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Date and Issue: Volume 16, Number 6 / October, 1980.
Not too long ago," says TV actress Lynda Carter, "l thought that 40-love was a middle-aged romance." But the raven-haired star of "Wonder Woman" knows better now—a lot better. She's become a serious enthusiast who plays twice a week and counts the likes of Chris Evert Lloyd and Gene Mayer among her friends.
In fact, Carter—who is married to her tennis-nut manager, Ron Samuels—will take the ultimate plunge into the sport this month when she becomes the first female celebrity to have a major tennis tournament in her name. And it's no small petunia either. The Lynda Carter-Maybelline Tennis Classic, conceived by Samuels and backed by the cosmetics firm for which his wife serves as a beauty and fashion consultant, will be played October 13 to 19 at the Deer Creek Country Club in Deerfield, Fia. As far back as July, top stars like Lloyd and Martina Navratilova committed themselves to the event. Carter and Maybelline president David Brittain will co-chair the tournament.
Carter writes off her own tennis ability with a casual "I'm no threat to anyone." But she may be more valuable to the game than she thinks. It was she and her husband who, while entertaining Chris and John Lloyd at their $1.5 million Beverly Hills mansion last winter, constantly encouraged Chris to return to the women's tour from her self-imposed exile.
"Ron told her there was no reason she couldn't combine tennis and marriage," says Carter. "He said she should just play fewer matches and learn to accept the fact that she didn't have to be No. 1. I think she listened because she soon started playing again and said she was more relaxed, under less tension and enjoying the game again."
Carter benefited, too, from the visit. What better person to come to the aid of her ailing backhand than Chris? "One day Chris offered to teach me the two-handed back-hand," Carter recalls. "She worked with me for about half an hour showing me how to hold the racquet, and I started really stroking the ball. Now I at least have a fair backhand."
The 28-year-old Carter, born and raised in Phoenix, was selected as Miss World-U.S.A. in 1973. With Samuels' help, she parlayed that into a show business career, getting her big break in 1977 with the hit "Wonder Woman" TV series. She's since diversified into her own television specials (the second one to air next month), films and a Las Vegas nightclub act which show-cases her singing talents. She is sandwiching in the tennis tournament between a European concert tour and two movies, one for TV.
Her next goal is to help upgrade the pay scale for women pros. It won't be easy, but she does have the example of her husband who won TV actress Lindsay ("The Bionic Woman") Wagner a raise from $2,500 to $25,000 a week.
"Compared with men," Carter maintains, "women's tennis doesn't have enough prize money. I'd like to do for the women pros what my husband did for television actresses."
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