Pageant News Bureau - Louise LaPlanche

"That was a wonderful era," says the 81-year-old actress, who currently reigns as Ms. Michigan Achievement. "I still get nostalgic about it."

Many of us are still nostalgic for that time and place. American movies fed the romantic fantasies of the whole world, and movie stars were larger than life. Even Mickey Rooney.

Ms. LaPlanche saw it all, not just from a balcony seat in a neighborhood theater, but in the flesh. Movie stars were her friends, her co-workers. As a starlet through much of the 1940s, she shared the screen with Rooney and such legends as Judy Garland, Bob Hope, Fred Astaire and Bing Crosby.

Louise LaPlanche has been involved in acting for more than 75 years and in pageant competition for more than 60 years.

It was an era of extravagant productions. Louise LaPlanche is at right front in the photo above.

This blowup gives you a better view.

Louise LaPlanche sometimes toured with Bob Hope, flying on his private plane when private planes were rare. In the photo at left, she is next to Mr. Hope at top right. The other man is actor Victor Moore, best remembered for his role in the pageant-related American play "Of Thee I Sing."

Ms. LaPlanche was not a stranger to acting when she won her contract. She had begun getting small movie parts when she was barely a toddler. She played baby Esmeralda in the silent classic "The Hunchback of Notre Dame." But in the 1920s, such modest screen work didn't bring fame, or even much money. Her family remained strictly working-class, some would say poor. "I can remember the velvet costume I wore" as Esmeralda, she says. "My mother wanted to buy it for me. But it was $75, and we couldn't afford it."

Appearing in "The Hunchback of Notre Dame."

In the hands of "police" in a silent film

Louise LaPlanche was the baby Esmeralda, above left, in the classic silent version of "The Hunchback of Notre Dame." Above and left, she appears in other silent films. Starting in films when she was barely a toddler, Louise LaPlanche would mature into a bombshell.

As a full-grown bathing beauty, however, Ms. LaPlanche got a lot more attention. Even in the smallest role, in a chorus line or in a harem, she was a girl who stood out from the pack. And because of her bubbly personality, she was a favorite of her more famous co-stars.

Hope and Crosby, the wise-cracking duo of the "Road" pictures, were among her special pals. "They were great, kidding each other all the time," she recalls. She toured with Hope for some of his stateside performances during World War II.

LaPlanche, third from right on the front row, performs with Judy Garland in "Strike Up the Band."

Louise LaPlanche and her younger sister, Rosemary.

Once, at the end of a hard day, Crosby asked her to stop by a studio while he recorded a new song. "I really didn't want to go. I was tired." But she couldn't disappoint her friend, so she went. The song was "White Christmas."

"Some of the orchestra members were in their T-shirts. It didn't look like Christmas. But every time I hear the song, it takes me back."

Ms. LaPlanche never became a major star like some of her friends. Like many other starlets in the 1940s, she rearranged her priorities after getting married.

Though she worked in the fashion industry with husband Lester Freedman, and continued to do occasional modeling and TV commercials, her family became the center of her life for decades. In recent years, as a widow, she has returned to acting part time. She now lives in Michigan with her daughter's family.

She was not the only beautiful LaPlanche in Hollywood in the 1940s. Rosemary LaPlanche, her look-alike younger sister, was crowned Miss America 1941 and went on to a film career of her own. Rosemary, who was also an accomplished artist, died in 1979.

Louise LaPlanche will be a guest of honor at the Miss America Pageant in October 2000, sitting with past winners of the title. "I've never met any of them," she admits. "I've never been to a Miss America Pageant, and I've never even been to Atlantic City. It should be fun."

Rosemary LaPlanche was crowned Miss America on her sister Louise's birthday. But Louise was not there to see it. She was back home in California.

Glamour that lasts