Louise made her Broadway acting debut in 1952 in the Betty Davis Musical review Two's Company, and she appeared in Playboy magazine in the late 1950s, proving she was much more of Ginger than of Mary Anne. Quote it was while performing with Carol Burnett in the 1964 Broadway musical comedy Fade Out, Fade In that she landed the Gilligan's Island role. Originally, the character was a secretary played by actress Kit Smyth in the pilot when producers decided to turn her into a vava vavoom starlet