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Trikilis brothers' huge poster empire eventually declines into bankruptcy
By Carol Biliczky
Beacon Journal staff writer
Published on Friday, Jun 26, 2009
When Mike Trikilis first heard Farrah Fawcett's name, he didn't have a clue who she was.
But he took a chance that the actress with the girl-next-door looks could sell a few posters for his Medina company.
As the news of Fawcett's death at age 62 in California broke Thursday, Trikilis paced and ranted about the blazingly successful poster that made his fortune just as the actress rocketed to stardom with the hit TV show Charlie's Angels.
It was a brief, shining moment in the sun for Trikilis' poster company. Even today, with the company long since collapsed into bankruptcy, the Cuyahoga Falls resident relishes the turns of fortune that propelled Pro Arts into the spotlight.
As Trikilis and his late brother, Ted, watched
the Fawcett posters slide off the Pro Arts press, Ted noted cheerfully that this was better than counterfeiting. ''And it's legal,'' Mike Trikilis remembers responding.
The Trikilis brothers were Wooster residents and Kent State students whose business started innocently enough with a modest art gallery in Wooster.
They added art supplies and bit when a Chicago salesmen persuaded them to carry anti-war posters, love beads and the like at their store, then near Kent State, in the late 1960s.
Then a neighbor kid mentioned to Ted Trikilis that his buddies were buying magazines just to see photos of the model with the toothy smile and cascading blond tresses.
Building a fortune
Ted sold the idea to his brother, who had just bought a four-color press for their plant, by now in Medina. Ted hammered out a deal with Fawcett's agent at the William Morris Co.
A free-lance photographer shot Fawcett by the pool at the home she shared with then-husband Lee Majors in Bel Air, Calif. She personally approved three photos to turn into posters.
The Trikilis brothers printed 10,000 copies of their favorite — Fawcett in a red (some say burnt orange) one-piece suit, sitting in front of an Indian blanket.
They underestimated the tastes of American males.
The poster quickly became the most popular in the Pro Arts stable of 100 offerings. By December, the company had sold a million posters of Fawcett.
''At one time, we were running the press 20 hours a day and only running Farrah Fawcett posters,'' Trikilis recalled. ''And we still had to have 3 million posters printed outside the company.''
At one time, the brothers had 150 day laborers rolling posters on the factory floor. Newsweek featured Ted Trikilis, who became the company's chief promoter, on its cover. News media from all over the world converged on Pro Arts.
''It was humming. It was kickin','' said Trikilis' sister, Paulette Lorincz of Wadsworth, a receptionist and artist for the company. For years, fans wrote and called to talk to Fawcett.
''It was turmoil,'' Trikilis said.
By the time the smoke cleared in April 1977, Pro Arts had sold 4 million copies of Fawcett in the red bathing suit and 1.5 million more of her from the other two approved photos. Mike Trikilis said his brother was inflating sales when he said they sold 12 million.
Other stars to picture
More good things followed.
With a hit on its hands, the company rolled out posters of other starlets, including Suzanne Sommers and Wonder Woman Lynda Carter. A poster of the Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders was a huge hit.
When Mike Trikilis learned in an airport that Elvis Presley had died, he directed his brother to get the rights to a photo of the singer and churn out commemorative posters. The brothers were sued for the poster, although it was resolved in their favor.
Despite its rosy launch, though, the ''Farrah phenomenon'' turned out to be a death knell for Pro Arts.
Trikilis said he knows of more than 30 companies that knocked off their posters. The FBI refused to help, he said bitterly.
And even though company sales rose from $2 million before the poster to $6 million a year in the late 1970s, the brothers clashed and Mike Trikilis left the company. In 1981, Pro Arts filed for bankruptcy. It was liquidated in 1984.
In 1994, Ted Trikilis reconstructed the company's demise in the self-published The Unindicted: From Farrah to Fraud, the True Story. He lambasted attorneys, judges, investors and even the Mafia for torpedoing the company. He died of a heart attack at age 64 in January.
Living legacy
But the popularity of the poster lives on.
Original, autographed copies command up to $645 on the Internet. Fawcett sold copies of the swimsuit on her own Web site for $100. Fans who want a less expensive memento can buy magnets on eBay for $4.50. An appraiser has valued Fawcett's simple swimsuit at $200,000 to $300,000.
Mike Trikilis revels in talking about the days that made him a fortune and Fawcett a star.
He said he lost a fortune — including a $250,000 home he purchased in the 1980s in Medina County's Montville Township — and never reconciled with his brother. He lives alone in a modest, one-bedroom apartment. He said he may write his own memoir. There's quite a story to tell, he maintains.
''1976 was the perfect time for the poster,'' he said. ''She was a very beautiful woman.''
Carol Biliczky can be reached at 330-996-3729 or cbiliczky@thebeaconjournal.com.
When Mike Trikilis first heard Farrah Fawcett's name, he didn't have a clue who she was.
Get the full article here.
Comments
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Mogadore, OH
Posted 05:07 AM, 06/26/2009
I had that poster! Amazing how 14 year old boys see only the outside...
