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Date and Issue: Volume 1, Number 7, July 1978.
The "Wonder Man" behind N's "Wonder Woman" is Ron Samuels, Lynda Carter's husband and manager.
"l'd be no place without him," says devoted Lynda, echoing a line we've heard from lots of other TV and movie stars whose husbands manage their Careers. Ann-Margret (Roger Smith), Carol Burnett (Joe Hamilton), Mary Tyler Moore (Grant Tinker) and Helen Reddy (Jeff Wald) are among them.
Ron was Lynda's manager before he was her husband. He handles Lindsay Wagner's Career too, which kind of makes you wonder if Ron knows how to deal with women who are neither Wonders or Bionic. Most likely not.
Ron believes in Lynda just as fiercely as she believes in him. "Lynda is one of the great unexploited talents of our time," he says. "Nobody knows how terrific she really is.
But they're going to find out." Lynda is following Raquel Welch, Ann-Margret, Goldie Hawn and other Hollywood beauties into a Las Vegas nightclub career. This summer she'll play a one-week engagement at Caesars Palace. "Actually, this is not my Vegas debut " Lynda admits. "Several years ago, when nobody knew who I was, I sang with a small band in the lounge at The Sahara Hotel."
There is loads of irony in the tact that Lynda began her career as a singer, but now that she's been made famous by "Wonder Woman," audiences are skeptical of her abilities as anything other than a lady who leaps trees with a single bound and knocks out armies with a one-two punch.
"I know people think l'm just capitalizing on the TV show, but l'm very serious about my singing career," Lynda says.
She has an album out which contains some of her own songs, plus some country classics on the order of what Linda Ronstadt does.
Both Ron and Lynda are immensely grateful to the fans who have supported "Wonder Woman" so en thusiastically. If it weren't for them and their bundles of letters in support of the show, "Wonder Woman," which got off to a shaky start, might not be around anymore.
Lynda' s displaying her thanks by not leaving the show. She could do a Farrah Fawcett-Majors and skip into movies and nightclubs full time. "But TV's given me a career," she says.
Ron adds: "TV gives Lynda exposure. It's her chance, just like it was for other stars like Steve McQueen, Charles Bronson, and Clint Eastwood. They all started on TV. l'm tired of all this snobbery against TV from movie people. Talent is talent. If anything, it's harder to get a good show these days than it ever was. And the rewards are greater."
Lynda recognizes that there will be problems for her in turning her bizarre TV image into more than a comic-strip woman. She's to mock her TV image gently. Then she'll move on as a singer who'll surprise an audience that may have no idea she knows how to sing.
"People have trouble with fantasy characters," she admits. "It's not like coming from a dramatic series."
But the Samuels are determined and committed. Together they know they can pull it off.
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