The girl in the white pants
One of the regular segments of the TV show The Banana Splits was Danger Island. And the main reason to watch Danger Island was to see Leslie Hayden, the plucky daughter of Professor Hayden.
The show was ostensibly about Professor Hayden and his crew getting stranded on a desert island after getting shipwrecked by pirates. There is some foolishness about the lost city of Tobanya and the Professor's missing brother, but we all know what the show was really about - the plucky daughter, Leslie Hayden, and her white pants that never got dirty even though they were stranded on a desert island! It was all about the white pants, and of course Leslie's bare midriff. (She used to wear her button down shirt tied in a knot at her sternum.)
In every episode, amid the ever present cry of "Uh-Oh, Chongo!", Leslie would be captured by evil pirates or nasty native headhunters. She would then be tied up, and the camera would zoom in on her struggling against her bonds in a fashion that was most intriguing. If she wasn't tied up, she would be hitting the villains over the head with coconuts to a chorus of cheesy sound effects. ("Take that, you evil native headhunter! Pax Americana!")
This video clip has it all. The white pants, sunken treasure, evil pirates, the damsel in distress, and even the Professor's daughter in a black bikini! (Check out that swinging music!)
The girl in the white pants was played by Ronne Troup, who is the daughter of the late musician and actor Bobby Troup. Before the white pants and Danger Island, Troup played one of the school girls in the Hayley Mills film, The Trouble With Angels. She appeared as a guest star in several different TV shows, such as The Partridge Family, My Three Sons, Adam 12, and she also appeared with her father on my sister's favorite TV show, Emergency!.
She was cast, and then later rejected as the The Flying Nun. Damn you, Sally Fields! The girl in the white pants is far pluckier than you!
Unfortunately, there are almost no pictures of Ronne Troup on the internet. How is this possible? How could the fickle public forgot the girl in the white pants?
The show was ostensibly about Professor Hayden and his crew getting stranded on a desert island after getting shipwrecked by pirates. There is some foolishness about the lost city of Tobanya and the Professor's missing brother, but we all know what the show was really about - the plucky daughter, Leslie Hayden, and her white pants that never got dirty even though they were stranded on a desert island! It was all about the white pants, and of course Leslie's bare midriff. (She used to wear her button down shirt tied in a knot at her sternum.)
In every episode, amid the ever present cry of "Uh-Oh, Chongo!", Leslie would be captured by evil pirates or nasty native headhunters. She would then be tied up, and the camera would zoom in on her struggling against her bonds in a fashion that was most intriguing. If she wasn't tied up, she would be hitting the villains over the head with coconuts to a chorus of cheesy sound effects. ("Take that, you evil native headhunter! Pax Americana!")
This video clip has it all. The white pants, sunken treasure, evil pirates, the damsel in distress, and even the Professor's daughter in a black bikini! (Check out that swinging music!)
The girl in the white pants was played by Ronne Troup, who is the daughter of the late musician and actor Bobby Troup. Before the white pants and Danger Island, Troup played one of the school girls in the Hayley Mills film, The Trouble With Angels. She appeared as a guest star in several different TV shows, such as The Partridge Family, My Three Sons, Adam 12, and she also appeared with her father on my sister's favorite TV show, Emergency!.
She was cast, and then later rejected as the The Flying Nun. Damn you, Sally Fields! The girl in the white pants is far pluckier than you!
Unfortunately, there are almost no pictures of Ronne Troup on the internet. How is this possible? How could the fickle public forgot the girl in the white pants?
Why are there no good pictures of the girl in the white pants on the internet?
Google Video: Danger Island (First 9 minutes)
wingnuttoons.com: Danger Island's intro
youtube.com: Danger Island
tv.com: Ronne Troup Biography
tv.com: Danger Island Episode Guide
epguides.com: Danger Island a Titles & Air Dates Guide
movieimage.nate.com: Ronne Troup is crying!
kentmccord.com: Adam 12 Guest Stars
thecomedystudio.com: Danger Island picture
retrosuperheroes.com: "Uh Oh, Chongo"
wingnuttoons.com: Danger Island's intro
youtube.com: Danger Island
tv.com: Ronne Troup Biography
tv.com: Danger Island Episode Guide
epguides.com: Danger Island a Titles & Air Dates Guide
movieimage.nate.com: Ronne Troup is crying!
kentmccord.com: Adam 12 Guest Stars
thecomedystudio.com: Danger Island picture
retrosuperheroes.com: "Uh Oh, Chongo"
6 Comments:
The Banana Splits is one of the earliest TV shows I remember watching as a kid. It was a bonus when they played Danger Island. I remember how pretty I thought she was even back then. I was like 3 or 4!!
As of 1/23/08, if you have cable that has the Boomerang channel, they will sometimes play Banana Splits. I've recorded them all just in hopes of catching her cute, bad acting self on Danger Island....I wish she would read this and post some pics of herself. Hell, I can't even find her DOB on the internet!
Ronne was a first crush of mine. That tied-up shirt and those tight white pants did it for me even at age 7, before I really knew why. It is definitely a shame that we don't see more of her on the Web. I taped a rerun episode of West Wing a few years ago just to see her in a guest role. She didn't have any lines, but she looked terrific (although I wouldn't have recognized her had I not known it was she). Thanks for posting what you've found. I will always love Ronne.
Ronne Troup was also on My Three Sons. Near the end of the series long run, she played Chip Douglas's wife.
OMG OMG I had a huge crush on her when I was 12. We had the Banana Splits show on re-runs and Danger Island was so much fun as was "The girl in the white pants"
She was 23 years old in this show too so she wa legal to lust over LOL.
I first saw Ronne Troup when I was 5 years old and watched "Danger Island." I'd have to say she was one of my earliest T.V. crushes! I didn't understand or like much of Danger Island but I'd sit and watch the show just to see her!
Today I'm 48 years old and as I read about her and look at her photos, I can still feel that tingling feeling she first gave me when I was 5!
I think she helped lead me to an early puberty! ;-p
Thank you Ronne!!!
As a kid, endured the Banana Splits unfunny antics just to see the action-packed Danger Island. Like most others, had a crush on ultra-cute Leslie (Ronne Troup). Maybe because this was a Saturday morning kid's show the censors allowed her to be the only midriff-bearing actress on TV in the 60s (tough luck, I Dream of Jeannie and Gilligan's Island). And in 2016 it is still criminal that decent screen-caps of her are so lacking on the Internet.
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