Gale Storm(1922-2009)
- Actress
- Soundtrack
The youngest of five children, and born with the drab, unlikely name of Josephine Cottle on April 5, 1922,
this pleasantly appealing, Texas-born, auburn-haired beauty was only
seventeen months old when her father, William, passed away. The family
moved from Bloomington (her home town) to McDade (between Austin and
Houston), where her mother, Minnie, made ends meet as a seamstress and
milliner. The family eventually settled
in Houston, where Gale took dance and ice skating lessons, developed a
strong interest in acting, and performed in high school dramatics.
Encouraged by her teachers, Gale by chance entered and was chosen the
winner of a local radio talent contest called
Jesse L. Lasky's "Gateway to Hollywood"
in 1939. This took her and her mother to Hollywood, where she captured
the national contest title.
Handed the more exciting stage moniker of "Gale Storm", she was soon
put under contract to RKO Pictures. Although she was dropped by the
studio after only six months, she had established herself enough to
find work elsewhere, including at Monogram and Universal. Appearing in a
number of "B" musicals, mysteries and westerns, her wholesome,
open-faced prettiness made her a natural for filming. The programmers,
however, that she co-starred in were hardly the talk of the town.
Making her inauspicious debut with
Tom Brown's School Days (1940),
her '40s movies bore such dubious titles as
Let's Go Collegiate (1941),
Freckles Comes Home (1942),
Revenge of the Zombies (1943),
Sunbonnet Sue (1945),
Swing Parade of 1946 (1946),
and
Curtain Call at Cactus Creek (1950),
indicating the difficulty of finding material worthy of her talent.
Arguably, her better movies include the family Christmas tale
It Happened on Fifth Avenue (1947),
which co-starred Don DeFore; the overlooked
western comedy
The Dude Goes West (1948)
opposite Eddie Albert; and the film noir
piece
The Underworld Story (1950)
with Dan Duryea.
After years of toiling in films, Gale finally turned things around at
age 30 by transplanting herself to the small screen. Her very first TV
series,
My Little Margie (1952),
which was only supposed to be a summer replacement series for
I Love Lucy (1951), became one of
the most watched sitcoms in the early '50s while showing up in
syndicated reruns for decades. Co-starring the popular film star
Charles Farrell as her amiable
dad, Gale's warmth and ingratiating style suited TV to a tee, making
her one of the most popular light comediennes of the time. She segued
directly into her second hit series as a cruise ship director in
The Gale Storm Show: Oh! Susanna (1956),
which was better known as "Oh! Susannah" after it went into
syndication. Co-starring woebegone Zasu Pitts
as the ship's manicurist and her "Ethel Mertz" counterpart, this show
lasted a season longer than her first.
In the midst of all this, the (gasp!) thirty-something star dared to
launch her own Las Vegas nightclub and pop recording careers. Always
looking much younger than she was, she produced a number of Billboard
chart makers, including "I Hear You Knocking" (her first hit), "Memories
Are Made of This", "Ivory Tower" and her own cover of "Why Do Fools
Fall in Love". Her most successful song of the decade was "Dark Moon",
which peaked at #4.
Gale's film career took a sharp decline following the demise of her
second series in 1960. Most of her focus was placed modestly on the
summer stock or dinner theater circuit, doing a revolving door of
tailor-made comedies and musicals such as "Cactus Flower", "Forty
Carats", "The Unsinkable Molly Brown" and "South Pacific". She finally
appeared again on TV in a
The Love Boat (1977) segment in
1979 after nearly a two-decade absence. It was later revealed in Gale's
candid autobiography "I Ain't Down Yet" (1981) and on the talk show
circuit that the disappearance was triggered by a particularly vicious
battle with alcohol. Years later, Gale became an outspoken and
committed lecturer, helping to remove the stigma attached to such a
disease, particularly as it applied to women.
Fully recovered, she has been widowed twice (by actor
Lee Bonnell in 1986 and Paul Masterson in
1996). Incredibly accommodating over the years, Gale has appeared on the
nostalgia and film festival circuits to the delight of her many fans. She died on June 27, 2009, at a Danville, California convalescent home at age 87.
this pleasantly appealing, Texas-born, auburn-haired beauty was only
seventeen months old when her father, William, passed away. The family
moved from Bloomington (her home town) to McDade (between Austin and
Houston), where her mother, Minnie, made ends meet as a seamstress and
milliner. The family eventually settled
in Houston, where Gale took dance and ice skating lessons, developed a
strong interest in acting, and performed in high school dramatics.
Encouraged by her teachers, Gale by chance entered and was chosen the
winner of a local radio talent contest called
Jesse L. Lasky's "Gateway to Hollywood"
in 1939. This took her and her mother to Hollywood, where she captured
the national contest title.
Handed the more exciting stage moniker of "Gale Storm", she was soon
put under contract to RKO Pictures. Although she was dropped by the
studio after only six months, she had established herself enough to
find work elsewhere, including at Monogram and Universal. Appearing in a
number of "B" musicals, mysteries and westerns, her wholesome,
open-faced prettiness made her a natural for filming. The programmers,
however, that she co-starred in were hardly the talk of the town.
Making her inauspicious debut with
Tom Brown's School Days (1940),
her '40s movies bore such dubious titles as
Let's Go Collegiate (1941),
Freckles Comes Home (1942),
Revenge of the Zombies (1943),
Sunbonnet Sue (1945),
Swing Parade of 1946 (1946),
and
Curtain Call at Cactus Creek (1950),
indicating the difficulty of finding material worthy of her talent.
Arguably, her better movies include the family Christmas tale
It Happened on Fifth Avenue (1947),
which co-starred Don DeFore; the overlooked
western comedy
The Dude Goes West (1948)
opposite Eddie Albert; and the film noir
piece
The Underworld Story (1950)
with Dan Duryea.
After years of toiling in films, Gale finally turned things around at
age 30 by transplanting herself to the small screen. Her very first TV
series,
My Little Margie (1952),
which was only supposed to be a summer replacement series for
I Love Lucy (1951), became one of
the most watched sitcoms in the early '50s while showing up in
syndicated reruns for decades. Co-starring the popular film star
Charles Farrell as her amiable
dad, Gale's warmth and ingratiating style suited TV to a tee, making
her one of the most popular light comediennes of the time. She segued
directly into her second hit series as a cruise ship director in
The Gale Storm Show: Oh! Susanna (1956),
which was better known as "Oh! Susannah" after it went into
syndication. Co-starring woebegone Zasu Pitts
as the ship's manicurist and her "Ethel Mertz" counterpart, this show
lasted a season longer than her first.
In the midst of all this, the (gasp!) thirty-something star dared to
launch her own Las Vegas nightclub and pop recording careers. Always
looking much younger than she was, she produced a number of Billboard
chart makers, including "I Hear You Knocking" (her first hit), "Memories
Are Made of This", "Ivory Tower" and her own cover of "Why Do Fools
Fall in Love". Her most successful song of the decade was "Dark Moon",
which peaked at #4.
Gale's film career took a sharp decline following the demise of her
second series in 1960. Most of her focus was placed modestly on the
summer stock or dinner theater circuit, doing a revolving door of
tailor-made comedies and musicals such as "Cactus Flower", "Forty
Carats", "The Unsinkable Molly Brown" and "South Pacific". She finally
appeared again on TV in a
The Love Boat (1977) segment in
1979 after nearly a two-decade absence. It was later revealed in Gale's
candid autobiography "I Ain't Down Yet" (1981) and on the talk show
circuit that the disappearance was triggered by a particularly vicious
battle with alcohol. Years later, Gale became an outspoken and
committed lecturer, helping to remove the stigma attached to such a
disease, particularly as it applied to women.
Fully recovered, she has been widowed twice (by actor
Lee Bonnell in 1986 and Paul Masterson in
1996). Incredibly accommodating over the years, Gale has appeared on the
nostalgia and film festival circuits to the delight of her many fans. She died on June 27, 2009, at a Danville, California convalescent home at age 87.