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Date and Issue: Volume 4 / Number 7 / July 1978.
A new source of strength is doing wonders for Ms. Carter's career.
The dramatic improvement in Lynda Carter's life during the last six months may lead some to wonder if perhaps she made some Faustian pact with the devil. Well, the truth can now be told: She readily admits to having given up her soul. But it was to the Prince of Peace rather than Darkness.
After spending just five minutes with TV's Wonder Woman, the source of her strength becomes obvious. The scintillating, green-eyed beauty is a "born again" Christian who appears capable of overdosing on The Word.
"I know I'm probably driving you crazy talking so much about my rediscovery of Jesus," she apologizes, "because I used to think the same things until I was born - again. Now I want to share my happiness and fellowship with everyone I meet."
"Six months ago was a very difficult time for me personally," Lynda recalls, without prodding. "Nothing seemed to be going right. I was very unhappy with my career and my personal life. Then I gave myself to Jesus Christ and I've gotten everything I asked for. In terms of growth I owe everything to Him."
And "everything" is plenty. The versatile Lynda Carter has recently had the Wonder Woman series renewed for next season, making it one of the few CBS shows to continue next fall.
But perhaps a much bigger surprise is that she will headline two shows in talentheavy Las Vegas, at the discriminating Caesars Palace no less. And that's not some lounge show. She will perform her dance and song act in the main theater.
On June 1, she completed recording her second album for Epic Records. Not only will it showcase her musical talent; it will feature four songs she wrote.
I knew she could deflect bullets with a mere flick of her wrist, didn't mind heavy lifting and could leap well enough to avoid TV's bad guys. But Sing? Dance? Write?
As a former Miss World Miss USA (1973), you wouldn't think she needed too much backup talent. Yet, like most stars in show business, she has paid her dues and deserves the recognition she's receiving throughout the country. "I've been in this business for- 15 years," Lynda says with a sense of satisfaction. "The singing and dancing is nothing new to me."
In fact, she considers herself more of a singer than an actress. After graduation from high school in Arizona, she began her journey to Hollywood as a singer for a group featuring contemporary sounds called "The Relatives."
Four years ago the five foot, eight inch beauty queen was studying acting under Stella Adler and Charles Conrad, when she read for the role of Wonder Woman, Diana Price. Even though this was her first test, she was chosen over many other more experienced starlets.
During the first year only the pilot was filmed. The following season two shows were produced and they were primarily screened as specials. Then, in 1976, l l shows aired. Public acceptance of the series brought about the full schedule of 22 shows for this season and next.
Now, after four years of filming, what does she think of her role and her future?
"I owe everything I am professionally today to the show," she says. "It means a great deal to me as do the people who produce the series. But, yes, I confess I would like to do other things." She was careful to avoid any misunderstandings however.
"Nobody would know who I am today were it not for Wonder Woman, but like anyone else I would love to take on some new challenges."
Playing such a visible role has made her an inviting target for every critic and quipster in the business, something which becomes tiresome after four years. "Please, whatever you do, don't ask me what I think of women's lib. I've heard that question so many times I could scream."
No feature films are currently in her plans but she is unconcerned about the lack of big screen exposure or another role to showoase her dramatic talents. As a TV series regular, Lynda has had little time for other film work anyway. Shooting the Wonder Woman show is an eight to 10 hour a day commitment. It requires seven working days just to complete a single one hour segment. She used to work 12 to 14 hours per day until she begged off.
"I was really becoming weak from the strain of doing the show every day," she recalls. "This kind of work takes a lot out of you."
Fortunately it was just a matter of asking her producers to reduce her time on the set to when they film her scenes. Now they. shoot around her, and to maintain her stamina she is now on a vigorous daily fitness program which includes karate, jogging and strenuous exercise. Slowing down was not her only request. Lynda Carter is reported to have a near genius IQ and she actively uses it to improve the show. She is frank, bordering on the outspoken. She is also a charmer what gives a little sugar to help the medicine go down.
After the first couple of years, once she was into the character, Lynda began making recommendations on how her role could be improved. "I felt we should have more action scenes," she gave as an example. "I said it to anyone who would listen and finally it began to happen when Bruce Lansbury, a wonderful man, became the producer of the show."
Now the series opens each week with Wonder Woman doing her wonderous things while the credits roll. And because she is not the tell-me-what-to-do-next type, the show is becoming more of a reflection of her attitudes. And there is less of the comic book aspect it had during the first few episodes.
Now, too, she will play a scene like she feels it should be, not necessarily as it is written. And the pixie in her personality will also appear.
"Sure, I have fun," she says of her work day on the set. "You have to or the job becomes drudgery and will show in your performance on camera."
To keep the crew loose Lynda has been known to resort to the comedic or bizarre. In one particular scene she was riding a motorcycle which required some stunt driving. When her stand-in had completed the tough part, Lynda returned on the cycle and at the conclusion of the scene removed her riding helmet to reveal to the startled director and filming crew, a grotesquely disfigured eye, courtesy of the Carter imagination and the make-up department.
Many feel it is that aspect of her personality that will make Lynda's Las Vegas debut successful. Live and on-stage she will have to play to the crowd and it appears she has all the equipment to do so. The difficult part was exposing this talent to the booking agents.
The first step of the leap from the back lot to center stage at Caesars occurred almost two years ago when Lynda appeared on the Mike Douglas Show. It was at the urging of her husband and personal manager, Ron Samuels.
"Ron insisted I go on the show and let everyone know I could sing and dance," Lynda recalls. What happened next surprised her but not Samuels, who had it all mapped out in his master plan. The reaction to her performance was very positive from everyone associated with the Douglas show and she was asked to return. In the meantime Samuels shopped around with the tapes of the show with Lynda in action and eventually packaged the Caesars Palace jackpot without so much as a warm-up in Peoria.
Her first show at Caesars begins June 29 and runs through July 4. She describes it as "like nobody else's" but will go no further than to say, "You'll love it." So confident are the Caesars' people that she is right, Lynda Carter has already been booked for a return engagement from August 17 through 22.
"I can't say enough about how much Ron has meant to me," she says of her husband of one year. "We had a mad and wild whirlwind courtship and before we were married we agreed he would not work with me because we felt our love was more important than my career and we didn't want anything to interfere with it."
The agreement was shortlived. Samuels, who also represents such well-known talents as Lindsay Wagner and Shelley Fabares, felt Carter's career was not advancing as it should. Through his efforts, her recording and nightclub contracts are in the bank and he's only been at it for a year.
A by-product of success, however, is living in the public eye. Already it has started to weary Ms. Carter. "It's tough to go anywhere now," she says of her recognizability. "Just the other day I was in the grocery store and I was surrounded by kids as if it was an announced public appearance."
Like her new-found faith, she embraces her young public enthusiastically and has not yet become calloused to its demands. "The notoriety also puts lot of pressure on your private life and that is why I find such peace in Jesus Christ," she repeats.
Asked if Samuels shares in her new commitment to Christianity, Lynda flashed a promising smile and confidently replied, "Not yet. But even if he doesn't get The Word, they have created a special kind of Trinity. One that is a divine inspiration any way you look at it."?
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