WONDERLAND • The Ultimate Wonder Woman Site

$100,000 automobiles! $1,000,000 contracts! The world’s most beautiful women! Is this any way to run an Empire? “Yes!” says Ron Samuels. “Yes!”

HE IS A GIANT IN A PLAYGROUND of giants. But unlike some of his contemporaries who flaunt their promiscuous and gregarious lifestyles, he is a conservative family man. An intellectual. A moralist.

Samuels manages the career of his wife, Lynda Carter, and has managed to make her probably the highest paid woman in the world. Lynda is best known now, of course, for her starring role in the CBS series, Wonder Woman. But what makes Samuels unique is that he is in the enviable position of handling not only the career, of his lovely wife, but also those of several other beautiful women - most notably, another super-heroine, Lindsay Wagner, whose greatest impact to date was as Jamie Sommers, The Bionic Woman. It was Ron Samuels who took Lindsay, whose Universal Studios' contract had recently been dropped, demanded for her, and got - from the same people at Universal - the then highest salary ever paid to a woman in a television series.

Samuels caused a tremor that shook the foundation of the Black Tower of Universal from which it has still not fully recovered. It is said that to this day when he walks onto the Universal lot, aftershocks are felt as executives slip under their desks. TV Guide called this man, who at the time turned down a Time Magazine cover, "The David Who Slew Goliath." Universal big-wigs called him a few other things, but he still holds the crown as the undisputed king of television's wheeler-dealers. He is Hollywood's Super Manager!

Another client Samuels managed at one time is Jaclyn Smith, one of Charlie's angels. During the time when she was struggling to hold her own against the likes of Farrah Fawcett-Majors, Samuels succeeded in getting Miss Smith more money and a stronger position in the stable of ABC's fillies. Now, that network is girding its loins for another possible , Samuels onslaught as he has just signed on a new client- brunette Joyce DeWitt, who up to now has been battling for identity against her Three's Company costars, blonde and sexy Suzanne Somers and her male counterpart John Ritter. Samuels is now in the process of landing a new contract for DeWitt with ABC which would provide for her to star in a few TV movies plus other avenues to give her more exposure.

Ron Samuels operates the business of his clients plus his various other ' enterprises out of a tasteful and elegant Beverly Hills suite whose walls are filled with framed photos and clippings of his famed femmes. Rather than being a flashy fast-talker, we found Samuels to be charming, soft-spoken, and rather laid-back. He looks about ten years younger than his admitted age of 36, and he has the attractive good looks of a movie star - which is just what he started out to be.

He feels an affinity for the glamour days of old Hollywood and would like to see the television industry do a reversal and go back to the days of Kraft Theatre and other shows of that nature. He is a native Californian and is quite accustomed to the posh splendor of the tennis courts (with pal and partner, Chris Evert) and swimming pools always associated with the lives of Hollywood stars.

Ron, I understand you've been around the entertainment industry all your life, having been raised here in Los Angeles. How did you first begin working in the business?

I started working as a child actor in television and films when I was fourteen years old. I went through the usual changes one goes through growing up, but I also learned the different things you have to deal with as a performer - basically that you're treated like a piece of meat.

Is that why you quit acting?

No, I just became more and more attracted to the production end of the business. When I was in college I became assistant to Harry Rosenberg who at the time was a very, very successful producer at 20th Century Fox. His credits ranged from the remake of Mutiny on the Bounty to several Doris Day films. Rosenberg was from the old school of producers who knew how to direct and cut a film - he knew everything and he taught me all the facets of the business.

How did you get into personal management?

I was about 22 when I started in personal management. My first client was a girl named Thelma Camacho who was with a group called The First Edition with Kenny Rogers, one of my closest friends. Today, he's the world's number one country singer. Everybody in Hollywood felt Thelma was one of the finest singers in the world. She wanted to step out on her own. I heard her music one day and I was awed by it; I thought she was one of the most exciting singers I'd ever heard. I started with her and one thing led to another. I got some good lessons. I worked for Jaye P. Morgan years ago, and that was a good education, I gotta tell you! (He laughs)

What is it that interested you in this field?

I found I not only have the ability to make great deals, but I can also sit and watch a scene being played and tell an actor, if it doesn't work, why it doesn't work, why the values are wrong. When I got into personal management, I saw there was a great void. There were people who lacked not only the background and knowledge artistically of what career guidance is about, but also the training to be able to work with talent. I don't know of anybody in the personal management business - and this is not an ego thing, but it's true who has the qualifications I have to guide a career. Most managers are somebody's friend - they were there at the right time in this person's life and boom! a career happens, but they're not equipped to deal with it. I think managers should go to school, be educated like everybody else, so they can guide a career. They should have a background in film, in the acting business. If you're working with actors, you should know how to negotiate. Learn all the different aspects of career guidance before you take somebody's life into your hands.

I get involved in everything - posters, promotion... I even picked out the bugle beads for the dress Lynda wore on the Emmy Awards. Whatever my clients do - from what they wear, their hairstyles, attitudes, values -I'm very involved and concerned about because I think we should bring back the old glamour to Hollywood. Women should have some dignity. I'm tired of girls that - I shouldn't even say it, I guess - but, girls who don't shave under their arms... and who, you know, walk around looking dirty. Guys, too.

There's no reason why they can't look like what they're called -stars. I was fortunate enough to know Clark Gable when I was a little boy. He was the epitome, in my opinion, of what a star should be. He had stature, dignity... like the Gregory Pecks and the older fellows today have. That's why they still star in movies. Half of these new off-beat nouveau riche celebrities are very unappealing to the world market. I want to try to bring some of the glamour back.

There are some very successful personal managers who I don't think are qualified to work in a shoe store. The generate huge sums of money, but I don't think that generating a lot of dollars is the criterion for success. I've seen too many people that I think are very mismanaged.

How did Lindsay Wagner become your client?

I met Lindsay about four years ago. I was in the commissary at Universal with an actor I used to manage, Robert Conrad (Wild, Wild West, and later Baa, Baa Blacksheep). A friend was sitting with Lindsay Wagner, and he introduced us. I told her, "I thought you were wonderful in Paper Chase, but I haven't seen you lately. What's happening?" She said, "Absolutely nothing. They dropped my option here at Universal."

They had had her under contract for $50,000 a year and had said, "Get rid of her; she's really not of any value. We don't need to keep her on."

I told her I thought she had a marvelous talent and suggested we might sit down and talk sometime. So we had a couple of meetings and decided I would manage her. Within a month, I started this unprecedented deal with Universal where she wound up becoming the highest paid actress in the history of television - and with the same studio, same network that had just turned her down. It was kind of exciting - something that still today when I walk on a studio lot people say, "Boy, that was really something!"

It kind of gave women dignity and restructured the financial support level of women. No longer were women just supporting actresses in television; they became stars. Lindsay was getting a salary equal to the biggest male stars. She carried the show. Now look at all the shows girls are carrying. They weren't carrying them before that - this was a first, and when it worked it set a whole new precedent for women in television. I'm proud of that. How did Lynda Carter enter your life? Soon after the deal for Lindsay was made, Lynda came up to me at an ABC-TV Affiliate party and congratulated me on it. Then a couple of years went by.

One day I was walking down the street at The Burbank Studios where I had my offices and I ran into a director I knew who was doing a bunch of Lynda's shows. He invited me over to the set to chat a bit, so I did, and pretty soon Lynda and I started rapping. We had lunch one day. Two days later we started looking for a house. That quick. It really was just right. I've just turned 36, and we've been married a little over a year, so it wasn't like I was all ga-ga eyed. But she's just really the most special person I've ever met. She's totally honest. I've never met a woman like that in my life. It's shocking. You ask her a question, and she gives you an honest answer. That's the way I am; I'm very blunt. I like to say what I think or feel. She likes that in me, too.

So you and Lynda were married before you began handling her career?

Yes. What happened was that here I was seeing all these things going on with a girl who was making X-amount of dollars in a television series, but I didn't see any of the opportunities being developed for her that should have been developed. I would hear her representatives calling with some of these nonsensical things that they were trying to push her to do. She would ask me every night, "What do I do about this?" So I started making decisions and finally I said, "Lookit, let's just stop this nonsense." And she said, "You do it anyway, Ronnie." And I said, "Sure, I have to go through the grief anyway, so I might as well do it and protect you." I went in again at the beginning of this year and re-negotiated her deal at Warner Bros. and she now is the highest-paid actress in television. She got an unprecedented deal there. She is also one of the highest-paid variety performers in the world - from her first outing Caesars Palace in Las Vegas), which was exceptional. This happened very quickly - all in a little over a year.

Now that she's established herself as a recording star and entertainer, how does she feel about going back to doing Wonder Woman?

It's stifling in a way. But the show is doing very well. CBS has never had a series do that well in that time slot - it's the number one show on Friday nights. But it's limiting because she wants to write more music, she wants to record, and she wants to go out and perform more. A live performance is the most gratifying. There's nothing like it when at the end of the night you hear that applause and those people start getting up out of their seats - that's very, very exciting. The spontaneity is what she loves. But she's never lost sight of the fact that if it wasn't for Wonder Woman, she might still be singing in the lounge at the Sahara where she started when she was seventeen.

Do you feel there are a lot of stars who try to cash in quickly on the instant fame that television gives them?

I find nothing more offensive than people who are successful in one medium thinking that they can go and indulge themselves in another because of their success as an entertainer, feeling people are going to buy whatever they do just because it's them. I think that's very self-indulgent. Too many people who have become stars in television have taken that approach. They've disappeared because they weren't qualified. Before I put Lynda on a stage, I knew she was equipped to do it; otherwise, there was no way 1 would have allowed her to do it. If you're an actor, be an actor. Improve your craft. If you're an entertainer and want to grow, that's what you should do. But you should never take a career for granted - and I blame guidance as much as the artist himself because of the manipulation. Because they're always being kowtowed to and always being appeased a lot of actors develop an ego and just walk away from their first success and then a producer will say, "Don't ever hire him again." People don't have the courage to stand up and say to that actor, "Wait a second. That doesn't work. You can't do this."' They're worried about doing that with a performer; I'm not. If what he's doing doesn't work, I've got to tell that actor he should do something else. Otherwise; you do him a disservice. Think of all the people who have come and gone who were as visible as Farrah Fawcett is today, and then all of a sudden you never hear of them anymore. It's because of poor guidance and the selection of bad material - doing things they shouldn't have done. Or else they were so egomaniacal that they made poor career decisions. I live by the word longevity, a key word. It's what it's all about. I never believe in taking a dollar today if I can make ten cents now and ten dollars later. I see the girls today that are on a lot of these TV series exploiting everthing they do - endorsing every product - on every talk show and variety show. I think that shows a lack of security and stability with their careers. Chocolate cake is great, but seven days a week and you get sick of it. That's what they're doing with too many of these careers.

Do jealousies arise among your clients from the fact that you are married to Lynda as well as handle her career, but then you also handle Lindsay's and several other lovely ladies' careers?

Absolutely not. I've represented as many as eight women at one time who were all highly successful and there's never been a conflict. Most of the women I've represented have been successful enough that each knows that when an offer comes in, that it is for her specifically. If there ever was a conflict, I wouldn't represent that person.

I understand you have quite a collection of cars. How many do you own?

About eight... not very many. I have two Rolls Royce Corniches - one's a convertible and one's a coupe. And I have a Rolls Royce sedan, a limousine that's custom built, a Ferrari, and a Cobra which I just bought. I'm also designing a custom-built car. So that's my disease... it could be worse.

Ron, do you want to do more producing?

Yes. I'd like to produce more acts for Las Vegas and places like that. I enjoyed putting Lynda's act together. I really loved producing it and having it work. It was very rewarding. Packaging/producing is the thing I'll be going after for myself; and some day soon I would like to direct because I do have an understanding of actors. Again, I see, especially in television, a lack of commitment from directors to use their creative input in helping an actor develop a character. Too many directors just want to get it done on time. They're too easily intimidated not only by the strict schedule, but also by the imagined consequence that if they put themselves on the line and take an extra day to do something, that they're not going to work for that company again, which is absolutely false. I think our business rises and falls on the courage of people to put themselves on the line and to take chances. That makes for a great product.

What do you think about the product in general that's seen on the TV screen?

I think the problem we have in television now is that it's being run like a supermarket. You have a successful show formula with a woman in it, so somebody at another network says, "Let's do the same formula, only we'll have three women," and pretty soon you have 400 shows that all look alike.

Let's talk about you and Lynda again for a moment. Do you find you spend more time together by being her manager than if you were in some other business and she was the big star that she is?

She's at work doing her thing, and I'm here running my business during the day, so we're together at night just like in most other professions. I've never been one to hang around the studio and hold her hand, or any other client's hand. I work for the people, so there's no need for me to go and pacify them. I'm not a hand-holder, If they need something, I'm there in a second, but they're all adults so there's no need for Ronnie to sit there and say, "Are you okay? You need anything?" A lot of managers do that and that's misplaced energy. If they'd spend more time in the office doing what they're supposed to, they wouldn't be so paranoid that the client was going to fire them. I think the greatest tragedy in show business history was Judy Garland. What more tragic example is there of people closing in and destroying the life of one of the most talented and creative performers who's ever lived? I've seen very few entertainers whom I would ever sit out in the rain for like I did for Garland when she came back to the Hollywood Bowl. I sat there with my mouth open and I didn't care that it was raining. It could have been snowing and it wouldn't have made any difference, even if I was sitting there in a T-shirt. Then, to see that woman emotionally destroyed by the industry that she had so much power over as a performer was tragic.

All performers want to be successful. They want visibility. They want to be stars. Then, when they become stars they can't go out of the house, can't go shopping or to a restaurant for fear they might get attacked. Is that normal' You have to become a recluse or else live in a cage. That's a hard way to live.

How does Lynda cope with that recognition?

It's not easy. We were talking about, that just the other night. She finds herself terribly confined because she can't go walking around or even have a real meal in a restaurant. People mean well, but they won't leave you alone. Or, people try to take advantage of your success for their own causes. They'll call and say, "Well, now that you're successful you should be involved in our cause." This happens all over the world, you can't believe what goes on. Strangers will call you up and ask you personal things that are just so absurd

I know Lynda has gone through the "Born Again" experience. Has that helped her deal with being famous?

Lynda was born again last year. She always believed, but I guess she was wandering and searching not exactly sure of what she wanted. She came back to Christ, and it has been the most uplifting factor in her life and in our relationship in the time we've known each other. An unbelievable change for the better - the most positive change in our lives.

Did you go through the experience with her?

I've never been born again. I've always believed. I'm Jewish, and I believe in Jesus Christ. He was a Jew, I can't deny that. And if he were here today, you'd probably make him a star. He's the biggest star I know. (He laughs)

A while back you mentioned having children. When do you plan to start a family?

I hate to put a date on it, but probably in the next couple of years we will have our first child.

Will Lynda take a couple of years away from her career then?

No, she enjoys working and I don't want to stifle her from that. She likes being creative so that'll never stop.

What if you had to be separated for a long period of time because of her work?

If she had to go away, it would be for a short period of time - she'd never do a long tour. For her the marriage is first, and I don't think she would do anything that took her away from us, regardless of the offer. That's true with both of us. Marriage for me is number one, and the career is second. Lynda's in a fortunate position now. She can pick and choose. Lynda and I lead a very private life. We have a tennis court at home Tennis is a big part of my life. I'm very close to some of the pros. Playing tennis is a tremendous emotional release for me. And we have our dogs - they are a big pleasure and joy in our lives. We have a pure black German shepherd and a Doberman Pinscher that's exquisite. Then there's a couple of guard dogs that are not only protective, but are family dogs. And then we have dogs on the property. It's terrible to have to live like that, but it's necessary. But we do enjoy our life together very much.

Ron, I want to thank you for your time this afternoon. Is there anything else you would like to say - perhaps something you would like people to think about?

I think the one final thing I'd like to say is I think people should try and find peace... with themselves and with the Lord.