Farrah Fawcett: The Poster That Made Her An Icon

If you posses both a Y and X chromosome, and you were breathing in the 70’s, you’ve seen it.

And if you were single at the time – you probably had one on your wall.

In all it sold 12 million copies.

Yeah, 12 freakin’ million.

As the world prepares to say goodbye to one of the most famous faces of a generation (and the woman who made the one piece red swimsuit legendary long before Pamela Anderson ever wore one), THE POSTER is back in vogue. eBay is flooded with at the moment – so finding one to replace your long lost original shouldn’t be too difficult.

And how it all came to be is pretty interesting.

Mike and Ted Trikilis, the college drop-outs turned 1970’s poster titans, got a tip from a buddy: all his male friends were buying women's magazines to get pictures of Farrah’s Wella Balsam shampoo ads. If I were you, the buddy said, I'd make a poster of her.

The brothers didn't know who Farrah was – this was before "Charlie's Angels" – but they figured if guys were buying women’s magazines just to get her picture, they'd surely buy her poster.

They contacted Farrah’s agent Rick Hersh, who didn't seem to grasp the concept.

"What type of product is Farrah to be selling on the poster?" he asked.

"We want to sell Farrah on the Farrah poster," they explained.

It was an odd request, but Hersh pitched it to her, who found the idea “cute” and agreed to the deal.

They shot the now iconic photo by the pool at the Bel Air home she shared with actor Lee Majors, TV's "The Six Million Dollar Man."

She did her own hair.

And that strange background? It’s an old Indian blanket the photographer was using to cover the seat of his beat-up Chevy.

In the end, she chose which pose was to be used.

And history was made.