LuAnn Haslam (born March 28, 1953) is an American blogger and former

child actress The term child actor or child actress is generally applied to a child acting on stage or in movies or television. An adult who began their acting career as a child may also be called a child actor, or a "former child actor". Closely associated ...

. Beginning a career as a professional

child model {{unsourced, date=August 2020 A child model refers to a child who is employed to display, advertise and promote commercial products or to serve as a subject of works of art, such as photography, painting and sculpture. Practice Artists have used ...

and

actress An actor or actress is a person who portrays a character in a performance. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. The analogous Greek term is (), li ...

at the age of eleven, Haslam is best known for her role as "Becky Thatcher" on the Hanna-Barbera children's television series, '' The New Adventures of Huckleberry Finn'' which originally aired on

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...

from 1968 to 1969. After leaving acting and becoming a high school teacher, Haslam assumed the identity of

prom A promenade dance, commonly called a prom, is a dance party for high school students. It may be offered in semi-formal black tie or informal suit for boys, and evening gowns for girls. This event is typically held near the end of the school y ...

expert "Patty the Prom Pro", offering advice and services to high school students on the website Prom-Night.com

Early life

Haslam was born on March 28, 1953, in

Los Angeles, California Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

. She began working as a

at the age of four, appearing in local fashion shows at Chaffey College and J.C.Penney's. Haslam's parents believed it was important to expose the Haslam children to the performing arts at a young age and she was soon cultivating her acting, singing and dancing abilities, performing in community theatre after school and on the weekends.

Career

Acting

When Haslam was 11 years old, talent agent Pat Domigan discovered her in her father's store where she overheard Haslam telling a friend about a local play she was appearing in. Domigan approached Haslam's mother offering to represent her and she was soon going on professional auditions. In the subsequent years, Haslam worked as a child actress and model, appearing in print advertorials and television commercials for Diet-Rite Cola, Mattel Toys, and Downy Fabric Softener among others, before landing the role that would make her a star. After several years as a working actress in commercials, Haslam landed the role of Becky Thatcher on the Hanna-Barbera television series '' The New Adventures of Huckleberry Finn'', loosely based on the characters from the Mark Twain novel. 14 years old when she landed the role, Haslam co-starred alongside Michael Shea as Huck Finn and

Kevin Schultz Keith and Kevin Schultz (born September 16, 1953) are American identical twin photographers and former actors. Reportedly making their screen debut as infants, the Schultz brothers are perhaps best known for their roles as brothers Jefferson and ...

as Tom Sawyer, navigating weekly adventures within an animated world as they attempted to outrun a vengeful "Injun Joe", played by

Ted Cassidy Theodore Crawford Cassidy (July 31, 1932 – January 16, 1979) was an American actor noted for his tall stature at and deep voice. He tended to play unusual characters in offbeat or science-fiction series such as ''Star Trek'' and ''I Dream of ...

. Premiering on

on September 16, 1968, ''Huckleberry Finn'' was the first weekly television series to combine live-action performers with animation. In its review of the series, ''The Newburgh Evening News'' praised the show for its innovative concept writing, "(T)he combined animation–live action techniques are excellent" and singled-out Haslam as "a charming scene stealer." All less than a year apart in age, the show's three teenage stars were tutored together for three hours a day on the set between scenes, with each episode reportedly taking approximately four hours to film and six months to animate. In a departure from the network's usual Saturday morning cartoon schedule, ''Huckleberry Finn'' aired Sunday nights and made its three young stars popular

teen idol A teen idol is a celebrity with a large teenage fan base. Teen idols are generally young but are not necessarily teenagers. An idol's popularity may be limited to teens, or may extend to all age groups. By region Asia East Asia possess ...

s of the era. The series aired in over 15 countries and its three young leads were routinely in demand to make celebrity appearances to meet with fans across the United States during the show's original run. Although the series lasted only one season, it continued to air in reruns as part of ''

The Banana Splits ''The Banana Splits'' is an American television variety show produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions and featuring the Banana Splits, a fictional rock band composed of four costumed animal characters in red marching band hats with yellow plumes. ...

'' syndication package, becoming well known to subsequent generations for the next four decades.

After acting

After ''Huck Finn'' ended, Haslam continued to appear in commercials, as well as some local theatrical productions, but eventually became less interested in pursuing a professional acting career. After graduating high school, Haslam attended

Brigham Young University Brigham Young University (BYU, sometimes referred to colloquially as The Y) is a private research university in Provo, Utah. It was founded in 1875 by religious leader Brigham Young and is sponsored by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-d ...

, eventually graduating with a teaching degree. As of 2004, Haslam was reportedly married and working as a teacher at

San Gabriel High School San Gabriel High School (SGHS) is a public high school located in Los Angeles County, California and operated by the Alhambra Unified School District. It is almost entirely in the city limits of Alhambra with a small portion in the city limits of ...

where she taught math as well as film appreciation and film production classes. As a high school teacher, one of Haslam's roles was serving as adviser of the Junior Class Council which organized the annual Junior and Senior proms at the school where she taught. This experience as high school "prom consultant" led to her alter-ego "Patty the Prom Pro". As Patty, Haslam's duties include answering questions on her blog at Prom-Night.com where she offers advice and services to high school age students preparing for their proms, as well as serving as the go-to prom "expert" to various news outlets such as ''

E! Online E! (an initialism for Entertainment Television) is an American basic cable channel which primarily focuses on pop culture, celebrity focused reality shows, and movies, owned by the NBCUniversal Television and Streaming division of NBCUniver ...

'' and ''

The Washington Times ''The Washington Times'' is an American conservative daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., that covers general interest topics with a particular emphasis on national politics. Its broadsheet daily edition is distributed throughou ...

''. In addition to teaching high school and blogging as "Patty", Haslam also co-produces the annual "Xanadu Film Festival", which is held in the spring and honors student films with its "Snow Globe Trophy", a replica of the snow globe used in the film '' Citizen Kane''. As of 2005, Haslam was reportedly still a dues-paying member of the

Screen Actors Guild The Screen Actors Guild (SAG) was an American labor union which represented over 100,000 film and television principal and background performers worldwide. On March 30, 2012, the union leadership announced that the SAG membership voted to m ...

and was occasionally involved in behind-the-scenes work on feature films.

References

External links

* *
Interview with LuAnn Haslam
at KiddieMatinee.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Haslam, Lu Ann 1953 births 20th-century American actresses Actresses from Los Angeles American bloggers American child actresses American child models American television actresses Living people Brigham Young University alumni American women bloggers 21st-century American actresses