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Date and Issue: Volume 1, Number 2 / June 1977.
She's an ex- 'Miss World-U.S.A. of the Miss World' Beauty Pageant and Lynda Carter is also TV's "Wonder Woman" the lovely and shapely righter of wrongs and punisher of evildoers.
Both Lynda' and her counterpart, Wonder Woman, have had strange pasts. Wonder Woman if you know your comic strips, was conceived in 1942 by Charles Moulton and she was named Diana, an immortal Amazon who lived on unchartered Paradise Island where she and her sisters had fled in 200 B.C. to escape male domination.* was a place where males were not welcome and used only as slaves, "a queer place," as one traveler put it after the women chained him and tossed him in a dungeon.
Diana as you know, wears a golden belt around her tiny waist that gives her superhuman powers and strength. She has silver bracelets that deflect bullets and a golden lasso that when it goes around someone forces them to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but.
Diana came to-earth as plain Diana Prince, Yeoman 1 / c in the U.S. Navy, in the forties. She simply takes her glasses off, whirls-`herself into a new costume and Major Steve Trevor who could use an eye examination, doesn't know her from Diana as he says, "Hello, Wonder Woman."
Born in Phoenix, Arizona, Lynda has been interested in the world of entertainment since she was a 'youngster. "In one sense I have spent my entire life preparing for an acting career. I really got involved while I was studying at Arcadia Titans-High School. I loved to sing and dance in the school productions and on weekends I even moonlighted in college nightspots around the town as a vocalist. It really got to me then and .I vowed to give it a try after graduation."
After being accepted at Arizona State University, she tried to divide her time between the halls of learning and her yearning-show biz. She toured weekends with a rock group, "and I loved it!" She admits her parents were far from being pleased about her choice of a career. "They were not exactly in love with the idea of a daughter out of school trekking around the country."
It finally happened in 1970 that she won an engagement at the Sahara Hotel in Las Vegas where she and a rock group performed for the large audiences. In 1973 she entered her first beauty contest arid was crowned Miss World-U.S.A. On her way to Hollywood, she candidly said, "I learned -a lot in the beauty contest. I didn't allow myself to get sidetracked by empty promises or advertising people. I wanted to use the recognition constructively to further my career."
Her first move was to Los Angeles to study acting with two teachers andthen she set out for New York and a course with Stella Adler to polish her acting. Her very first TV guest appearances were on "Nakia" and "Shamus" and they didn't exactly set the show business whirl on fire. Then the roles began to come-slowly. There Was a Starsky & Hutch that she stood out on, and a film, "Bobbie Jo & The Outlaw."
As Wonder Woman, Lynda Carter has found a vehicle that reflects her own personality and her views on living-and the world's changes. "I like the altruism of Wonder Woman," she smiles, "even if she is a bit naive about society outside of Paradise Island. She is free to be herself. She is self-sufficient and truthful and most importantly, she doesn't have the hangups of our society. I think that she points up some of the foibles and that makes it all relevent even if the setting is during World War II."
Strangely, Liberation Movement 'Women have accepted WW without a word. They feel WW is as liberated as a female can get. However, Lynda doesn't keep still about her opinion of WW "I'd hate to think," she said recently, "that anyone Might consider Wonder Woman a dimwit or a sex object because she is naive. That would be missing the whole point of the show."
Lynda has managed a rare thing in acting. She has successfully sketched a fine line of character study between -the patriotic fervor of a period in America's past and a contemporary sense of feminist spirit and she hasn't debased or weakened either in the process.
Certainly, its camp. But you have to admit it is beautifully done by Lynda Carter, a different type of woman who portrays a different type of woman!
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