Two lost icons: For Generation X, a really bad day

Dark Knight

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- A record-shattering vinyl album and its moonwalking maestro. A paper poster of a golden-haired beauty in a one-piece swimsuit that was gossamer and clingy in all the right places.


It all seems so quaint now, the fragmented dream memories of a fleeting micro-era that began with words like "bicentennial" and "pet rock" and ended with MTV, Atari and absurdly thin cans of super-hold mousse.


The man-child named Michael Jackson and the luminous girl known as Farrah Fawcett-Majors jumped into our consciousness at a plastic moment in American culture -- a time when the celebrity juggernaut we know today was still in diapers.



When they departed Thursday, just a few hours and a few miles apart, they left an entire generation -- a very strange generation indeed -- without two of its defining figures.


"These people were on our lunchboxes," said Gary Giovannetti, 38, a manager at HBO who grew up on Long Island awash in Farrah and MJ iconography. "This," he said, "is the moment when Generation X realizes they're grown up."


Much more at link:

http://omg.yahoo.com/news/two-lost-icons-for-generation-x-a-really-bad-day/24354?nc

This was a tremendous article on the events of Thursday, June 25, and worth sharing, I felt.
 
May I illustrate?

Best selling pin-up poster of all time, 12 million copies sold. 1976

picture.php


Micheal Jackson 1979 (at his most gorgeous). Fred Astaire had nothing on him. And that smile...​

[nomedia="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pvc9XBTfu6g&feature=related"]YouTube - Michael Jackson - Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough[/nomedia]​


I was 16 and 19 when this poster and video were released.​

"When they departed Thursday, just a few hours and a few miles apart, they left an entire generation -- a very strange generation indeed -- without two of its defining figures."



It seems like only a few years ago and now they're gone...so sad.​

R.I.P. Farrah and Michael
:blowkiss:​
 
He looked adorable in that video - he should have stopped with the plastic surgery then!
 
He looked adorable in that video - he should have stopped with the plastic surgery then!

I know. I could watch it over and over agian. He seemed so happy.
 
Thanks DK. Summed up the "weird" I've been feeling perfectly.
 
My cousin, Jimmy, had the Farrah poster on his wall, and we (the little girl cousins) played with Charlie's Angels "action figures." I grew up roller skating to early Michael Jackson and later had "Thriller" on vinal. I know all the words to all the songs. I remember staying up late to watch the "world premere" of the "Thriller" video on Friday Night Videos (we couldn't get cable). And anyone else remember Farrah in "The Burning Bed"? I feel like yesterday wiped away a huge chunk of my life.
 
My cousin, Jimmy, had the Farrah poster on his wall, and we (the little girl cousins) played with Charlie's Angels "action figures." I grew up roller skating to early Michael Jackson and later had "Thriller" on vinal. I know all the words to all the songs. I remember staying up late to watch the "world premere" of the "Thriller" video on Friday Night Videos (we couldn't get cable). And anyone else remember Farrah in "The Burning Bed"? I feel like yesterday wiped away a huge chunk of my life.

OMG, palmerk! Are you one of my childhood friends in disguise?? You just described my youth to a T.

I can remember trying to learn the words to Wanna Be Startin' Somethin' in the hallway of my friend's house and literally laying on the ground laughing so hard as our other friend tried desperately to manage saying "mama say mama sa mama coo sa" over and over.

I can see it in my head like it was yesterday.

Thanks for the thread, DK. This was a sad sad day indeed.
 
OMG - My sisters & I always played Charlie's Angels in our back yard. I was Jill, My sister was Sabrina. Somewhere there is a picture of us haming it up in our best Charlie's Angels impression.

June has been a tough month for my childhood icons - David Carradine entertained me on many rainy Saturday afternoons on Kung Fu, Farrah Fawcett was inspiration to me & other little girls coming of age in the late 70's (I was 8 when she was Jill on Charlie's Angels). And Michael Jackson was always there, we also stayed up late to see his next hit music video. Ed McMahon was a huge icon as well - many of you knew him from Johnny Carson - to me he was the host of Star Search (and the publishers clearing house guy). Star Search has had it's own impact, it was the American Idol of my youth, and several stars were featured on that show, introduced by Ed McMahon.

4 icons of my youth gone in one month. It is a sad time indeed.
 
I heard this morning that Walter Cronkite had cerebral vascular degeneration and family is gathered. :(
 
He looked adorable in that video - he should have stopped with the plastic surgery then!

I know, he was adorable, but he was partially trying to send a message to his father, I believe.
I had read that his father used to say his nose was "fat" and terrible things like that.

Parents can affect their children in such slight ways without thinking about what they're doing. All that negativism leaves scars and feelings of inadequacy and low self esteem.

Michael didn't need the surgery. He was beautiful the way he was.

I am still so sad that he passed away ... too young! :(
 
May I illustrate?

Best selling pin-up poster of all time, 12 million copies sold. 1976

picture.php


Micheal Jackson 1979 (at his most gorgeous). Fred Astaire had nothing on him. And that smile...​



I was 16 and 19 when this poster and video were released.​

"When they departed Thursday, just a few hours and a few miles apart, they left an entire generation -- a very strange generation indeed -- without two of its defining figures."



It seems like only a few years ago and now they're gone...so sad.​

R.I.P. Farrah and Michael

:blowkiss:​

I just knew from the title of your post that you were posting a link to the truly gorgeous of the two- Farrah Fawcett.
Michael was talented. I'll stop there.
 
I know, he was adorable, but he was partially trying to send a message to his father, I believe.
I had read that his father used to say his nose was "fat" and terrible things like that.

Parents can affect their children in such slight ways without thinking about what they're doing. All that negativism leaves scars and feelings of inadequacy and low self esteem.

Michael didn't need the surgery. He was beautiful the way he was.

I am still so sad that he passed away ... too young! :(

I am still so sad about his obsessive drive to remake his beautiful face and change his skin. It really became a kind of observable insanity. He was gorgeous and he rejected it. His father has a lot on his hands, I'd say.

Eve
 
I just knew from the title of your post that you were posting a link to the truly gorgeous of the two- Farrah Fawcett.
Michael was talented. I'll stop there.

I love that MJ video. It just makes me grin ear to ear. The memories! Thanks SJ.

Eve
 
OMG - My sisters & I always played Charlie's Angels in our back yard. I was Jill, My sister was Sabrina. Somewhere there is a picture of us haming it up in our best Charlie's Angels impression.

My friends and I used to do this too! I can't remember which one I liked to pretend to be, though. Thank goodness there are no pictures!!! :)

Yeah, this is a really weird week for generation X with so many celebrities who were prominent during our childhoods passing away. It was really a shock for me with Michael Jackson. I guess I thought he would be around forever!
 
What the?! Farrah aswell. So shocking - Ive been feeling sorry for myself recently about all manner of silly things that just pale into insignficence - things like this really bring you back to earth with a bump.

Rest in peace x
 
I too played "Charlies Angels" as a child ... good stuff! Then and now! I was usally Sabrina. Even back then I thought to myself "I want to be like her (always saw her as the smart one, mostly cuz she appeared more wholesome *sigh*)" But that same year, My babysitter (who was in Cosmotology training) asked me "Would you like to have your hair feathered, like Farrah's?"

Well .... I was 8-9 and of course said "YES"! lol That night, when my mother came home and found her babies, never before cut hair, hair long beyond her bottom hair, hair her german grandmother bragged about, cut! (badly I might add) .... Oh Dear Lawwwdd!!! The roof came off da house that night LOL. the next day my mother marched me into a salon where they had to cut my hair so short (Shorter, like a boy, she kept telling the girl) Oh how I cried!

Oddly enough, I laugh at that now ... but, it was Michael who I cried with, and to!

"Ben, the two of us need look no more .... oh the drama ... I see this so vividlly now ... LMAO!

They both, Farrah, and Michael left a real *heart print* on me then, and throughout my life, for many, many reasons.

God bless them both! May thier families mourn peacefully!
 
Thank you for this post, DK!

I couldn't quite describe the loss I was feeling when I heard we lost two of my childhood icons. It was like losing my favorite baby doll all over again. I wanted to be Farrah from Charlie's Angels. And I can't describe the effect MJ's music had on me and my family growing up.

I am so saddened by the loss of both Farrah and MJ. May their legacies live on forever. It really feels like a huge part of my childhood has gone with them. :(
 

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