WONDERLAND • The Ultimate Wonder Woman Site

Many members of "WONDERLAND" were in San Francisco most of this week to see Our Lady strut her stuff and sing to us each and every evening at the Empire Plush Room at the York Hotel in the beautiful city by the bay. The magnificent performances by Lynda only whetted our appetites to hear more of her beautiful singing, and with the terrific success in setting records that smashed all others for the Empire Plush Room, Lynda will be on the road for this year and next all over the country, besides taking time to still act in films and do philanthropic work for her favorite causes.

"WONDERLAND" arrived at the hotel May 1st to find the Plush Room doors next to the front desk, and while waiting for our room, watched people going in and out of the doors, and finally someone left them open. Peeking inside, we saw Lynda, dressed in a white shirt with a ruffled front, black slacks, dark hair piled up on her head, rehearsing for the opening performance. While the desk clerk was finding our reservation, we were astonished to see Lynda striding out, looking around the lobby to see if someone she was waiting for had arrived. “Well, I guess he’s not here yet” she said, and walked back into the room to continue rehearsing. Even with minimal makeup she looked stunningly beautiful, tall and slender, and we looked forward to watching her later in that evening’s show.

Coming down later to get in line, we found two other ahead of us, David Johnson and his friend Helen. David, a particular fan of Lynda’s short-lived series, "PARTNERS IN CRIME", had a beautiful picture of Lynda from the show and a rare picture disc of her "portrait" album. He lives in San Francisco and knows all of the sites where the series was filmed. We excitedly talked about seeing Lynda, and David mentioned that while waiting (he had been there since 4:00 pm) he had seen her come into the hotel and get into the elevator to go up to her room to dress. When 7:00 pm came, the doors opened and since there were no reservations, we were seated right up against the small stage, right in front of the microphone, just 4 feet away. The Plush room is a small, intimate cabaret-style venue, and perfect for "An Intimate Evening with Lynda Carter". The room began to fill, and looking around, we noticed that Lynda’s husband Robert and her son James had come in and were sitting at a table behind us. Shortly before 8:00 pm members of her band came on stage and sat down. From left to right were Sam Kriger, pianist, Andrew Higgins, bass, Jim Zimmerman, drums, Josh Workman, guitar, and Lynda’s old friend and accompanist Johnny Harris, who sat behind a keyboard while he directed the band, much as he had done when he had toured with Lynda back in the 1980’s in the USA and around the world.

At 8:00 pm, the doors closed, the room darkened, and the audience heard the a few notes from the piano. From the right corner side of the room we heard “Do I Love You, Oh My, Do I, Honey…Dee..e..eed…I…Dooo” and the night became MAGIC for all who were there. “Ladies and Gentlemen, Lynda Carter”, was announced, the full band struck up the song, and out strutted Lynda, looking simply gorgeous, from the top of her dark chestnut hair that tumbled over her shoulders to the tips of her silver lame shoes, while the audience just erupted in roars and shouts and cheers. She was dressed in a white long sleeved shirt open at the neck with plaquet front, a jade pendent on a gold chain around her white throat, black taffeta hip-hugging skirt that touched the floor, and a wide black belt with gold buckle. With her ivory skin and dark hair she looked like a “slinky Snow White” as another reviewer later called her. She batted her eyes, furrowed her brows, and tossed that rich dark mane as she would pick out a person in the audience and sing to them. When she saw the small "WONDERLAND" sign that sat at our table, her eyes lit up and she smiled with genuine pleasure, so happy to see us, with a promise on her lips for later.

Lynda’s voice was richer, throatier, and much fuller than it had been in past performances, like her many specials. After 20 years of not singing professionally, it had not declined in quality, but in our opinion had actually improved, and her beautiful soaring dulcet tones filled the room. Her repertoire was improved, much wider than her specials and earlier nightclub acts, with some jazz and country-western, some blues and some skat, showtunes and Broadway songs, some contemporary songs and consisted each evening of: "Deed I Do" / "God Bless The Child" / "Put The Blame On Mame" / "Summertime" / "Hit Me With A Hot Note" / "An Oldies Medley ["The Way You Look Tonight" / "The Very Thought Of You" / "As Time Goes By"]" / "50 Ways To Leave Your Lover" / "Fever" / "The Secret Of Life" / "Blues In The Night" / "Crazy" / "Cry Me a River" / "Cloudburst" / "My Heart Belongs To Daddy" / "Where Have You Been?" / "Come Rain Or Come Shine" / "Can't Help Loving That Man Of Mine".

Lynda talked about many of the songs and what they meant to her, how her mother had influenced her in singing many types of songs like “Blues in the Night” or “Crazy”. She mentioned how grateful she was for her success as "WONDER WOMAN" to allow her to branch out and become a popular singer, traveling across the country and the world for many after years after the television show had ended. As she introduced the song “Put the Blame on Mame”, she mentioned how Rita Hayworth, whom Lynda had played in her movie "rita hayworth: the love goddess" was forever typecast in the role of “Gilda”. “Now doesn’t that sound strange,” she said, as she stood before the crown with her hands on her hips, looking like a very familiar superheroine! She mentioned “about a million years ago,” as she put it, (which no one in the audience could believe) how she had sung during the Miss World finals in London “God Bless the Child”, and told a story for the first time when she was performing with the US Marine Corps Silent Drill Team for her fourth special, "STREET LIFE". Strutting down the rows of Marines, their spinning, flashing SHARP bayonets behind her, she didn’t walk fast enough, and one bayonet clipped her…..well, as she said, “I needed a new dress after that.” And as she sang “The Way You Look Tonight”, she gave a very, very special gift to "WONDERLAND". When she sang, “Yes, you’re lovely, with your smile so warm, and your cheeks so soft, there is nothing for me but to, “LOVE YOU”, (pointing at US TWICE for those 2 words,) finishing “and the way you look tonight.” That made the trip all worthwhile.

She thanked the audience so much for coming to see her, and grateful and touched by their ebullient presence with tears in her beautiful blue eyes, left the stage with the audience in the palm of her hand, cheering and shouting, then came back for a very special encore of “Always”. She dedicated it to her loving husband Robert, and sang to him, then encouraged the rest of the audience to finish singing the words along with her, which we did. When she left for the last time, all of the audience was on their feet, and everyone knew that they had seen a very special happening, a reawakening of Lynda’s role as a singer for her thousands of fans and the rest of the public. We stayed in the Plush Room to introduce ourselves to Johnny Harris, and to thank him for so kindly allowing us to interview him for "WONDERLAND" in 2003. We met his lovely wife Laura, and got some pictures before they had to leave and join Lynda and her family.

In the lobby afterwards buying posters, we talked about nothing but Lynda and how marvelous she had been. Scott Stander, Lynda’s manager on this show, was introduced to us, telling us that he had been trying to get Lynda to resume her singing for the past 10 years. We agreed that is was worth the wait! Then we were drawn to a commotion that signaled that Lynda was coming out to leave. She had piled her lustrous hair up again, and wore a long white embroidered coat as she slowly walked along the hotel corridor, thanking fans, signing and posing for pictures, with Robert and James in tow as they were heading for their limousine and dinner on the town at “Perbaco”. Then suddenly Lynda was in standing in front of us, and leaned in close and said in low voice that only we could hear, “THANK YOU, WONDERLAND”, stealing our hearts forever!!! Then, unfortunately breaking the mood, a fan next to us offered a pen to her to sign the Wonder Woman t-shirt he was wearing. She gamely muttered “I can’t believe I’m doing this” while signing it, then dotted his belly with an ! The magical night had come to a Very Happy Ending, but there was still a promise of many more nights to come!

The next evening we were second in line at 5:00 pm, and talked with many more fans, some of whom had come from locations as far as we had. We met Terry Lee, Robert Mycroft and many others, and as we waited, the hotel lobby doors opened and in strode Lynda with notes in hand, wearing a black coat and light green shirt slacks, hair piled up again with her Ipod earphones plugged in. She greeted us with “Hi Guys” and opened the doors to the Plush Room and walked in, signing a picture for Robert first. When the doors opened we sat farther back along the side to let other fans experience the wonder of her beauty and voice close up. But after the show opened with “Deed I Do”, Lynda shocked the audience and apologized for any upcoming mistakes by telling us that someone had stolen her music she left on the stand the evening before. Obviously hurt and upset that anyone would have done that, Lynda still gave a performance that again brought down the house. She was wearing a similar black taffeta skirt with a white shirt, but this shirt had a squared, more open front, and after she sang “Fever” she sat back, took a Kleenex and did her old trick of mopping her brow, neck and...everything else to the delight of the crowd! Robert and James were again in the audience, and Lynda took a moment to introduce her beloved son, her first-born, by saying that he was the reason that she had stopped singing. However, since he was off to college, she thanked James for letting her resume the singing part of her career, and he yelled out “I Love You, Mom!” to the cheers of the audience. Towards the end, Robert Mycroft asked her to sing “Toto” from her "portrait" album, and though she apologized and said that her band didn’t have the music, she did sing the first two lines to his and the audience’s delight. As she walked off the stage and passed us, she put out her hand and took one of ours and held it as she went by. Because this was Robert & James last evening in town, she couldn’t stay to talk to her fans, but we understood. As she has said many, many times before, her family comes first. And why shouldn’t it?

Thursday evening there were no obstacles to the show like stolen music, and again the show was fantastic. Our man in Los Angeles, Frank Ewing, who had covered the “Pirates of the Caribbean” premiere for us last June with his friend, joined us early in line with David Johnson and we watched together as Lynda came in the lobby and went to the elevator to go to her room. When the doors opened Frank sat in the place of honor, right in front of Lynda, and later said that he was just stunned again to see how beautiful she was. She wore the white silk shirt with billowy sleeves and black top she had worn at the “Pirates” premier, her hair always loose and flowing over her shoulders. David sat to Frank’s right and had his picture disc lying on the table, and between songs it caught Lynda’s eye. “Oh My Gawd, they only made a few of THESE” she said and he handed it to her to show the crowd. “When my son saw one like this,” he said, “Mom, you made a…..vinyl?” Lynda said, and everyone laughed. Frank had a copy of her "portrait" on a CD, and he handed it to her, and she proudly showed the crowd, and Lynda was very touched when Frank told her she could keep it. She also mentioned how proud she had been of her son the evening before, when he called out to her “I Love You, Mom”, and she had to wipe the tears before she could sing again. Lynda’s allergies were acting up that night and gave her a migraine headache, and because of that she could not stay and greet her fans. She was dabbing at her nose more and more during each and every night, but the migraine did not diminish her show in any way whatsoever. From the way she performed, you could never tell that she was feeling ill, what a game and wonderful trouper, and each night the show went on!

Friday evening, our last in town, Paul Corsi joined us and sat next to stage. There was something different in the Plush Room that evening; a large camera was set up in the back to film the show, and Lynda gave another fantastic performance, interacting more than ever with the overly enthusiastic crowd. There were more cries of “Yeah Baby” and "You’re Fantastic” from the fans in the audience. At one point she was talking about going to Las Vegas when she was 17 to headline at Caesar’s Palace and made $300 a week. “That was a lot of money, then,” she said. “That’s a lot of money now” replied someone from the audience, and Lynda said in amazement “you know, this is like being in my living room. Do you guys want to come back with me? Ahhhhhh, my goodness…shut Up!” and the crowd laughed even more. When she mentioned that she had just done "chicago" as “Mama Morton” in London in 2005, she introduced Rita Moreno to the audience, who had starred in the play back way in the 1970’s when Lynda was playing "wonder woman". Joe Bologna and Renee Taylor, the next act to play in the Plush Room were also in the audience to see her, and all were applauded.

After that magical performance, we were invited back to the green room by Lynda’s manager to talk to Lynda and hopefully get some pictures. Rita, Renee and Joe came back also and praised Lynda’s performance. Lynda was very touched by the comments, “I’m so grateful that you were able to come, oh, you guys are fabulous” she said. We were standing by when Lynda talked to Rita, and when we agreed with Rita about how wonderful Lynda was, Rita said “and look at that face!” Lynda replied “I was so glad, so excited that you were able to come, it’s been 20 years since I sang on stage, and you know Rita, what I’ve found, it’s so interesting, putting yourself out on the line again, in that thrilling thing, you know?” “I have to tell you, your selection of songs were just great,” Rita said. Lynda introduced some members of her band, Andrew Higgins, Jim Zimmer and Josh Workman to Rita, and everyone praised their work. "WONDERLAND" was able to get some pictures of that marvelous backstage meeting, and Lynda and hugged and patted our back in gratitude of our attending her first performance in 20 years. When we told her we had to return home, she said “oh, thanks so much for everything, for coming all this way,” and we assured her that we would be attending many more of her marvelous, marvelous performances in years to come. And of course, it had to happen; as we were about to leave, Lynda heard a commotion behind her and turned and gave her famous “OHMIGAWD!” when she saw a African-American woman had come into the room dressed in a Wonder Woman costume. “Look at you! Trust me, my hips were never that little. I can’t believe you did this” she said in amazement and posed for pictures with the woman.

Other members of "WONDERLAND" were present for the last 2 nights, and said that each and every fantastic performance only matched the success of the first four. While she was always not able to greet her fans afterwards, Chris Cooley, who has a certain superheroine tattooed on his right arm was lucky enough to have her sign it. "WONDERLAND" has also learned that Lynda’s week of intimate cabaret show set new records in the Plush Room, who had seen many, many famous celebrities like Bette Midler and Kitty Carlisle. The shows sold out faster than any others, and because of this, Lynda is about to embark on a tour of jazz and cabaret clubs across America, as well as record a new album of standards later this year, and perhaps a DVD of her will also be available soon from her week in San Francisco. We wish All The Best Of Luck for Lynda in resuming her singing career, and keep watching "WONDERLAND" for news of her next appearances!