Tied in with the premiere of her destined-to-be-legendary ABC series Charlie’s Angels, wide-grinned, thick-nippled Farrah Fawcett posed for a swimsuit poster that set all manner of sales records from the moment it hit stores -- which occurred on this date in 1976.

Before Charlie’s Angels took flight, Texas-native Farrah appeared in numerous TV commercials, including a popular Wella Balsam shampoo ad in springtime ’76.

That’s when the novelty company Pro Arts Inc. contacted Farrah’s agent with the idea of doing a poster.

Farrah then arranged to be photographed by her friend Bruce McBroom, who shot the blonde beauty poolside at her house in Bel Air, California.

The beguilingly colorful background is actually a “ratty old Indian blanket” that McBroom had been using to cover the seat of his 1937 Chevrolet.

In short order, sales of the Farrah poster skyrocketed into millions of sales as intensely as her mighty milk-faucets strain against her bathing suit in the photo. To date, it remains the best-selling novelty poster of all time. Just imagine all the replacement copies that had to be bought...