Josephine Owaissa Cottle (April 5, 1922 – June 27, 2009), known professionally as Gale Storm, was an American actress and singer. After a film career from 1940 to 1952, she starred in two popular television programs of the 1950s, My Little Margie and The Gale Storm Show. Six of her songs were top ten hits. Storm's greatest recording success was a cover version of "I Hear You Knockin'," which hit No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1955.

Early life

Storm was born in Bloomington, Texas, United States. She performed in the drama club at both Albert Sidney Johnston Junior High School and San Jacinto High School.

When Storm was 17, two of her teachers urged her to enter a contest on Gateway to Hollywood, broadcast from the CBS Radio studios in Hollywood. First prize was a one-year contract with a movie studio, which she won, and was immediately given the stage name Gale Storm. Her performing partner (and future husband), Lee Bonnell from South Bend, Indiana, became known as Terry Belmont.

Career

thumb|Storm in My Little Margie in 1953

Storm had a role in the radio version of Big Town. After winning the contest in 1940, Storm made several films for the RKO Radio Pictures studio. Her first was Tom Brown's School Days, playing opposite Jimmy Lydon and Freddie Bartholomew.

From 1952 to 1955, she starred in My Little Margie, with former silent film actor Charles Farrell as her father. The series began as a summer replacement for I Love Lucy on CBS Television,

Recording artist

thumb|180px|Storm with [[Billy Vaughn. The two wrote "You're My Baby Doll" and performed it on Storm's television show in 1958.]]

In Gallatin, Tennessee, in November 1954, a 10-year-old girl, Linda Wood, was watching Storm on a Sunday night television variety show, NBC's Colgate Comedy Hour, hosted by Gordon MacRae, singing one of the popular songs of the day. Linda's father asked her who was singing and was told it was Gale Storm from My Little Margie. Linda's father Randy Wood was president of Dot Records, and he liked Storm so much that he called to sign her before the end of the television show. Her first record, "I Hear You Knockin'", a cover of a rhythm and blues hit by Smiley Lewis,

The follow-up was a two-sided hit, with Storm covering Dean Martin's "Memories Are Made of This" backed with her cover of Gloria Mann's "Teen Age Prayer".

In 1981, she published her autobiography, I Ain't Down Yet, which described her battle with alcoholism. She was also interviewed by author David C. Tucker for The Women Who Made Television Funny: Ten Stars of 1950s Sitcoms, published in 2007 by McFarland and Company.

Storm continued to make personal appearances and autographed photos at fan conventions, along with Charles Farrell from the My Little Margie series. She also attended events such as the Memphis Film Festival, Cinecon, the Friends of Old-Time Radio and the Mid-Atlantic Nostalgia Convention.

Personal life

Storm was married and widowed twice. In 1941, while still a teenager, she married Lee Bonnell (1918–1986), then an actor and later a businessman. They had four children: Peter, Phillip, Paul, and Susanna. In 1988, two years after she was widowed, she married Paul Masterson (1917–1996), who also predeceased her.

In her fifties, Storm struggled with alcoholism. She later said:

Storm later became an active member of the South Shores Baptist Church. She once said: "Life has been good and I thank God for His many blessings and the happy life He has given to me."

Death

thumb|right|Gale Storm's television star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

After the death of her second husband in 1996, Storm lived alone in Monarch Beach, California, near two of her sons and their families, until failing health forced her into a convalescent home in Danville, California. She died there on June 27, 2009, at the age of 87.

Storm has three stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for her contributions to television, recordings, and radio.

Filmography

  • Tom Brown's School Days (1940)
  • One Crowded Night (1940)
  • Let's Go Collegiate (1941)
  • City of Missing Girls (1941)
  • Saddlemates (1941)
  • Gambling Daughters (1941)
  • Uncle Joe (1941)
  • Red River Valley (1941)
  • Jesse James at Bay (1941)
  • Lure of the Islands (1942)
  • Freckles Comes Home (1942)
  • Man from Cheyenne (1942)
  • Smart Alecks (1942)
  • Foreign Agent (1942)
  • Rhythm Parade (1942)
  • Nearly Eighteen (1943)
  • Where Are Your Children? (1943)
  • Revenge of the Zombies (1943)
  • Campus Rhythm (1943)
  • The Crime Smasher (1943)
  • G. I. Honeymoon (1945)
  • Sunbonnet Sue (1945)
  • Forever Yours (1945)
  • Swing Parade of 1946 (1946)
  • It Happened on Fifth Avenue (1947)
  • The Dude Goes West (1948)
  • Abandoned (1949)
  • Stampede (1949)
  • The Kid from Texas (1950)
  • Curtain Call at Cactus Creek (1950)
  • The Underworld Story (1950)
  • Between Midnight and Dawn (1950)
  • Al Jennings of Oklahoma (1951)
  • The Texas Rangers (1951)
  • Woman of the North Country (1952)

{| class="wikitable sortable"

|+ Television

|-

! Year

! Title

! Role

! class="unsortable" | Notes

|-

| 1952–1955

| My Little Margie

| Margie Albright

| 126 episodes

|-

| 1955

| The Ford Television Theatre

| Hope Foster

| 1 episode

|-

| 1956–1960

| '

| Susanna Pomeroy

| 143 episodes

|-

| 1964–1965

| Burke's Law

| Honey Feather Leeps<br />Dr. Nonnie Harper

| 2 episodes

|-

| 1979

| '

| Rose

| 1 episode

|-

| 1989

| Murder, She Wrote

| Maisie Mayberry

| 1 episode

|}

Recordings

Singles

{| class="wikitable"

! Year

! Single (A-side, B-side)<br /><small>Both sides from same album except where indicated</small>

! width="45"| <small>US<br />Top 100</small>

! Album

|-

| rowspan="3"| 1955

| align="left"|"I Hear You Knocking"<br /><small>b/w "Never Leave Me" (from Gale's Great Hits, not on Gale Storm)</small>

| align="center"| 2

| align="left" rowspan="3"|Gale Storm (Dot, 1956)

|-

| align="left"|"Memories Are Made Of This" Gale Storm (Dot, 1956)

| align="center"| 5

|-

| align="left"|"Teen Age Prayer" Gale Storm (Dot, 1956)

| align="center"| 6

|-

| rowspan="6"|1956

| align="left"|"Why Do Fools Fall In Love"<br /><small>b/w "I Walk Alone" (Non-album track)</small>

| align="center"| 9

| align="left" rowspan="2"|Gale's Great Hits (Dot)

|-

| align="left"|"Ivory Tower" Gale's Great Hits (Dot)<br /><small>b/w "I Ain't Gonna Worry" (Non-album track)</small>

| align="center"| 6

|-

| align="left"|"Tell Me Why"<br /><small>b/w "Don't Be That Way"</small>

| align="center"| 52

| align="left"|Non-album tracks

|-

| align="left"|"Now Is The Hour" /

| align="center"| 59

| align="left"|Gale's Great Hits (Dot)

|-

| align="left"|"A Heart Without A Sweetheart"

| align="center"| 79

| align="left"|Non-album track

|-

| align="left"|"My Heart Belongs To You"<br /><small>b/w "Orange Blossoms"</small>

| align="center"|

| align="left" rowspan="4"|Gale's Great Hits (Dot)

|-

| rowspan="7"|1957

| align="left"|"Lucky Lips" /

| align="center"|77

|-

| align="left"|"On Treasure Island"

| align="center"|74

|-

| align="left"|"Dark Moon"<br /><small>b/w "A Little Too Late" (Non-album track)</small>

| align="center"|4

|-

| align="left"|"Love By The Jukebox Light"<br /><small>b/w "On My Mind Again"</small>

| align="center"|

| align="left" rowspan="6"|Gale Storm Sings (Dot, 1959)

|-

| align="left"|"Winter Warm"<br /><small>b/w "Go 'Way From My Window" (Non-album track)</small>

| align="center"|

|-

| align="left"|"South Of The Border"<br /><small>b/w "Soon I'll Wed My Love"</small>

| align="center"|

|-

| align="left"|"I Get That Feeling"<br /><small>b/w "A Farewell To Arms"</small>

| align="center"|

|-

| rowspan="2"|1958

| align="left"|"You"<br /><small>b/w "Angry"</small>

| align="center"|

|-

| align="left"|"Oh Lonely Crowd"<br /><small>b/w "Happiness Left Yesterday"</small>

| align="center"|

|-

| rowspan="2"|1960

| align="left"|"I Need You So"<br /><small>b/w "On Treasure Island" (from Gale's Great Hits)</small>

| align="center"|

| align="left" rowspan="2"|Non-album tracks

|-

| align="left"|"Please Help Me, I'm Falling"<br /><small>b/w "He Is There"</small>

| align="center"|

|-

|}

Albums

  • Sentimental Me (Dot, 1956)
  • Gale Storm (Dot, 1956)
  • Gale's Great Hits (Dot, 1958)
  • Softly and Tenderly (Dot, 1959)
  • Gale Storm Sings (Dot, 1959)
  • I Don't Want to Walk Without You (Hamilton, c. 1960s)

References

Further reading

  • Sitcom Queens: Divas of the Small Screen by Michael Karol (2005)
  • The Women Who Made Television Funny: Ten Stars of 1950s Sitcoms by David C. Tucker (2007)
  • Official Gale Storm Website