My Wife Is Julie, the 1974 American Girl Historical Character

We were on vacation in San Francisco in July 2005 when my wife was asked to pose hanging off a cable car by some photographers from American Girl.

In New York yesterday, we took our daughter to the American Girl store there and were greeted with these giant 7′ tall posters. Jennifer immediately remembered the incident in San Francisco. The staff was amused and gave us a free poster. And I’m amused that she’s the 1974 character who gets to say things like “Far Out.”

She looked up the illustrator, Robert Hunt, online. He’s apparently a major illustrator in the business, having done the artwork for the Dreamworks logo (kid sitting on the moon) as well as a bunch of other major work. Anyway, he described his process very thoroughly, and it seems unlikely that her “likeness” was used, as that would have required a model release, etc.

The team taking the photos was so emphatic (watch for it, it’ll be you!) though and the overall likeness to the pose that day is so great that we think those shots were used for blocking out the design.

We’ll probably never know, but these little coincidences add a touch of magic to life.