When former
Charlie's Angel Farrah Fawcett recently
passed away, a lot of news stories mentioned her iconic pinup poster from 1976.
I looked at the poster and didn't really "get" it - I mean, it looks like just another magazine photo to me. But supposedly it sold anywhere from 6-12mm copies?!
I did some research into it, and found
the backstory behind the poster:
How did the shoot for the poster come about?
Farrah's photographer: One day I got a call from some guy in the Midwest from a poster company. He said, "I’m doing this poster of Farrah Fawcett and Farrah said to hire you to shoot her. I’ve hired two photographers and they photographed her and she hates the pictures." He said, "Here’s the thing, it’s gotta be her great hair, she’s gotta be smiling, she’s gotta be in a bikini and they’ve gotta be drop-dead, sexy pictures."
Can you walk us through the shoot?
Farrah's photographer: She and Lee Majors [her then husband] lived in a big house up on Mulholland Drive [in Los Angeles]. I showed up and it was just the two of us.... Farrah did her own hair and her own makeup, not that she needed much makeup. I said, “He wants you in a bikini” and she said, "I don’t have a bikini." She was only about 29, and just gorgeous in anything. We took a lot of pictures. She’d go in, get something out of the closet and I’d find another background. I knew I didn’t have a picture that resonated with me even though she looked great.
I was running out of ideas and I was getting desperate. We’d been there all day. I said, "You know how you look best. Is there anything else that you’ve got that we haven’t shot? The guy says he wants sexy." So she said, "Lemme go look around." She comes to the door and she’s standing in the doorway in that red suit. And she said, "What do you think of this?" It was like it was spray painted on her; I don’t think it was a swimsuit. I said, "You know what? That’s it!" I said, "Farrah, just get comfortable and do your thing." When she did the series of sitting-up poses, I said, "We've got it." And I heaved a big sigh of relief.
She sounds like a nice person but I gotta say... I still don't "get" it. Maybe this poster was considered incredibly risque for the mid-70s... it just seems so tame by today's standards.
What's so amazing about this poster that 12mm people would buy it?
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Comments (29)
Uh. Word on the street is that is the nipples. Nipples sell posters--put that in ur economics book.
I'd guess the nipples.
Yep that was it....when this poster first came out it was really racy....
WHAT'S SO GREAT ABOUT XANGA...that 12 mm ppl use it? hmmm
nipples, the red suit, and for the 70s, this was racy.
You realize that it shouldn't be "Farrah:", should it? It was an interview of Bruce McBroom. The interview gets much less weird when you realize it's not Farrah talking about herself from a third person POV.
I'm not sure, but all I know is she was beautiful.
She's hot.
@B2yan_C@xanga - Ah thanks, changed it.
it's wasn't that risque back then. deep throat came out in the early 70s. but you're right. it's a nice picture, nothing special.
but nipples will sell, haha.
@mancouch - no prob.
her hair and her big smile
all I can say is at the time there were NO posters like it...of course today things are different there are a kazillion posters of women...all of my friends had them...me too!
It was easy to sell 12 million of these back then. Now you would be lucky to find someone willing to post it on the internet for free.
Yeah, she's hott.
its a generation thing.
that was how that era's posters looked.. with out be too risque.
so in the eye of the hormone crazed teenager thought it was amazing.
thanks for the background story
This poster is one of the first images of a then new generation of hollywood beauty and a redefining of what the public believed was beautiful. We are now at the end of that generation.
yes you are right...by todays standards it is mild, but for the 70's, it was plain hot!
her hair.
Her hair was just the best out there. Nobody had a head of hair like that. The megawatt smile with gleaming teeth. She was famous for both. Certainly wasn't that it was risque. Remember that the guy had asked for a bikini, which shows more? Nipples were all over the place then. No big deal. Her personality shines through. Full of life.
I think that it was just Farrah! and if there are a million out there like hers, maybe it's because they all started copying her.
Look at Marilyn Monroe and the pic of her skirt blowing up? Same thing. Exudes that personality. That life. Sexy in and of itself without a great energy in the person is boring.
If you can't see it, it's because we all have different tastes. Just because 12 million sold, doesn't mean that everybody back then bought it or liked it either. I know a person who thinks Pamela Anderson is just the ugliest. Sees nothing sexy about her whatever.
Why do we think big numbers mean everybody? Because we have bought into herd mentality?
there was something flying around about certain curls in her hair spelling the word "sex", according to a guy we work with.
her hair spells sex
heres a pic with it highlighted at the end http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/hoax/weblog/permalink/does_farrah_fawcetts_hair_spell_sex_in_her_famous_poster/
its that shes sexy but still has this smile on her face not that ugly model frown plus the nipples are hard she has big beautiful tendrils that are sexy her body is cute and little but still has a little definition to the arms and legs. Shes just sexy.
Her smile is a little too much for me...sort of on the creepy side. Everything else looks good to me though.