher of Penthouse and producer of Caligula, still made her a star. Her starring role in this gritty and erotic depiction of the Roman Empire cemented her place in cinematic history. From her role in Caligula to appearances in Italian romance films, Savoy became an icon in both Europe and America.

Teresa Ann Savoy’s journey to stardom began at just 18 years old when she first gained attention by posing in the Italian gentleman’s magazine Playmen in October 1973, using the alias “Terry” because of her young age. At the time, she was living in a hippie commune in Sicily, having run away from home at 16. The pictorial and her rebellious backstory quickly caught the attention of the press, which helped propel her into acting.

In 1974, director Alberto Lattuada cast Savoy in her first film role in Le farò da padre (also known as La bambina), where she played Clotilde, an intellectually disabled girl. This role allowed her to demonstrate her acting range early in her career. In 1975, she worked with renowned director Tinto Brass in the highly successful film Salon Kitty. In this film, she portrayed Margherita, a young woman who poses as a prostitute for the SS Nazi paramilitary organization. However, it wasn’t until 1976 that she landed the role of a lifetime in Bob Guccione’s Caligula.

Guccione had originally envisioned actress Maria Schneider for the role of Drusilla, Caligula’s sister and lover, but Schneider withdrew from the project when she learned her character would be involved in nude sex scenes. Teresa Savoy, a last-minute replacement, embraced the role and delivered a captivating performance. As Drusilla, Savoy participated in several erotic scenes, the most memorable being a threesome with Helen Mirren. In this scene, Savoy and Mirren’s characters, both soaked from the rain, engage in an intimate encounter with a man, joined briefly by other girls in see-through dresses. The scene culminates with a tender kiss between Savoy and Mirren, showcasing Savoy’s allure in a film filled with controversial moments.

Despite her success in Caligula, Savoy’s career began to dwindle after the film’s release in the United States in the 1980s. Many of her fans believed she had abandoned her acting career by 1986 after appearing in La Donna del Traghetto. However, she had a lesser-known part in the 1989 movie Rose, proving that even the life and career of a captivating actress like Savoy could be shrouded in mystery and speculation. Although some of her roles went uncredited, she reemerged in 2000 with La Fabbrica del Vapore, the first Italian digital movie.

Savoy’s contributions to cinema extended beyond acting. In 1989, she was awarded the title of Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, a testament to her impact on the arts. While she faded from the spotlight in her later years, her legacy as a daring and enigmatic actress endures. Teresa Ann Savoy passed away in 2017 after a battle with cancer, but she remains an unforgettable figure in both mainstream and cult cinema.

Californian native, Tracy Wolfe, also known as K.C. Williams, was not only the 

 Pet of the month in June 1992 photographed by Carl Wachter, but she also appeared in over 100 adult movies over the span of her career, and appeared in several different magazines including 

. Despite her fame, this busty blonde Pet never let it go to her head, and she always appreciated her fans. During one interview, Wolfe said, “I get cards and letters from people all the time. Believe it or not, there are a lot of guys who travel around the country just to see my shows.” With a 34C-25-35 figure, it’s not hard to imagine why she had such a loyal fan base during the height of her popularity.

Not only was Wolfe incredibly attractive when she appeared on the cover of Penthouse, but she was also smart and had a good judge of character. She was once quoted saying, “I majored in psychology in college, I can always tell if someone’s being a phony. It’s best for a guy to be honest with me, because if I catch him in a lie, he’s history.” 

Wolf held herself to the same high standards to which she held potential partners. She held to a diet plan and kept her body remarkably toned by dancing. This California blonde was easily able to explain her affinity for why she enjoys dancing in clubs and how it was more than just exercise for her. “I’ve appeared in a number of films, but I really prefer performing onstage. I love to tease and excite the audience… especially when I can see the impression I’m making!” We are sufficiently teased. 

Ultimate Guide to Vintage Penthouse Pets Pt. 2

OG Collection

Handpicked Beauties of the 70s, 80s, and Early 90s by Bob Guccione Himself

Monique Gabrielle - Penthouse Pet, December 1982


Monique Gabrielle by Earl Miller

Monique Gabrielle, Pet of the Month for December 1982 and shot by famed photographer Earl Miller, is a classic example of an ugly duckling turning into a swan. However, in her version of the story, she is an American girl growing up in the 1960’s without a flowery vocabulary. “The kids at school called me ugly dog,” Monique reported to Jewel Shepard in the 1992 book, Invasion of the B-Girls. “I had a volatile temper so I would fly off the handle. They also called me ‘witch’ but I’m sure they meant ‘bitch.’ This was a private Christian school that I attended from the seventh to the eleventh grade. But they didn’t have the best Christian attitude. They were spoiled rotten rich kids. So if you were a little different you didn’t come from money, you were an outcast.”



Ultimate Guide to Vintage Penthouse Pets Pt. 2

Handpicked Beauties of the 70s, 80s, and Early 90s by Bob Guccione Himself

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