Serial and Year: TK 3977 / 1977.

Pages: 9 pages out of 107 pages in total.

Pictures: 1 b&w picture.

Article: 9-page article on Lynda Carter and the Wonder Woman series.

Author: Peggy Herz.

Publisher: Scholastic Book Services.

Country: USA.

	ZAP! She's done it again! Wonder Woman was dropped by ABC last spring. But before she could jump in her plastic plane and zoom home to Paradise Island, she was saved by CBS! How do you like that?
	"I like it," said Lynda Carter, as she sipped water ("No ice, please") in the Beverly Hills Brown Derby. Lynda waited more than two years for the show to be made into a weekly series. Every time a segment of Wonder Woman was aired, it did well. But still ABC couldn't seem to make up its mind. Did it want Wonder Woman as weekly series? Did it want Wonder Woman at all?
	"After we did the very first show, I got involved in the drama of the whole thing," Lynda admitted. "But I got tired of asking,

'Is it going to be a series or isn't it?' I got tired of messing around with it. Finally we did 11 shows -and then CBS picked us up for this season. And we'll do 22 shows!" Wonder Woman strikes again!

But who, you might ask, is Lynda Carter? Is she really a six-foot-tall tower of strength? She zapped a lot of Nazis in the first 11 shows -and she made it look easy. What kind of super-woman is she?

Lynda laughed at the question. "People always think I'm much bigger than I am," she answered. "I'm not really not six feet tall!" I'm about 5'9" inches, and I weigh 125 pounds. I'm on a diet all the time. That's why I'm drinking water now. I'm always about five pounds overweight, except when I'm working."

Lynda laughed at the question. "People always think I'm much bigger than I am," she answered. "I'm not really not six feet tall!" I'm about 5'9" inches, and I weigh 125 pounds. I'm on a diet all the time. That's why I'm drinking water now. I'm always about five pounds overweight, except when I'm working."

Lynda was born in Phoenix, Arizona. She grew up wanting to be an actress. "My family was always very supportive, " she said. "There were never any restrictions on what we could do - or be. My sister wanted to be a doctor! And why not? Our parents encouraged us in whatever we wanted.

"I was very gangly when I was younger. I was tall and I had big feet and freckles. At one point I was 5'5" and weighed 100 pounds. I was ghastly, but I developed! In high school I wanted to be a pom-pom girl badly, but I didn't make it. I was just going into high school when my father lost all his money and my parents got divorced. We moved from a gigantic house to a tiny house. It was agony. There are so many snobby people. I worked all through high school. I always liked theater arts. I never studied much, but I was good in school. I was graduated in the top percentile."

Lynda became a professional singer while she was still in school. "I sang in pizza parlors, supper clubs, and other places in Phoenix," she recalled. "I always loved singing and dancing."

She didn't date much in high school. "The boys all seemed kind of short and skinny," she said. "I always wanted to fit in with all the kids, but I never really did. I wanted to be part of the 'in' group, but I also wanted to be respected for my talent and my intelligence."

At times in her life she'd been skinny. At other times she'd been plumb. But finally Lynda outgrewed all of that -and she entered a beauty contest. By then, it was no contest at all. She was named Miss U.S.A. in 1973 and was a finalist that same year in the Miss World contest. Today, she has mixed feelings about beauty contests.

"I got paid anything for winning except $ 1,000 for a wardrobe," Lynda told me. "Then I got paid $70 a day plus expenses for working and promoting the contest. It's really a glorified public relations job."

"It was still a terrific experience, though," she added. "It was a big fantasy. You're playing princess when you're a beauty queen! A little girl from nowhere becomes someone. There's no doubt the promoters use the girls to make money for themselves. But it does give girls a chance to get out of their hometowns and meet new people. You see new places and have experiences -it adds to you life. It certainly helped me. I am very thankful to the Miss U.S.A. people. Winning that beauty contest allowed me to move to California and studying acting. It helped me get my singing and acting together."

Lynda believes very strongly in the feminist movement, though many members of the movement are opposed to beauty contest. "I don't like to see women held back in any way," she declared. "I try to impress upon young people -boys and girls- that they can be anything they want to be." Lynda smiled. "I'm very thankful I look the way I do, but I had nothing to do with that. My parents did! But isn't how you look that's important. It's how you use whatever you have that's important -how you use your talents, your interest...

"It's much easier to complain about life and how lousy it is than to be happy. It's harder to be a success than a failure -and a lot of people take the easy way out. They let themselves be failures."

Lynda was determined not to let that happen to her. After her year's reign as Miss U.S.A., she headed for Hollywood. She knew it wouldn't be easy. Every year thousands and thousands of aspiring young actors and actresses head for Hollywood. Once there, they take acting lessons and wait to be discovered. Few ever are.

But producer Doug Cramer was casting Wonder Woman. After interviewing hundreds of would-be wonder women, he found the one he wanted: Lynda Carter.

Lynda was tunned. "My first thought was: I hope I can do it," she admitted. "But I knew I could. I think anybody can do anything they want if they want it badly enough." Lynda wanted this very badly. She wanted to be an actress -and this was her chance.

When I saw Lynda recently, two years ago had passed since our first meeting. Lynda had changed. She was no longer an unkown beauty queen. She was a TV star. And she had just gotten married. She had married her manager, Ron Samuels.

"We were married on May 28," Lynda said. "We had planned on going to Hawaii on our honeymoon. But we went there, had dinner, and decided to come back home. We had just bought a new house and there was a lot of work to be done on it."

Lynda looked thoughtful. "So many things have happened in the past few years. I don't really think in terms of years, though. I'm more concerned about my marriage and the changes that have taken place in the show."

"The show was changed this season. It was moved from the 1940's to the present day. Everyone felt we had done enough shows about the Nazis and World War II. We decided Wonder Woman had flung her last Nazi! I think it was a good idea to update the show. It's still the same show; it's just been moved to a modern setting."

Lynda gets a great deal of fan mail. "I get mail from children who can hardly write," she said with a smile. "But most of my mail comes from teenagers. Many of them seem to be looking for idealism in a world that isn't idealistic. And Wonder Woman is idealistic. I think that's why young people identify with her and with me."

"I supervise the answering of the mail. I got behind when I got married, though, and became involved in moving. There were eight big boxes of mail in the garage. But all the letters will be answered. I feel it's my responsibility to make sure they're answered."

"I've moved so many times since I came to California!" Lynda exclaimed. "One year I moved seven times! But now Ro and I have our own house -and our own tennis court and swimming pool!"

I asked Lynda if the past few years had been happy ones for her. "Growing is good," she responded, "and I have grown. From this point on, a new chapter is beginning in my personal life -and in my career. There were times when I didn't know if I'd be able to pay the rent, but I kept busy going to acting classes and working on my music. I would say these years have been happy, frustrating, exhausting, depressing -you name it! But that's what life is all about. I've gotten more and more involved in the character of Wonder Woman. I know the character better than anyone else at this point!"

Lynda works hard to keep herself in shape. The former beauty queen doesn't want to get out of condition at this point in her life! "I do many kinds of exercises," Lynda said. "I swim a lot. I play tennis. I jump on the trampoline, and do leg lifts and push-ups. I run -and for the opening shows this season I had to take fencing lessons. I hate working out in a gym but I do it. Any exercise where you use your whole body is good. You body becomes balanced. You become aware of your head, your hands, every part of your body."

Lynda has many plans for the future. "I want to sing, perform, write music, and direct," she said enthusiastically. "Maybe I won't do it all but I can try! I hope my success in Wonder Woman leads everywhere! Somebody has to be everywhere -why not me? I love music. I've been writing, performing, and recording all my life. Ron and I went to Las Vegas to see Paul Anka. I'm going to do and album with him. Paul will write and produce the record and I'll sing. That's very exciting to me! And Ron is working on some TV specials for me.

"So many things are happening. That's what success is all about. You must capitalize on today and make success work for you. I'm not afraid of being typecast as Wonder Woman. Playing that part has given me exposure to the public. If the public likes me, they will want to me in other things."

"This business," Lynda stressed, "is like any other. If you want to succeed, you must have pride in yourself and your craft. You must work far beyond the normal 'business hours.' That's true of anybody: a housewife, a writer, a publicist. If you don't work extra hours, or do those extra things, you're giving yourself and excuse to fail."

"It's amazing to me," Lynda said, "how creativity begets creativity. The more you have to do -the more you do. When I'm my busiest I find time to work on my music and play tennis. When I have all day to make the bed, the bed doesn't get made!"

Lynda loves Mexican food. "We served that at our wedding," she said. "We had a garden wedding with a mariachi band. It was a wonderful day! I wore the most beautiful wedding dress I have ever seen. It was very old-fashioned looking with big sleeves and a train. And I wore flowers in my hair. My father escorted me out of the house and my sister was a bridesmaid. I have never been so nervous. There were about 100 people there. I have sung before groups of 13,000-14,000 people. That was nothing like getting married!"

"I really got a kick out of tradition of it all. I really loved that. It's great how some of the old traditions aren't so bad after all. It's like growing up and finding that your parents have gotten smarter! You never consider the fact that it's you who have gotten smarter! I'm so happy we had a very traditional wedding. It's a memory we will always have."

ZAP! She's done it again! Wonder Woman married her Superman!

© 1977 by Scholastic Book Services.

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