- Born
- Died
- Birth nameWilliam Moulton Marston
- Dr. William Moulton Marston was a man who managed to combine interests of several dissimilar fields into an idea that has lasted for decades. Marston was born and raised in Massachusetts. He earned a law degree in 1918 and got a Ph.D in Psychology from Harvard University in 1921. Long interested in finding a scientific way to prove a person's innocence, Marston invented the systolic blood-pressure test, which is the basis for the polygraph machine. While campaigning for the wider use of the lie-detector in criminal cases, Marston became convinced from his studies that women were more honest and trustworthy than men. Marston became an early feminist because of this belief, and championed the idea that women represented a peaceful force in society. In 1940, Marston was invited by then DC Comics publisher Maxwell Charles Gaines to serve on an educational advisory board for DC. Marston was unhappy with the cliched male superhero, and suggested to Gaines that there was a need for a female superhero. Gaines was enthusiastic, and encouraged Marston to develop this character. That character, Wonder Woman, appeared in 1941, credited to Charles Moulton (the name came from Gaines and Marston's middle names). Wonder Woman was extremely popular, and soon starred in her own eponymous comic. Marston continued to work on his creation until his early death from cancer in 1947. Wonder Woman lives on.- IMDb Mini Biography By: Mike Konczewski
- SpouseElizabeth Holloway(1915 - May 2, 1947) (his death, 2 children)
- ChildrenMoulton "Pete" Marston
- ParentsAnnie D. MoultonFrederic William Marston
- RelativesPeter Wood Marston(Grandchild)
- Besides creating the "Wonder Woman" character for comic books in 1941, he also is the inventor of the polygraph (lie detector) in 1915.
- Olive Richard lived with Marston and his wife and also bore him two sons: Byrne Marston and Donald Richard Marston (1931-1997).
- He is buried at Bethel Cemetery Elmwood Station in Bethel, Connecticut.
- He didn't start writing for comic books until he was 49 years old.
- He was inducted into the Will Eisner Comics Hall of Fame in 2006.
- [on Wonder Woman]: "Not even girls want to be girls so long as our feminine archetype lacks force, strength, and power. Not wanting to be girls, they don't want to be tender, submissive, peace-loving as good women are. Women's strong qualities have become despised because of their weakness. The obvious remedy is to create a feminine character with all the strength of Superman plus all the allure of a good and beautiful woman."
- The talkies are the only art that would attract Leonardo da Vinci were he alive to-day. This art is a baby giant, as clumsy as all babies are...we don't know what the baby will be doing and saying when it grows up. But we are sure it will make its mark in the world.
- If children will read comics, isn't it advisable to give them some constructive comics to read? The wish to be super strong is a healthy wish, a vital compelling, power-producing desire. The more the Superman-Wonder Woman picture stories build this inner compulsion by stimulating the child's natural longing to battle and overcome obstacles, particularly evil ones, the better the better chance your child has for self-advancement in the world. Certainly there can be no argument about the advisability of strengthening the fundamental human desire, too often buried beneath stultifying divertissments and disguises, to see god overcome evil.
- If you conclude, as I do, that the only hope of a permanent peace and happiness for humanity on this planet is an increased expression of love, and that women are the primary carriers of this great force, one of the problems we face is to provide women with more opportunity for using their love powers. The last six thousand years have demonstrated quite conclusively, I believe, that woman under the domination of man can increase but meagerly the world's total love supply. Our obvious goal, than must be to devise social mechanisms whereby man is brought under the love domination of woman.
- Tolerant people are the happiest, so why not get rid of prejudices that hold you back?
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