"Farrah Fawcett was the perfect practitioner of that most prized of American feminine arts: that of semi-wholesomeness... She had an utterly American sense of openness and fun, with a smile that suggested that life was fundamentally good and full of promise, that anything could happen (and that a few really fun things certainly would).

Arts and Letters Daily linked to an essay by an editor at Forbes about how Farrah's famous '70s poster affected a young boy's school in India. ("That one poster did more for America's image abroad -- and for a sturdy Amerophilia -- than all the U.S. embassies and State Department initiatives of the time put together...)

And Entertainment Weekly has a great interview with the photographer who took the picture.  

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.

The poster went on to sell 12 million copies, but the photographer still says, "I give Farrah all the credit for knowing how she looked best."



And blogger Curtis Tucker has another great picture from 1976.

"This is the moment I received my very own Farrah Fawcett poster."