There are at least 5,000,000 Americans that will remember Pro Arts, Inc. Perhaps not by its name, but by the ever-famous Farrah Fawcett Red Bathing Suit Poster that they had purchased in 1977.

It was and still is the most famous poster ever printed in the history of the poster industry. It was estimated that the photograph which graces the cover of this book was reproduced over a BILLION times and Life magazine illustrated the photograph in its 150 year anniversary of photography.

This poster represented the power of distribution, coupled with the hype of the entertainment world. Celebrities sought out Pro Arts to have their faces plastered upon the Pro Arts Posters.

Though Pro Arts was to net nearly $1,000,000.00 through the sale of Farrah Fawcett's Poster, the company would eventually fall prey to many individuals seeking to benefit personally from the success of the company while undermining the strength of the company.

It was the beginning of the end of an aggressive company that had struggled for nine years prior to the Farrah Fawcett poster's success to solidify itself in the poster industry.

The story of the struggle for success is very interesting, yet the story contained within the covers of this book is far more exciting and unbelievable than even the author could have imagined in its inception.

Pro Arts, Inc. had struggled since its inception to become the largest Blacklight Poster Company in the world. Publishing several anti-Viet Nam posters from 1967 through 1972, the blacklight poster business was quickly shifting to the Velvet Blacklight Poster business and anti- war posters were being replaced with political, drug oriented and optical illusion style art. The beginning of popular personalities exploded when the Fonz from Happy Days became the new hero on the block! From 1975 to present, poster companies have sought out the characters and personalities that the Youth Market wanted to decorate their walls.

Pro Arts, Inc. was producing The Six Million Dollar Man, The Bionic Woman, Kojak, Barretta, Alice Copper, Kiss, Bruce Lee and even a velvet poster of the Fonz!

It was in early 1976 that I first heard the name, Farrah Fawcett. While planting fruit trees on his farm, I was assisted by a young college student attending Akron University. His name was Pat Partridge and my neighbor.

Pat exclaimed to me that if he were making posters, he would make one of Farrah Fawcett. I asked the obvious question, "Who's Farrah Fawcett?'

It seemed as if a short fuse had been ignited! Pat began to expound upon the many advertisements that featured Farrah. First it was the Wella Balsam Shampoo Commercial. Then it was the Noxzima Commercial and then there was the ever-famous Cougar commercial for Ford where Farrah is leading a Cougar through a showroom of men while advertising the automobile!

Pat stated that many of his fellow students were cutting photographs from magazines and pasting them on their dormitory walls! Pat said that if I produced a poster of Farrah, his dormitory would buy 1,000 posters themselves! I asked how many students were living in Pat's dormitory to which Pat replied, "About nine hundred!" Pat said that many students would probably buy two or more posters and send some home to their friends!

At the end of a very long and tiring day, I relaxed in front of my television set with my wife, Io, to discuss the events of the day. Casually I asked Io, "Have you ever heard of a woman called Farrah Fawcett?"

Again another short fuse had been ignited! Io picked up a few of her magazines that were resting on the coffee table in front of us and began thumbing the pages in search of the ads that were graced with Farrah's image. Wella Balsam, Cougar and a few others illustrated the beautiful blonde bombshell in such a fashion as to depict a "girl next door" image. She appeared natural, attractive and had a million-dollar smile that was later to prove that very statement correct!

On Monday morning following the April Good Friday weekend, I approached my older brother, Mike, at the Pro Arts office and stated, "Mike, we're going to do a poster of Farrah Fawcett!"

Mike, as if cued by me, responded, "Farrah who?"

Those were the words that were to follow me throughout that day. Each time I approached a man stating that Pro Arts was going to do a poster of Farrah Fawcett, I was given a standard reply, "Farrah Who?'

Each time after I had explained to the man what Pat Partridge had discussed with me, the man would then place the name with the face and respond, "Very sexy, or very beautiful, or not a bad idea!"

Each time I approached a woman at the company with the Farrah Fawcett tout, the woman would respond favorably and often add additional information concerning Farrah such as, "She's Lee Major's wife." or "She had a few parts on "Harry-O" with David Jensen.

It was quite clear in April of 1976 that both men and women were favorable for Farrah and not one person of the eighteen people that I approached ever stated a negative reply to the idea!

I contacted the William Morris Agency in Los Angeles to discuss the possibility of Farrah licensing Pro Arts for her image to be put on a poster. When Rick Hersh, Farrah's agent, first spoke to me, he asked, "What type of products is Farrah going to be selling on the poster?"

I replied, "We want to sell Farrah on the Farrah poster."

Mr. Hersh was still unclear as to what the offer was about and continued to ask, "What is Farrah going to advertise?"

Since Farrah had received her primary exposure through advertisements and commercials, her agent assumed that Farrah's demand was related to product to be sold. Yet, I tried to convey the idea that people wanted photos of Farrah and only Farrah without product to be sold.

I stated to Mr. Hersh, "Think about Farrah selling Farrah."

Mr. Hersh said that it was an unusual request, but he would approach Farrah with the idea. In closing, I stated, "Tell Farrah that Pro Arts is presently doing a poster of her husband, Lee Majors, as the "Six Million Dollar Man," and that Pro Arts would give Farrah an identical contract so there would be no disagreements as to the terms and conditions since Pro Arts wanted to treat her equally."

A few days after the telephone conversation with Mr. Hersh, I received a call confirming to me that a tentative "deal" had been agreed upon and that Farrah thought the idea of doing a poster was "cute."

In early June of 1976, Farrah returned the signed copies of the Poster Agreement and a photograph session requested by Farrah was scheduled to "shoot" her at her Bel Air home in California.

Of the 25 photographs sent to me by Farrah, which were approved by Farrah from the photo-session, all of the photographs were acceptable! Not one bad photograph appeared in the photos submitted! In fact, I felt it necessary to show the photographs to the employees of Pro Arts and try to obtain an opinion that would nail down the photograph to be used for her first poster. Just as there were twenty-five photographs, there were twenty-five different opinions! All of the photos received votes and this had left me with making the ultimate decision. Which photo to choose?

Farrah had placed a "star" on her favorite photograph and since it was my decision, I selected that photograph to be her first poster. That photograph appears on the cover of this book and has become the best all-time selling poster in the poster industry!

When asked "why" I had selected that particular photograph, I replied without hesitation, "Which person knows better those qualities of beauty better than the person that must sell those qualities to the public everyday?" Farrah had liked the photograph and placed a "star" upon it. She recognizes those qualities in herself that has earned her an income from those qualities. And besides, it was pre-approved by Farrah and required no additional approval from her.

The poster was printed and produced prior to Charlie's Angels airing on national television. In September of 1976, Farrah's poster had sold about 7,000 copies. In October, another 15,000 posters had been sold. In November, another 30,000 had sold. By Christmas, Farrah's poster was receiving national recognition and had sold about 500,000. The following year became known as the "Farrah Phenomenon" and during the months of February and March of 1977, Farrah's poster sold nearly 3,000,000 copies and her design was on 3,000,000 T-shirts and graced about 30 or more products from pillow cases, coffee mugs, drinking glasses, puzzles to wall hangings and memo pads. Pro Arts had paid Farrah nearly $400,000.00 in royalties and Pro Arts had gone from a $2,000,000 company to a $6,000,000 company literally overnight!

Personalities all over the United States sought out Pro Arts to do their posters! Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders, Shawn Cassidy and the Hardy Boys, Cheryl Ladd, Lynda Carter, Jaclyn Smith, Kate Jackson, and many others became "Poster People" of the Pro Arts Poster Machine!

In 1977, Elvis Presley unexpectedly died and created a future turmoil that eventually created one of the many burdens that Pro Arts would have to bear throughout the quickly approaching Recession.

I was traveling to Macon; Georgia to attend a special party Capricorn Records was having for its friends and customers. A few of their recording artists were The Almond Brothers Band and the Charlie Daniels Band. Billie Carter, President Jimmy Carter's brother, was also to attend. Pro Arts had recently done a deal to produce the Billie Carter poster and by every indication, there were a great many people that wanted a poster of Billie. Surprisingly, Billie had a redneck following that even appealed to many straight normal people.

The day Elvis died, I was in my hotel room reading the Atlanta Journal, which had a full color photograph on the front page. It was Elvis at his best! He was wearing his famous white studded costume with a guitar around his lower body. He had the microphone leaning close to his open mouth and the expression on his face was typically Elvis! He was in this photograph without any doubt, The King!

After trying to call Pro Arts' Office in Medina, Ohio for several minutes only to find all four incoming lines busy, I dialed my private telephone number that rang only in my office. My secretary, Becky, had informed me that the telephones were ringing off the desks as our sales force had pre-sold nearly 1,000,000 posters in a four hour period and the company didn't even have a photograph in the house from which to make the poster of Elvis!

I immediately hung up the telephone and called the Atlanta Journal to find Bud Skinner, the photograph that had taken the cover page photo for the Atlanta Journal. After obtaining his personal number, I was able to arrange for Pro Arts to purchase the Copyright of the photograph from Mr. Skinner and he was to be at the Atlanta Journal by 5:00 PM that same day to hand deliver the original 35mm slide to me. I had prepared in long hand an agreement and release to expedite the transfer of the copyright and I assured Mr. Skinner that upon my return to Pro Arts that same evening, I would send him the money we had agreed to pay for the photograph.

After notifying my brother, Mike, at Pro Arts that the photograph was indeed in my hands, Mike called Western Publishing Company to meet me at the Cleveland Hopkins Airport and take the photograph directly to Wisconsin for immediate printing. He had placed an order for 1,500,000 posters. Most of which were sold that first day after Elvis' death.

There was a potential problem that Pro Arts had experienced a few years earlier with the Bruce Lee poster that would eventually cause Pro Arts to re-experience it again.

When Bruce Lee had died unexpectedly, his poster became very much in demand. We began to produce the posters of Lee with certainty that his rights had died with him. The "Right of Publicity" was a right that many entertainers acquire during their lifetime. This Right allows the entertainer to sell their name, image and likeness and obtain a royalty for their uses.

Our attorney, Ray Scott, had researched this Right of Publicity after the Licensor of the Bruce Lee Estate that Pro Arts was infringing on this "right" notified us.

In many cases, most states did not recognize the Right of Publicity, as did California and New York. In fact, Ohio did not have a Right of Publicity law on its books and this indicated that the question of its existence was entirely up to the testing of it in court!

Rather than test the Bruce Lee Poster Rights in a lawsuit that could cost Pro Arts several thousands of dollars, Pro Arts elected to pay a small royalty to the estate for the sale of each Bruce Lee Poster. This was nominal because Bruce Lee was popular, but his posters were not selling thousands each day. Elvis on the other hand indicated that if properly shipped into the marketplace, could outsell even the famous Farrah Poster that had sold over 5,000,000 copies the year before Elvis' death!

Pro Arts was shipping over 1,000,000 posters in its first nine days and by all indications, Pro Arts could sell 7 to 10 million posters before the saturation point would be nearly approached.

While Pro Arts was shipping and selling the Elvis poster, several other popular posters were also making great waves into the marketplace!

I had obtained the rights from Lynda Carter (Wonder Woman), Cheryl Tiegs (Cover Girl), Cheryl Ladd (Charlie's Angel who replaced Farrah), Shawn Cassidy (Hardy Boys), and three new posters of Farrah, Jaclyn Smith and Kate Jackson that were better than their first releases! Pro Arts was heading for another record-breaking year and could surpass the $6,000,000.00 net sales made in 1976-1977 year!

A competitor, Factors Etc., from Bear, Delaware had flown to Memphis to obtain the exclusive rights to Elvis' Name, Image and Likeness from Vernon Presley and Colonel Parker, Elvis' 50% manager!

After obtaining the sole "Exclusive Rights" to Elvis' name, image and likeness, Factors proceeded to sue a Pro Arts Distributor, C C Sales in Chicago for an Elvis poster they were printing and distributing! To add to the fire, Factors sued C C Sales in New York City in the Second Circuit Federal District Court where the "Right of Publicity" had been upheld in a few other famous personality cases!

Pro Arts had already intended to sue Presley's Estate in Ohio to obtain a decision from an Ohio Federal District Court that would establish the fact that the right of publicity is extinguished when the famous person dies. Now, it was necessary for Pro Arts to sue both Presley and Factors in Ohio in order to resolve the question. And having sold over 1,000,000 posters in nine days made the effort affordable.

Our attorneys prepared the lawsuit and filed it in Toledo, Ohio with all the fanfare and publicity that accompanied such a lawsuit being filed! Unfortunately, Factors heard about the lawsuit prior to being served with the complaint and proceeded to add Pro Arts to its pending New York City lawsuit as a co-defendant with C C Sales.

Federal Judge Tenney presiding in the Second Circuit refused to let Pro Arts out of the New York lawsuit and levied a temporary injunction against Pro Arts and all of Pro Arts customers that had purchased and received the 1,000,000 Elvis posters!

This costly blunder on Pro Arts' part resulted in over 800,000 posters being shipped back to Pro Arts while the question of the injunction was being decided!

Judge Tenney was a biased judge favoring the "Right of Publicity" and by all indications, would inevitably rule in favor of Elvis' Estate and Factors.

C C Sales had elected to settle with Factors and Presley and obtain a license for their poster while Pro Arts decided to proceed forward and try to persuade the judge that the "Right of Publicity" should end with the death of the famous person.

It was Pro Arts belief that if decided in Elvis' favor, many freedoms related to the First Amendment would now fall within the hands of the estate of the dead entertainers! The copyright laws of the United States should protect what would and should be the governing aspect of any published art.

Several photographers touring with Elvis had numerous photographs of Elvis that could be sold to newspapers and magazines. Yet for a poster company to have to pay a royalty to the estate to disseminate the same photograph to Elvis' fans was unconstitutional in every respect. The expression, "One Picture is worth a thousand words." was now going to cost the publisher of that picture money to distribute a picture that under the Constitution was a Free Speech Right!

Judge Tenney denied Pro Arts this right forcing Pro Arts to appeal the District Judge's Decision to the Court of Appeals in the Second Circuit! This was even a bigger joke than the District Judge because there were three previous District Judges ruling on a decision of the lower court that supported their previous attitudes about the "Right of Publicity!"

After several months of waiting, the Court of Appeals upheld the decision of Judge Tenney (as if Pro Arts had expected them to reverse Tenney's decision) and Pro Arts filed a Writ of Certiorari with the Supreme Court in Washington D.C. in hopes that the Presley name on this lawsuit would once and for all put an end to the decisions that were split among the several district courts throughout the United States.

It was here that I learned the true essence of the law. It was in the Supreme Court's refusal to settle the issue once and for all that the legal system of the United States became quite clear and succinct!

From time to time throughout this book, I shall digress a bit to make statements with regards to our "Justice Department," U.S. Attorneys, Attorneys, Big Business Corporations and Banks. The statements made are from first hand experiences and are made to clearly indicate the essences of these individuals and organizations and their "ethical standards" under which they are "supposedly" operating.

The present legal system in the United States is set up by attorneys, governed by attorneys, decided by attorneys and ultimately controlled by the attorneys for the direct benefit of the attorneys!

Lawsuits create revenues for attorneys. When one attorney goofs at the expense of his client, another attorney profits at the expense of his client. As the two adversary parties battle each other through the judicial system of the United States, each contributes money to their attorneys until either one of them is broken by the expense, or defeated by the law.

It has been said that an attorney will spend his client's last penny to prove that the attorney was right. It is this mentality that destroys the entrepreneur and small businesses throughout the course of any new business venture.

Attorneys may make statements that are not true and defend those statements with immunity. They are very rarely called to account for their actions and when one or two attorneys are caught, they may suffer the consequences only if they have deliberately offended too many other attorneys in the course of their day to day business over the years they had been practicing law.

After the Second Circuit Court of Appeals "upheld" Judge Tenny's Injunction to prevent Pro Arts from further distributing the Elvis Poster, Tenny was contemplating a "permanent injunction" shortly before a Tennessee District Judge had ruled in Elvis's favor on a similar "Right of Publicity" issue concerning Coors Beer!

Coors however had appealed their decision to the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati, Ohio.

It was the Sixth Circuit's reversal of the lower Tennessee Court that provided Pro Arts with the support to go back to the Second Circuit with a re-consideration of their first decision!

The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals stated that Elvis Presley did not have any Right of Publicity "after Death" since the state of Tennessee did not recognize those rights in its state law. The Appeals Court clearly stated that since Tennessee did not acknowledge a right after death then the lower court could not enforce a state law that did not exist! This Sixth Circuit decision affected Pro Arts since Pro Arts was in the Sixth Circuit jurisdiction!

Now the Second Circuit Court of Appeals looked ridiculous as it was restricting an Ohio company from producing and distributing a poster of Elvis that Elvis's own state did not recognize as a right!

The Second Circuit reversed itself with this ruling and remanded the case back to Judge Tenny to award damages to Pro Arts.

This final decision in early 1983 was a lawsuit that lasted five years and prevented Pro Arts from selling its 1,500,000 posters of which nearly 1,000,000 had been shipped and returned in late 1977! The attorney's fees for Pro Arts were in excess of $150,000.00 in cash! The cash loss in sales was nearly $1,000,000.00 on shipped posters and the potential loss of future re-orders from the customers purchasing the first million posters was estimated to be over an additional $2,000,000.00!

I would say that one of the contributing factors of Pro Arts filing for Chapter 11 in federal bankruptcy court in December of 1981 was the Elvis Presley lawsuit.

The final "icing" on the Elvis poster came when the new Pro Arts emerged from Chapter 11 and the "settlement of damages obtained by Pro Arts was ONLY $ 17,000.00 of which fifty per cent was to be shared by Pro Arts' Unsecured Creditors by virtue of the Plan that was approved by the court on June 10, 1983.

It seemed that the attorneys handling the Elvis suit had not argued for a "larger injunctive bond" often required to be put up by the plaintiff to stop distribution of the poster! Furthermore, no one ever told Pro Arts that very often a court might only award the size of the bond if and when the injunction is overturned! And to make it even more difficult to swallow, no one stated that even if the defendant in the lawsuit wins the bond, they may have to sue the plaintiff to receive that portion of the bond that was to have been awarded to the defendant if and when the defendant wins their case!

It appeared that Judge Tenny, a federal judge that had pre-judged the case even before it went to trial, had allowed the bond to be released to the Elvis faction after the Second Circuit Court of Appeals had upheld Tenny's preliminary injunction! The bond was not in possession of the court and this would mean that Pro Arts would have to "chase" the plaintiffs to receive satisfaction on the very low bond award! That is the reason Pro Arts received only $65,000.00 from the Elvis faction! Furthermore, the attorneys for Pro Arts took $48,000.00 of the money and left Pro Arts $17,000.00 to share with the Unsecured Creditors of the company.