Candid Photographs of 18-Year-Old Tina Louise Getting Ready for Her Formal Debut at the Waldorf Astoria, 1952

Tina Louise (born February 11, 1934) is an American actress widely known for her role as movie star Ginger Grant in the television situation comedy Gilligan’s Island. Louise is the last surviving cast member. She began her career on stage in the mid-1950s before landing her breakthrough role in 1958 drama film God’s Little Acre for which she received the Golden Globe Award for New Star of the Year.

More than a decade before setting out on that “fateful trip” on the SS Minnow, as the show’s theme song put it, an 18–year-old Tina Louise appeared in LIFE, and undoubtedly Ginger would have approved of the photo display. The magazine presented Louise as a young woman of glamor and talent who drew outsized attention from the boys.

In its Feb. 2, 1953 issue legendary LIFE photographer Nina Leen chronicled a big night for Louise, who at the time was a budding actress known as Tina Myers, in the hardly-deserted isle of Manhattan. At the beginning of the night Leen photographed Louise backstage at the Broadway musical revue in which she was performing. Later that night Leen captured Louise as she made her society debut in a ball at the Waldorf Astoria.

Debutante-actress Tina Louise, nee Meyer, changed clothes backstage in her Broadway dressing room before headed to her debutante ball, 1952.

Tina Louise putting on false eyelashes in her Broadway dressing room before the night of her society debut, 1952.

Tina Louise getting help with her dress backstage at her Broadway show before heading off to her society debut, 1952.

Actress Tina Louise, getting ready for formal debut at Waldorf Astoria, 1952.

Actress Tina Louise, getting ready for formal debut at Waldorf Astoria, 1952.

Tina Louise getting help with her dress on the night of her society debut, 1952. A card that came with flowers which had been sent to her read, “This is your night. Make the most of it.”

Actress Tina Louise at age 18, getting ready for her formal debut at the Waldorf Astoria in New York City, New York, December 1952.

Tina Louise, center, attending a party on the night of her society debut at the Waldorf Astoria in New York City, 1952.

Tina Louise, nee Meyer, giving a curtsy upon entering the room with her escort, 1952.

Actress Tina Louise, 18, on the night of her formal debut at Waldorf Astoria, 1952.

(Photos by Nina Leen/LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock)