LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE CAST REVEALS THE SURPRISING SOUVINERS THEY SAVED FROM THE SHOW'S SET

PEOPLE

 

Little House on the Prairie Cast Reveals the Surprising Souvenirs They Saved from the Show’s Set

At the Monte-Carlo Television Festival, the stars of the beloved series talked about their very unique keepsakes

By John Russell and Kelsie Gibson  Published on June 23, 2024 12:00PM EDT

 

What Little House on the Prairie fan wouldn’t give an arm or a leg — or a lock of hair — for a souvenir from the classic show’s set?

 

It turns out, hair is exactly what one cast member took as a keepsake!

 

During a panel at the Monte-Carlo Television Festival in Monaco on Saturday, June 15, ahead of the series’ upcoming 50th anniversary, Karen Grassle, Matthew Labyorteaux and Alison Arngrim shared some of the surprising things they saved from their time in Walnut Grove.

 

“I was not offer anything for a souvenir from Little House,” Grassle, who played Ingalls matriarch Caroline, said. “But my hairdresser quietly gave me my hair and I actually used it from time to time when I was still young in parts where I needed a lot of beautiful hair, you know, because that wasn't my hair.”

 

“I had hair,” the 82-year-old Grassle explained, “but we blended and [her hairdresser] used to speak of artistic disarray when he arranged that hair, you know. So, that's on the shelf in the laundry room.”

 

Labyorteaux, 57, who played the Ingalls’ adopted son Albert in later seasons, said he was given his souvenir from the show by star Michael Landon, who died from pancreatic cancer in 1991, after the series ended.

 

“Every now and again, I'd go back and say hello to Michael and his offices at MGM studios. And during one of my visits, he said, ‘I have something for you,’ ” Labyorteaux recalled. “And he had a, like a piece of wood. The very last episode, they blew up the entire town because I think the story was a land baron was coming in to buy it all up and they, in a sign of protest, they blew it up. And he kept a chunk of wood from one of the buildings and said, ‘Hey, I saved this for you,’ and gave it to me. And I still have it.”

 

Arngrim, 62, played Laura Ingalls’s spoiled nemesis Nellie Oleson in the show’s first seven seasons, but only kept her scripts after she left Little House.

 

“I didn't know that I was gonna be leaving when I left,” she said. “And so I would have had to have stolen something, and they frowned upon that.”