Lindsay Wagner?



Right off. let's get that name straight. Despite the fact that one reviewer recently referred to the star of the movie "The Paper Chase" as "that girl with the unlikely name of Lindsay Wagner,
combining the last two mayors of New York City" the truth is that the name is her own. "My family name is really Wagner and my dad is a football fan who wanted a son to name after Lindsay Nelson. When it turned out to be me, he named me Lindsay anyway. And remember, I was born in Los -Angeles, so if I were going to invent a mayortype name I'd probably have called myself Bradley Yorty."



Miss Wagner smiles and her hazel eyes smile all the way, too. Blondish hair, fivefoot-
nine-California girl personified.



The day before we talked, there was a telephone call from California, too. Producer Ray Stark — "Funny Girl," "The WajKWe Live." "Listen," he says. "I just wanted you to know that I hated you in 'Two People,' but loved you in 'The Paper Chase' and I'd like to do a movie with you. Can we meet and talk it over?"



That's the way it always happens for Lindsay Wagner. The easy way.



"I started studying dance in the ninth grade and soon I had an offer to do an MGM TV series". The man I'd studied with convinced me that child actors have a limited future. He pounded it into my head that the more together I was as a person, the more I was going to be able to give
as an actress. So, I did all these other things — dancing, singing with a rock group, modeling, typing, selling shoes — all the time refusing a lot of acting opportunities because I knew I just wasn't really ready. Then, I broke up with the feller I was with and suddenly I knew it was time.



"So. I Just called up this old friend at Universal who had been watching and encouraging me for a long time, waiting, and I said: 'Well, I'm ready now. What do I do next?' He sent me to the
casting director of 'Marcus Welby' and I did the TV show two days later.



"When they saw the rushes, there was some excitement at Universal and I was signed to a contract. Three days after that I was on my way to doing twelve TV shows in seven days in
different series. It was fine training for me. And then they put me in 'Two People' with Peter Fonda, directed by Robert Wise. Super people to help me through. I got good reviews although the film didn't. And then I got 'The Paper Chase' as a result — the director and producer took me just like that. And it's all happened in less than two years. I was ready."



"The Paper Chase" is a good film about Harvard Law School, about the effects of the pressures of the U.S. educational system on a group of graduate students, about a girl's relationship with her father and the other man in her life. Miss Wagner's relationship with her own father is a bit remote. "My mother is the only person who ever pressured me to live up to anything. And as to men, I'm married now."



Despite her fine performance in "Paper Chase," Miss Wagner has mixed feelings about her part in the film she is now on tour promoting. "I had to see 'The Paper Chase' twice before I could look at it objectively and not expect it to be the film I originally signed to do. The story, as well as my character, were changed. A lot of it in the cutting but also in the constant rewrites while we were shooting. In the original it was much more of a triangle among the girl, the boy and her father, and it made a real statement about our deadly educational system.



"Now, It's just a story about a group of boys at Harvard Law School. A good picture, but not the one I thought I was making. I don't know if somebody handed me the script now whether or not I
would do it. I Just don't feel very much for that girl..."



A nervous publicity man breaks in. "Remember that James Mason was originally signed for the Houseman role and a dual with Mason for Lindsay made much more sense than with the older Houseman. John Houseman, by the way, is already winning festival awards for his work in the film ..."



Miss Wagner smiles. "I did say I like the film. If I didn't, I can assure you I wouldn't be out promoting it now . . ."



Enough about "The Paper Chase." Agreed it is a worthwhile picture. What is next for Lindsay Wagner?



"More movies. I don't want to do TV series, working under that kind of relentless pressure, never time to do another take to make it better. Unless you cough or do sneaky things like that to force another take. That's stifling.



I like variety. I'd like to sing and dance in a movie. I believe I have to choose between being a TV personality or a movie personality and my choice is clear — movies.



"Don't forget, I came out all at once into everything — modeling, acting in TV, movies — all in less than two years time. It's a lot to happen all at once.



"The only thing I'm really sure about right now is that I need a base for myself. But out in the country. I have a real feeling - for the land — woods, in particular. So, I just bought 160 acres in the state of Washington. Twenty-five acres cleared, the rest timber, with a funky little 60-year-old house leaning over like this and two old barns. Nobody's lived there for 25 years.



Out in front, you can look at Mount Hood, that big snowcapped mountain. You can sit there and stare at it all day. Not a zillion people around like in Los Angeles or New York. If I feel like running around naked in my front yard, I can. There's nothing for me in cities any more. Except movies."



The Los Angeles girl with the New York City name looks out the hotel window at Central Park . . . and sees Mount Hood.

Arthur Unger