ENID, OK - It was Christmas of 1976 in Enid, Oklahoma and I was unwrapping gifts in our living room. As most parents do, my mom was snapping photos of my sister and I as we tore open each gift that she had so neatly wrapped. One iconic photo from that day has become cherished by many today.
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At 13 years of age I had a huge crush on Farrah Fawcett Majors after Charlie's Angels had come out earlier that year. In December of 1976 I turned 14 years old and just 5 days later I got to celebrate Christmas. I don't remember if I asked for the Farrah poster or if my mom just purchased it because she knew I was a big fan.
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Early Christmas morning I unrolled that poster and my mom snapped the photo. The poster ended up on my Charlies Angels wall that was filled with other pictures of Farrah, Kate and Jaclyn. On opposing walls in my room there was a black light poster as well as posters of Linda Ronstadt, Cheryl Tiegs, Cheryl Ladd and the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders.
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It wasn't until a couple of weeks later that I was able to see the Christmas photos because they had to be sent off to be developed. At the time the photo didn't seem to mean much or have any significance.
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Fast forward to the 1990's when blogging became very popular online. I started a website under my own name at CurtisTucker.com and decided upon a 70's dad blog theme. I began to scour everything I had for memories of the 1970's.
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It was at this point that I ran across the photo again. The original photo from the film processor is only about 3 inches wide by 2 inches tall. It's not a very big photo at all. I scanned the photo into a computer and added a short story about how the photo showed me holding the iconic Farrah poster in the 70's.
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At the time, I was pretty good at SEO and was able to add the right tags and title on the photo for it to rank high in Google images for Farrah Fawcett poster searches. I toyed with the blog for several years but was never able to spend much time making it grow.
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Fast forward again to June of 2009. That month I had gone to Cancun, Mexico and was enjoying a vacation when news came on the TV that Farrah had died. I was instantly heart broken. Farrah Fawcett had passed away at the age of 62 due to cancer.
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At the time, all of my businesses were online and I was able to keep an eye on them from my computer. Later that day I noticed that my CurtisTucker.com website was no longer online. I did a quick investigation and discovered that all of the websites bandwidth had been used.
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After scratching my head for a while I realized that people were searching for photos of Farrah Fawcett to go along with stories they were writing. Dozens of people had started linking to that photo causing the loss of my bandwidth. It wasn't long before I had to add more bandwidth just to keep the website online.
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A couple of days after Farrah's death, CNN.com contacted me and asked if they could use the photo in a story and interview me for the article. I agreed and the photo was soon viewed by millions of people worldwide. HERE is the link to that CNN story.
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Within the next few weeks I received requests for the photo to be used in magazines, blogs, books and even in a museum. The iconic photo has been posted and shared enough online that even when I took the website offline for a short period of time it could still be found.
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2019 marks the 10 year anniversary of Farrah's death. Earlier in the year I received a request from CNN again to use the photo in a 4 part docuseries they were producing called "American Style." Part of the series included Farrah Fawcett along with her famous poster. They used the photo in her segment of the show.
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Soon after the CNN show I was contacted by ABC News. They were putting together a 2 hour prime time special called "This Is Farrah Fawcett" and they wanted to include the photo. The show airs on Thursday, May 23, 2019 on ABC at 7:00pm CST.
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Once again you'll be able to see a younger me, with hair, holding that iconic Farrah poster. An image of her that will forever be locked in the memory of her fans and a photo of me that will forever hold the innocence and youth of growing up in the 1970's, the greatest decade known to man.
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The iconic photo taken on Christmas Day in 1976.
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A clip from the CNN docuseries called "American Style."
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A clip from the ABC News spcial called "This is Farrah Fawcett."
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Listen to "Farrah Fawcett & 70's Pinup Posters" on Spreaker.
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Listen to Curtis Tucker and Todd Wheeler talk about the Farrah Fawcett poster on The 70's Buzz Podcast.
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My Iconic Farrah Fawcett Poster Photo
