Beyond Becky Thatcher:
the Life and Times of
LuAnn Haslam

Our good friend Mark Hill recently wrote us with some exciting news: he had located LuAnn Haslam, star of the beloved TV series, The New Adventures of Huck Finn! The 1968 weekly network series , produced by cartoon giants Hanna-Barbera with an innovative combination of live-action and animation, was one of the great adventure series of the period. First airing on Sunday nights on NBC, before The Wonderful World Of Disney, Huck Finn eventually moved to syndication via the popular Banana Splits and Friends omnibus children's variety show.

To the many fans of the show, an outstanding feature was the presence of young beauty LuAnn Haslam as Mark Twain's eternal innocent, Becky Thatcher. Although Huck Finn was LuAnn's only TV series credit, anyone who enjoyed her performances never forgot her.

As luck would have it, Ms. Haslam was delighted to speak with us about her days as TV's Becky Thatcher, and her current activities, including a fascinating alter ego, Patty the Prom Pro!

KiddieMatinee.Com: How did you get into the acting business?

LuAnn Haslam: I think that the first time I was on a stage was when I was about 3 or 4 years old. I was in a fashion show at Chafey College in Ontario, California. Then I remember being in fashion shows every so often because my father worked for Penney's, and sometimes there were community fashion shows in which he participated as a merchant. My parents also thought that it was important that we, (my brothers and sister) were exposed to the theater. I enjoyed watching plays and started acting when I was pretty young. I don't really remember the first play I was in, but it was in community theater, and it kept me busy after school and on Saturdays.

As to the film industry, my agent who was Pat Domigan saw me in my father's store when I was telling a friend that a play that I was in was going to travel to other states. Pat asked my mother if she could represent me, and the interviews began. I was 11 years old at the time, and found that when I went out on interviews, most of the other girls had begun a lot earlier. Isn't that something? Eleven was considered a late start. At any rate, that is how I got started.

KM.C: Your bio states that you did a good deal of work in television commercials. Can you recall some of the companies or products? Was this enjoyable work for you?

LAH: Let's see ... there was Diet-Rite Cola, Mattel Toys, Downy Fabric Softener... yes, the work was enjoyable. Sometimes I was amazed at how many times you could film one scene. And as far as I could tell, all the scenes were the same.... But it was always interesting to see locations, people, and to see what the work entailed.

KM.C: How did you land the plum role of Becky Thatcher on Hanna-Barbera's The New Adventures of Huck Finn?

LAH: Well, the show was produced by both Hanna-Barbera and NBC. As a result there were a lot of people to make happy when it came to choosing the cast. As I understand it, Hanna-Barbera cast the show and sent some kind of screen test/pilot to the NBC executives in New York. NBC didn't like the choices that had been made. They decided that they wanted the cast to be younger. So Hanna-Barbera had to start all over again. That is when I got a call from my agent to go to Hanna-Barbera the following Monday for an interview. Carmen Sanchez was the casting director. As I walked into her office she was on the telephone. She turned, looked at me and said to the person on the telephone, "I have to go, Becky just walked in." Needless to say that was a nice thing to hear. Of course there were still lots of hurdles to jump, but all along she said that she liked me for the part. She was very kind.

KM.C: The New Adventures of Huck Finn was a very innovative program for the time, combining live-action sequences with animated characters. In many ways, it was the precursor to the big CGI-generated F/X movies of today such as Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow. Did Huck Finn appear to be a special concept to you at the time, or just another acting job?

LAH: It was very definitely a new concept. NBC had just done a special with Gene Kelly and a Hanna-Barbera cartoon property (Jack and the Beanstalk). Gene Kelly danced with the various cartoon characters. This was a trial run for the technology. NBC had to be convinced that combining people with cartoon figures would work. It was a big success and so NBC went forward with our series. We did all of our work in front of a royal blue screen/stage that disappeared when the film was developed so that the film itself was clear except for us. Then the artists drew in each frame. It was painstaking work. From the beginning to the end of the process took six months for each episode. It was the most expensive half hour show on television. We knew all of this and so we understood how new and exciting this concept and technology were.

KM.C: It must have been challenging to work in such an abstract environment, basically playing against what we imagine were blank backdrops, and having to pretend to react to off-screen characters? Was this easy? Fun? Torturous?

LAH: It was pretty challenging to react to characters that we didn't see. But we had help. We had a great dialogue coach, Bruce Davidson. He read the parts of the cartoon characters for us and tried to get in the position they would be in so that we could look in the right direction. But we had a lot of fun. The work was sometimes difficult, but I always found it to be enjoyable.

KM.C: Do you have any memories you would like to share about your do-stars, Kevin Schultz and Michael Shea?

LAH: Well, Michael played Huck Finn. He was originally from New York, but had come to Los Angeles about two years before he worked on Huck Finn. He had more experience than Kevin or me. He had done many many commercials in New York before he came west. And he had done guest spots on TV and done several films. He was very professional and always did his work well. But he was also a teenage boy and liked having fun. I remember he used to enjoy taking the studio golf cart and driving around. He also was the ringleader when we went to other stages to see what was going on, or climb up into the rafters.

Kevin played Tom Sawyer. Kevin was a twin and his brother Keith also tried out for the part. They lived just a block away from the studio and so after school, Keith, his brother, would come over to the studio. It was pretty funny. They looked so much alike that the guards just let Keith in, thinking that he was Kevin. Kevin had just finished a TV series called The Monroes that was filmed in Wyoming I believe. He and Keith also played the baby in one of Lucille Ball's movies. Kevin and I were both represented by the same agent, Pat Domigan. I know that he received quite a bit of fan mail from his work on The Monroes.

KM.C: Was it fun being a TV star? Were you recognized on the street? How about fan mail?

LAH: Yes it was fun being an actor and doing the work. I enjoyed it, but I also missed going to school and having normal interaction with kids my own age. There were times that I just wanted to go to school and the activities that were being held there. I think that was a small price to pay for having such a unique experience. I don't remember being recognized all that often, but sometimes that happened. It certainly wasn't to the point where it was difficult. As to fan mail, yes I got fan mail. I tried to answer all of it, but that got to be difficult. I tried to send photos or whatever they requested. It did take a lot of time.

KM.C: After Huck Finn left the air, did you do more commercials work, or did you hang up your actor's hat?

LAH: I continued to work. I did a lot of local theater and some film. And I did some commercial work. I continued to go out on interviews and keep those ties alive. Then after high school I went out of state to college. That made working in show business more difficult, although I did get calls when I was home in the summer. I was chosen to be Greg's girl friend in The Brady Bunch, but then they changed their minds about having that character. And I was chosen for a Disney project, but school prevented me from staying in Los Angeles.

KM.C: It appears that some folks have trouble adjusting to "normal life" after being a TV star at such a young age. Was this true for you?

LAH: I don't know that you could really call me a star. I worked, and it was great, but I wasn't really famous. But I think I know what you mean. I think that it can be difficult for anyone at any age to receive public recognition and then go back to a "normal" life where you are treated in a "normal" way. When acting professionally everyone is very nice and maybe treats you with kid gloves. (They are probably nicer than we deserve.) Then the traditional battles are back when you are done. I suppose that was a little difficult for me. But my parents and family always treated me the same, and placed other things as higher priorities for me. For example, getting a college degree was always considered more important in my home than fame, so I think that it kept me more grounded.

KM.C: It was a friend of ours, Mark Hill, who actually located you, at your marvelous website, www.prom-night.com, where you offer advice and services to kids on all aspects of that Great American Institution, the high school prom. We think this is a terrific idea! Can you tell us how www.prom-night.com came to be?

LAH: I am a high school teacher at San Gabriel High School in the Los Angeles area. One of my jobs has been to be the Prom Advisor. I have planned thirteen proms for our school. My husband is a high school administrator who plans activities at Alhambra High School and he supervises the Prom Advisor at his school site. So nine years ago he thought it would be helpful to other prom advisors and students to have a website with information about planning and attending the prom. We worked together on the content. He and a student designed and coded the page and I wrote the verbiage. We continue to maintain and update the site and have quite a bit of fun in the process.

KM.C: Please tell us about your alter ego, "Patty the Prom Pro."

LAH: Not long after we started the website we found that students were sending hundreds of personal questions regarding attending the prom. We needed some person to answer their questions, and I asked students who should do it. They liked the name, Patty the Prom Pro, and she was born. '

KM.C: In addition to www.prom-night.com, you also teach film classes, and run a film festival called Xanadu?

LAH: Yes, I teach Production in Film. This year I have over 100 students in three classes. We watch classic films for the school year and the students form film companies and make videos. The class includes about 45 films during the school year and the students make 8-9 movie projects. (I also teach Trig/Pre-Calculus, and Algebra IL) For four years I have been one of two producers of The Xanadu Film Festival. It is a student film festival sponsored by our school district where we invite students to submit films. We have participants from all over Southern California. We plan on starting a website next year and hope to expand the geography of our entrants. It has been a lot of fun, and we are looking forward to many more years of competition. We give out trophies called, "The Rosebud Awards" and they of course are made from original replicas of the snow globe used in Citizen Kane. Our distinguished judges come from the Film Industry. It has been a great experience for all of us.

KM.C: Since you are so heavily involved in film production and promotion, may we also assume that you are a filmmaker yourself?

LAH: Yes, I do some production. I just finished a small film for the Gamble House in Pasadena. I am a volunteer docent at the Gamble House and coordinate their Junior Docent Program. It is a program where 13 and 14 year old GATE students from the Pasadena Unified School District are trained as Junior Docents at the house. After seven weeks of training they then lead 2nd and 3nd grade students through the house on Friday mornings. The video we produced is to help the 2nd and 3rd grade students get ready to go through the Gamble House.

I also participate in the Camfel assembly productions that appear in about 3000 schools throughout the United States.

KM.C: What print or TV ads might we find you in? Also, did you do any guest spots on episode television during the period of Huck Finn?

LAH: I don't think that you could find any ads of me at this time. And I did not do any guest spots on other shows. That would have been unusual to do at that time. We were interviewed by Barbara Walters on The Today Show, but we weren't guests on any series.

KM.C: Are you currently seeking acting work? What type of productions would you be most interested in?

LAH: I have active status in The Screen Actors Guild, which means I am a dues paying member. I participated in a very small way in Seabiscuit. Doing film work is always of interest to me.

KM.C: Is there anything else you would like to impart to your many fans, who will undoubtedly be just thrilled to finally catch up with you after all these years?

LAH: Being in The New Adventures of Huck Finn was a wonderful experience for me. I am grateful that with the help of cable stations interest in the show has continued. I am always amazed when people tell me how much they enjoyed the show. The years have been good to the show and to us.

Thank you for your interest. It is very sweet of you to consider including our show on your website.

KM.C: And thank you! It is terrific to catch up with our favorite "Becky Thatcher" after all these years! Best of luck to you and your filmmaker students!