In the 70s , the media in Hollywood was different than it is today. The press coverage was very limited, no digital stills, camera phones, CABLE TV, the Internet, ENTERTAINMENT TONIGHT, or dozens of Hollywood themed news and talk shows. Before PEOPLE magazine and trashy tabloids, the media’s strength with movie and TV stars was controlled by a delicate relationship between the Hollywood publicity machine and reporters, writers and photographers. This was before today’s relentless, savage paparazzis. I just graduated from college. My first media job was staff photographer for CORONET, a well known respected magazine first published in the 1920’s and an early model for many of today’s photojournalistic type publications.FARRAH FAWCETT was not famous. She had just finished a small role in the movie LOGAN’S RUN, had lots of commercials running on prime time TV and her good looks were getting noticed. Farrah needed some publicity and CORONET magazine decided to run a story on Farrah. My assignment was to photograph her.
An interview and photo session was scheduled. An interesting note about the terms of the photo session. To insure that Farrah would be happy with the photos CORONET magazine used in the story, I agreed to let Farrah look over the photos and any that she did not like, I agreed to destroy. The term for this is “kill rights.” Essentially Farrah got to kill any photos of her she did not like. Only the biggest stars have the power to “kill” the photos they do not like. Smart Farrah, even young and new to the Hollywood biz she knew how important good photography is.
At a location in Beverly Hills, Farrah, Cathy Nixon(CORONET’S editor/writer) and I met. My shoot was after the interview. During the interview, a fluff probe of Farrah’s beauty secrets as well as her aspirations in Hollywood, I sat next to Farrah and we sort of got to know each other. Ice tea and cookies were served and for some reason everything was funny to us and we laughed a lot. I liked Farrah immediately!
I only needed to shoot a few rolls of film. Farrah was even more beautiful thru the lens. Her sensual sweetness really read on film. She was a dream to photograph, comfortable in front of the camera and she followed my directions well. I loved photographing her. We laughed a lot during the shoot. When we finished, I gave Farrah my home phone number and told her to call me in a few days so we could make an appointment to go over the photos.
Those days I also free lanced for several newspapers and magazines in addition to shooting portraits for many actors and models in Hollywood. My phone seemed to never stop ringing. My partner Lamont, tried very hard to help me by taking telephone messages.
Farrah calls, speaks to Lamont. Lamont never heard the name Farrah and leaves me a message that Sara called. “ She said you have her number.” OK, who’s Sara, no number, can’t return the call. Two days later Farrah calls again. Speaks to Lamont again. Lamont writes down Sara called again. I wonder who is Sara?
Now I answer the phone and when the caller says it’s Farrah, I realize the innocent mistake Lamont made. I tell Farrah my Lamont message story and we have a good laugh. We decide to meet for lunch and go over the photos. Farrah picks a little out of the way café to meet. Farrah shows up for lunch wearing a pony tail, no make-up, sweat shirt, jeans, no glamour, I hardly recognize her. I liked her even more. On a small slide viewer we both agreed on which shots to “kill.” Very few, I was surprised. This lady did not have a giant ego. She quickly approved almost the whole shooting. At lunch Farrah talked about how she and her then husband, Lee Majors, were living at the beach and how much she loved swimming in the ocean, tennis and dogs. She was funny and we laughed even more. The bill comes, Farrah grabs it. We fight over it , Farrah wins , pays the check, smiles and we laugh again. I realize that Farrah is really a fun person.
And so begins my friendship with Farrah Fawcett. Over the years I photograhphed Farrah two more times. I worked on CHARLIE’S ANGELS, Farrah introduced me as her friend to Kate Jackson, and Jaclyn Smith. I shot portraits on both of them for CHARLIE’S ANGELS and, yes, I gave them “kill rights” too. We had mutual friends and sometimes I’d run into Farrah at parties. Farrah and Lamont had a good laugh over the Sara story. I met Farrah’s mother and father. I met Farrah’s sister too. She was always wonderful to me. One time she walked into a press function and came right over to me and gave me a big kiss. My ego soared.
One of the last times I saw Farrah, so many years ago, I told her that my photos of her were being used all over the world and that I was often solicited for photos of her. Farrah said she was glad, she said she loved seeing my photos of her being used. Sweet Farrah stressed to me that I should never sell her photos cheap. Even as a mega star, somehow Farrah kept her feet on the ground. Farrah was just as nice as she was beautiful. She was just so regular.
As the years went on, I saw Farrah less often. It seemed like we were forever sending each other salutations through our mutual friends. Farrah told my friends she was going to visit me in Hawaii one day.
Some of the most beautiful photos of my career are of Farrah. I kept a small stash of my favorite shots of Farrah and only now am I sharing them and my Farrah story with her friends and fans.
To view or purchase ORIGINAL PHOTOS of Farrah Fawcett from my private unpublished file, please visit my ebay store donaldsandersphotography.
