Cynthia Lynn Wood, Playmate of the Year, 1974

When Marilyn Grabowski, Playboy's West Coast Picture Editor, picked up the phone to give Cyndi Wood the good news--that she'd been chosen Playmate of the Year--it took a while to get the call through. It took even longer, "about a week, I'd guess," says Cyndi, for the full impact to sink in. "I was in Tokyo, in the midst of a night-club engagement, recording sessions and modeling dates, when Marilyn reached me," she recalls, "and my first reaction was just kind of a 'Who, me?' Not until several days later did I really start to believe it, to feel how exciting it actually was." Excitement hasn't exactly been lacking in Cyndi's life since her appearance on our February 1973 gatefold. Take the Tokyo trip. That came about because Cyndi heard that some Japanese impresarios were staging auditions in Los Angeles--at the Playboy Club, as it happened. "I hadn't sung professionally, except in recording studios, for about three years, but I decided to have a try at it, and they signed me to appear at this very exclusive club in Tokyo, the El Morocco. It has about a fifty-dollar cover charge and only really wealthy people go there. When I first arrived in Tokyo, though, things looked as if they weren't going to work out too well. They had (text concluded on page 219)Playmate of the Year(continued from page 148) designed a big show around me, spent something like ten thousand dollars for costumes that looked as if they were made for a fifty-year-old bar singer. It just wasn't me."

Streamlined, the act went better, and Cyndi made a hit with club patrons--especially when she sang in Japanese. "I'm fascinated with the language," she says. "I didn't speak it before I went to Japan, but I picked up some books--and made a lot of friends who helped me." Through her contacts at the night club, she made new non-Japanese friends, too--singer Engelbert Humperdinck, for instance. "I had dinner with him one night while he was on tour in Japan. He's really quite a guy," she reports.

Cyndi left Tokyo after three months, promising to consider returning to cut an album as a follow-up to the two singles she recorded there for CBS-Sony. Back home in the States, she hasn't been idle, either. There've been TV outings--twice on the Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour, lots of talk shows--and many modeling stints. "I've done magazine ads and billboards, plus several television commercials. One of the top agencies in New York told me I might have a big future in modeling; my hair is so out of style, so unlike the high-fashion look, I'd have the girl-next-door image just about cornered."

And there've been the personal appearances--which, now that she's Playmate of the Year, will only increase. On one Playboy promotional tour, Cyndi reaped an unexpected dividend: romance. Visiting Cincinnati, she dropped in at the local Playboy Club, where the current attraction was the rising music/comedy act called The muledeer & moondogg Medicine Show. Moondogg (Denny Flannigan) and muledeer (Gary Miller) asked the pretty young Playmate if she'd like to join their routine for one performance. "I was supposed to go on in leather jacket and dark glasses to look like a greaser, as a gag," she recalls. "Denny taught me the song Be My Baby. But when I went on, I sang the first line perfectly--and then forgot all the rest of it. I was laughed off the stage.

"I thought I'd never be able to show my face in a Playboy Club again, but Denny comforted me. 'They thought it was part of the act,' he told me. 'You were fantastic!' I think that's when I fell in love with him."

Denny and Cyndi have since become a steady duo--and her Cincinnati debut will be far from her last Playboy Club date. When she goes on tour as Playmate of the Year, she's hoping for a chance to sing--as well as smile prettily--for key-holders. "Frankly, just signing autographs is not very inspiring," she remarks.

As Playmate of the Year, Cyndi will have plenty to warble about, starting with a $5000 check from Playboy and the keys to a Playmate Pink Mercedes-Benz 450SL coupe/roadster, valued at $15,500. Driving is one of Cyndi's favorite pastimes--before the energy crisis, she tooled around an average of 100 miles a day from her San Fernando Valley home to Los Angeles and environs. Should she decide to try other modes of transport, however, her Playmate of the Year prizes also include an oil-injected, lightweight AMF Harley-Davidson SX 125 on/off-road motorcycle, with matching helmet; a Hobie Cat 16-foot catamaran with trailer from Coast Catamaran; and a custom-built Schwinn ladies' Super Sport ten-speed bicycle, all in Playmate Pink.

And there's more: a 19-inch Quatre-color television set, a four-channel home-entertainment system with AM/FM radio, turntable and four speakers, and a micro wave oven, all by Panasonic; 7x-12x-35mm high-power zoom binoculars by Bushnell; a complete service for eight of Stonehenge white oven-to-tableware by Midwinter for Wedgwood; an AM/FM replica of the famous Franklin Cathedral-model wireless radio of the Thirties; a four-function pocket calculator from Texas Instruments; a four-piece set of Samsonite luggage in Playmate Pink; an Olympus SLR OM-1 35mm camera from Ponder & Best; a deluxe, leather-encased backgammon set from Aries of Mexico; and a swimsuit and cover-up wardrobe from Bare Facts.

Not bad for a young lady who didn't think she had a chance of becoming a Playmate.