b'centered around three glamorous former lady cops who joined a private detective agency owned by a mysterious millionaire whose face was never seen, but whose silky voice, that of John Forsythe, opened and closed each episode speaking through one of those new-fangled speaker phone boxes.The TV movie was such a hit in the spring that the show was picked up by ABC to run as an hour-long series in the fall. Farrah had beaten out Sommers for the role as the blonde crime fighter, the two brunettes played by Kate Jackson and Jaclyn Smith. Unquestionably, Farrah stole the show, and not just with her magnificent, flowing, feathered hair, perfect smile, and sex-kitten voice, but with the same kind of inexpli-cably mesmerizing charm and presence that had won over just about every person she had ever met her entire lifestarting with the adoring grannies at HEB in Cor-pus Christi, to classmates at St. Patricks and Ray, and helpless fraternity brothers at UTFarrahs flirtatious infectiousness came through the small screen, adored by millions of fans across the world, within weeks.In April 1976, the month after the Charlies Angels movie premiered on ABC, Ted Trikilis, the owner of Pro Arts poster publishing, got a call from a buddy who was wholly enamored by Farrah Fawcett-Majors. He described this goddess who was selling Mercury Cougars on a beach with a live cougar as the most beautiful wom-an in the United States. At the time, to the surprise of many of us lifelong Farrah fans, she was already 29 years oldon the older end of the crop of thin, modest-ly-topped beauties on the international stage in the early-70s, like the English model, Twiggy. Farrah was something of a late bloomer, but everything about her exuded youth, vibrance and sexual energy that was too much to process for many men, young and old.Trikilis approached Jay Bernstein about the prospect of a poster, to which Farrah re-sponded by calling it a cute idea. Cute, indeed. Farrah invited photographer Bruce McBroom to the Majors estate, and she chose a simple, red, one-piece swimsuit from her own closet to modelthe style and color that would later symbolize the healthy, energetic Southern California image portrayed by Pamela Anderson on Bay Watch, two decades later. The background was a multi-colored Indian blanket that had just previously, and one would assume subsequently, adorned the bench seat in McBrooms pickup truck. The combination worked for sure, and Farrah settled on four of the photos as possibilities for the poster. Wisely, Trikilis picked the one that showed off the million-dollar smile that was co-employed to sell UltraBrite to TV viewers around the worldit also showed off a very controversial nipple im-print that provedat leastequally alluring to just about every adolescent and col-lege-age male in the country.Sold through record and clothing stores, skate and surf shops, mail-order, on news-stands, book and novelty stores, and bolstered by its appearance on the wall of John Travoltas bedroom in Saturday Night Fever, the red swimsuit poster sold more than six million copies in the first year after its release. To date, total sales of the most famous poster every printed has exceeded 12 million copies worldwide. Thats more than pin-ups of Marilyn Monroe, Betty Grable, or any and all of the great beauties of the 20th Century. Not bad for a sweet, sun-bronzed Corpus Christi girl.The contract that Farrah signed with ABC for Charlies Angels was for five years, but at $5,000 per episode, she was making half of what Kate Jackson was paid, and the evidence was clear that Farrah was the shows main attraction. Lee Majors had convinced Farrah that the best move was to fully capitalize on her overwhelming network TV popularity and break off to form their own production company, so that she could pursue more serious acting roles. At the time, Hollywoods biggest actresses were Faye Dunaway, who had won the Oscar for Best Actress in Network, and Jane Top: The house Farrah grew up in at 926 Rosedale Dr., the street south of Buccaneer Apart- Fonda, who had won for Coming Home.ments, near W. B. Ray High School.Middle: Farrah on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson inUnder threat of a $7 million lawsuit by ABC, Farrah agreed to make six guest 1978.Bottom: Farrah headed to a tennis match on Celebrity Battle of the Sexes, 1977. appearances on Charlies Angels over the life of the show, in exchange for being 72THE COASTAL BEND GUIDE TheCoastalBend.com'