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Date and Issue: Volume 1 / Number 3 / June, 1978.
Too tall to be in a pep squad. Too tall for a boy to feel comfortable with on a date. Too tall to feel at ease anywhere. That's how it was for beautiful, statuesque Lynda Carter as she grew up under the hot desert sun of Phoenix, Arizona. And that's the way it could have remained except for two items. Those who know Lynda believed in her talent. And she was smart enough to understand that far-out fantasy satisfies a very real need for flesh and blood people
The 24-year-old screen, stage and television star reveals how her favorite fictional heroine, Wonder Woman, helped her to get through those days of adolescent sensitivity. An avid follower of the comic book adventures of Wonder Woman, the teenaged Lynda saw herself living the exciting life of this invincible Amazonian. In her fantasies, Lynda and Wonder Woman were one and the same. They fought for justice and against evil, combining their superhuman strength and intelligence to foil the villainous plots of would-be oppressors and tyrants.
Wonder Woman's magic girdle, lasso and bracelets were Lynda's. As she turned the pulp pages and watched Wonder Woman's fantastic exploits unfolding before her eyes, somehow the hurts of being a "too tall" teenager were eased for Lynda Carter.
What Lynda didn't realize at the time, but what has become very clear during the current era of women's lib, was that Wonder Woman's message was not for a self-conscious adolescent alone. It was for every woman who sought to break the shackles which bound them to emotional and intellectual, if not actual physical, slavery.
In reality, when Wonder Woman first appeared on the scene way back in 1941, she could trace her fantastic origins right back to the Greek gods and goddesses. The following is Wonder Woman's family background.
Explains the text of the first Wonder Woman comic book, "The Planet Earth is ruled by rival gods-Aces, god of war, and Aphrodite, goddess of love and beauty. Ares is determined that men shall rule with the sword. But Aphrodite has vowed the women shall conquer men with love.
"The swordsmen of Ares slew their weaker brothers and plundered them. Women were sold as slavesthey were cheaper than cattle-and were nothing more than pieces of property to be owned by men.
"But Aphrodite shaped with her own hands a race of superwomen, stronger than men. "'I will breathe life into these women,' said the goddess, as she put the final touches on her beautiful creations, 'and also the power of love! They shall be called Amazons.'
"Then Aphrodite gave her magic girdle to the Amazon queen, and told the Amazons that, so long as their leader wore the magic girdle, You Amazons shall be unconquerable.' "
Ares wasn't about to stand still for this potential threat to male chauvinism, goes the story. When he saw the magnificent civilization Aphrodite's protegees had built, he vowed to conquer the fantastic women. Unable to defeat them in battle, Ares tricked them into submission and subjected them to the most severe forms of bondage.
As she languished in her chains, Queen Hippolyte of the Amazons, who had allowed Ares to make love to her and betray her by removing her magic girdle, prayed to Aphrodite for help.
The DC comic pages pick up the adventures of the enslaved Amazons with Aphrodite saying, "You may break your chains. But you must wear these wrist bands always to teach you the folly of submitting to men's domination!"
It just so happens that Wonder Woman, known to her Amazonian sisters as Princess Diana, is Queen Hippolyte's beautiful daughter. Protected by her magic bracelets, girdle and lasso, she leaves Paradise Island to take on such assorted monsters as Dr. Fiendo and Adolph Hitler. She becomes a one-woman army during the World War II years, almost single-handedly defeating the Nazis, Fascists and Japanese.
Although she will never allow herself to be dominated by a man, Diana, or Wonder Woman (take your choice) Is no manhater. She develops a close friendship and working relationship with Air Force Intelligence Specialist Steve Trevor. He has his suspicions that the modern-day girl who calls herself Diana Prince and favors amost granny-style eye glasses may be hiding her true identity. But like Lois Lane of Superman fame, Trevor never really comes to grips with the disguises and double life favored by Wonder Woman.
To girls and young women of the 1940s and '50s, Wonder Woman was the most lovely of all fantasies. Long before the Betty Friendans and the Ruth Mittlers appeared on the public scene, Wonder Woman was proving in every chapter of her comic book life that she was more than a match for the chauvinists. She had breathed new life into the legends of the Amazons. As she raced from planet to planet and from dungeon to dungeon, freeing her enslaved sisters, she captured the American imagination as no other heroine had.
It was only natural that Wonder Woman would remain contemporary. The world of. stolen atomic secrets became her world. The cloak and dagger episodes of the Cold War Inspired her creators to have her match wits with the most sinister and powerful Communist agents.
Still there was ample time for her to fly her magic plane to far-off and wholly imaginary civilizations for alien encounters which left Wonder Woman, Steve Trevor and breathless readers equally exhausted and-triumphant.
As Wonder Woman was growing into her 30s (at least In her present comic book form), Lynda Carter had shed the gawkiness of her teen years. No longer was she suffering the disappointments of being passed over when it came time for the powers that be at Arcadia-Titans High School to make their pep girl selections.
By now she was attending Arizona State University and learning that when friends and relatives had advised her, "Not to worry-you have a lot of talent," they had not been merely easing her growing pains. They had been correct in their evaluation of her. In 1972, Lynda began touring with several rock groups. No, she wasn't an overnight success, but nobody laughed her off the stage either.
The turning point came for the brunette "Amazon" when she entered a local beauty contest and survived all competitors to experience the thrill of having the "Miss World-USA" crown placed upon her lovely head. It was a short step from the world of beauty contestants to a cram course in acting in New York City.
If Lynda and Wonder Woman seemed to be going their own separate ways, it was only temporary.
Wonder Woman (portrayed by Cathy Lee Crosby) had made her way to television via ABC. And even Wonder Woman's magic girdle, lasso and bracelets weren't enough to ward off viewer apathy. If the TV show was to get off Square One, a replacement for Cathy Crosby-one who was the breathing image of the superheroine-would have to step In.
Lynda Carter tested for the role, and the longtressed, long-legged actress flashed across home screens being everything the daughter of Hippolyte should be.
However, for some still unexplained reason, ABC producers insisted on having Wonder Woman continue to fight the Nazi menace as in days of yore. When one considers that the comic book Wonder Woman had smashed Hitler and the Rome-Berlin-Tokyo Axis three decades before ABC decided to tape her fantastic exploits, it's apparent that Wonder Woman was no longer contemporary.
Rather than make the necessary changes during the summer season of reruns, ABC abandoned the show. CBS had its own ideas of how Wonder Woman could be made to work in 1977. It gambled an hour of Friday evening prime time to prove its point.
Wonder Woman was given a shot in the arm to bring it up to date. Said Wonder Woman producer Charles Fitzsimmons, "Now that we're with a new network, we're taking Wonder Woman out of the World War II period and updating it to today. We want the show to come into the era of science fiction, to encounter all of the things that are popular with people today. We don't want to deal merely with the Nazi threat, show after show, anymore. We want a faster pace."
A mod touch has been added by introducing Steve Trevor, Jr., (Lyle Waggoner) who is an operative of the Interconnected Intelligence Community, a sort of super CIA answerable to the president. Although costuming remains basically the same as it was (after all, Wonder Woman is still the daughter of Hippolyte), stories are set In 1977.
Here are samples of how the action goes: On a top-secret mission with scientists who will develop a nuclear power plant for underdeveloped countries, Trevor's flight is sabotaged by a henchman of international terrorist leader, Dr. Solano and is brought down on Paradise Island. Wonder Woman discovers the plane and its occupants, among them Steve Trevor Jr., whose likeness to his father recalls her fond association with the major. Learning of the terrorist conspiracy which threatens this and other sensitive international projects, Wonder Woman convinces her mother, the Queen of the Amazons, that she must once again go into the outside world, not only to help protect the Free World from its enemies, but in this age of radar, sonar and laser scanning, to protect the secret of Paradise Island and its ancient culture.
In another episode, Wonder woman struggles against the powers of a popular rock musician who uses special frequency music to hypnotize young women fans into stealing for him. The women fans employ ultra-high frequency devices to steal the box-office receipts for the rock star heavy. Wonder Woman's involvement becomes closer to home when she discovers that the daughter of her I.A.D.C. colleague Is one of those under the evil musician's power.
A third sample: Wonder Woman and Steve Trevor pose as a foreign embassy maid and a nationalist leader to thwart an international thief and master of disguise who is out to rip-off the crown jewels of a visitIng queen.
The Bermuda Triangle, with its disappearing ships and never-to-be-heard-from-again victims, occupies Wonder Woman's attention in one episode. Posing as wealthy torrists, she and Steve Trevor head for the Triangle area to investigate the disappearance of an intelligence plane. They are forced to crash on Manta's (a prime time villain) island headquarters. Wonder Woman is the only one who knows of Manta's evil plan to control the areaand the impact it will have on her nearby Paradise Island home.
According to CBS, the. weekly fantasy adventure series has been growing in popularity among the nation's viewers since its network debut in September.
Lynda Isn't surprised. She says, "There's a strong romantic element in the show, along with the fantasytype characters, a war hero, and an Amazon Princess. Doesn't every girl still want to be a princess, and doesn't every boy want to be a hero?"
She insists that people are longing to get back to the days of readily identifiable values and old-fashioned feelings, and believes Wonder Woman gives them a chance to do just that.
The most beautiful Amazon of them all feels that Wonder Woman will play an important role in her life, but doesn't think she'll get typed as the series heroine.
Says Lynda, "Wonder Woman is part of my life right now, and I see it as a step In my career. I'm not really afraid of being typed because I'm involved in different things, like writing music and singing.
"Wonder Woman has never really been flesh and bones before, so right now I am Wonder Woman. If a person totally immersed herself in a role, she would be totally insane. But if she didn't become involved at all, she wouldn't be doing the proper job.
"I'm just a person like anybody else. Hopefully the role that I play will have some kind of positive effect on both myself and the public."
One of Lynda's proudest possessions is a letter she received recently from a teacher of retarded children, who wrote that one child who seldom spoke or otherwise participated in classroom activities, broke his silence when the children were viewing Wonder woman. He actually read Lynda Carter's name from the screen credits.
"Things like that really make you stop and think about someone other than youself. Whew! That really blows my mind to think of it. Of course the children were only relating to what I projected on the screen... but I do get sentimental when I read something like that," she comments.
Lynda Carter's ability to breathe life into the cartoon character created by Charles Moulton is making her a very special person to Sci-Fi fans, who first thrilled to Moulton's words written In the dark days of Pearl Harbor, "Beautiful as Aphrodite... Wise as Athena... Stronger than Hercules."
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