Playboy: Did you help create Farrah?
Ron Galella: Well, yes--all the press has. The more we write about and photograph any personality, the more we magnify her in the public's eye. But there has to be interest to begin with. The same thing with Jackie Kennedy--there was genuine interest and curiosity about her among the public.
Playboy: How do you compare the two women?
Galella: Well, they're different, actually. Jackie doesn't have to do much to be a newsmaker, whereas Farrah has to work at it. One thing they do have in common is that they both smile in public. Jackie doesn't have to say anything or do anything but make an appearance and she gets attention.
Playboy: Has the market for Farrah photos dropped off?
Galella: Not really. In fact, it's going to go up more, because she has gone back to do those Angels episodes. So she will be in the limelight again for a while. But I think that, by doing movies, it's going to be more difficult for her to remain so popular. I think she will go downhill. In fact, I think that she has gone downhill since she left the show. She has dropped because she doesn't have the tremendous exposure of a network show. A lot of people watch a hot show like Charlie's Angels and that exposure gives these girls a lot of power; and when Farrah left, she lost that. And a movie actress doesn't get that power. People go to the movies less nowadays; it's nothing compared with their watching TV. And how many movies could she make a year? You see the difference? Like, every week she's on Charlie's Angels and she'll only make a movie once a year. So I think she has definitely gone downhill since she left that network show.
Playboy: How did your interest in Farrah get started?
Gary Groth: When my friend showed me a picture of her, and I just loved it.
Playboy: Did your friend give you the picture he showed you?
Groth: Yeah.
Playboy: And how many pictures of her do you have now?
Groth: About 1000.
Playboy: What do you like about her?
Groth: I just love her; she's gorgeous.
Playboy: Was there anyone you loved as much before her?
Groth: No.
Playboy: She's the first one?
Groth: Uh-huh.
Playboy: Do you like any of the other Angels as much as Farrah?
Groth: No.
Playboy: She's the one?
Groth: Yeah, I like blondes.
Playboy: Have you written her any fan letters?
Groth: I wrote her once about a year ago and never got an answer.
Playboy: And you still love her?
Groth: I'm in her fan club and everything.
--Gary Groth, 14-year-old world-champion collector of Farrah memorabilia, Saugus, California
I created the Farrah look right after she finished Myra Breckin-ridge. When I first started doing Farrah, she was a one-length pastel blonde. We worked out the style, and this took a good long time. I felt that it was a fantastic look and that it would sell, because it's the only type of hair style that you can wear long; yet it's layered and it looks sexy and it moves and it makes the face look good.
--Hugh York, Farrah's honest-to-God original hairdresser
There is an evenness about her tan and also her life.
--Farrah, by Patricia Burstein
Think about how America is in search of not a sex symbol but a real first lady--really looking for someone who can speak to the young women, speak to the youngsters coming up. What a Farrah Fawcett could do to aid the world if she decided to!
--Dick Gregory
She has all the old-fashioned glamor qualities, but she lives in another era. . . . What made the glamorous personalities of that earlier period in Hollywood was a great compilation of big brains, big entertainment and big attention to detail by the studios. I don't think there's anybody alive today who would know how to make a star.
If Farrah had lived back in those glamor days--the days of L. B. Mayer and Sam Goldwyn--hell, she'd have been the biggest star in captivity. No question about it. They would have made her so.
--George Hurrell, longtime Hollywood glamor photographer
