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On May 6, 1977, two brothers were threatened with suspension from Coppell Elementary School in Coppell, Tex. Their transgression: Like many of us back then, they loved Farrah not wisely, but too well.
Keith Woolery, 12, and his brother, Wayne, 9, had dared to attend school wearing T-shirts emblazoned with the image of Charlie's favorite angel, Farrah Fawcett. At the time, of course, the picture on those shirts -- Farrah posed ever so fetchingly in a clingy red tank suit, flashing her Ultra Brite smile -- was the single most popular photo on the planet. The poster version ultimately sold more than 8 million copies, at about $3 apiece, making it the biggest-selling poster of its era. And it wasn't the only Farrah product to hit the shelves. There were Farrah dolls, lunch boxes -- yes, even wigs. At one point, a Farrah-mad entrepreneur supposedly offered her $5 million to bottle water from her kitchen faucet. (She declined.)
Why the fuss? What was it about the future ex-Mrs. Lee Majors that drove the male masses wild? Much of her success was tied to her hugely popular TV show, Charlie's Angels. Seen in more than 20 million households, the Aaron Spelling wiggle-and-jiggle detective series made big hair and bouncing breasts the rage of the '70s. Moreover, in the post-Watergate, post-Vietnam era, America was ripe for a clean-cut kind of sex kitten. Watching Farrah shriek ''Freeze!'' on Wednesday nights was a safe kick for kids -- and their dads could peer over their newspapers for a few kicks of their own.
''[I'm] a contemporary girl with old-fashioned standards,'' Farrah explained at the height of Farrah-mania. ''The key to the whole thing is that men think of her as a sexpot and women invariably describe her as adorable,'' offered an L.A. psychiatrist. ''Hygienic, athletic, and optimistic,'' The New York Times declared.
Of course, not everyone fell for Farrah. Keith and Wayne's principal, I.D. Thompson, wasn't a fan at all: Farrah's pose was ''a little too revealing,'' he recalls. ''There were a few details that were very visible.'' So, rather than have her sons suspended, Mrs. Cecil Woolery kept them home for three days.
Today, Farrah is 48, and her poster is out of print. She's still working (currently in Man of the House, with Chevy Chase), but the days of schemes to peddle water from her tap are over. Does she ever wish she could turn the Farrah phenom back on? Apparently not. ''It makes me start sweating and nervous,'' she said, ''just to think about it.''
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