Gale Storm
Born
April 5, 1922
Died
June 27, 2009 (87 years old)
Known For
Acting
Place of Birth
Bloomington, Texas, USA
Josephine Owaissa Cottle, known professionally as Gale Storm, was an American actress and singer who 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 success was a cover version of "I Hear You Knockin'," which hit #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1955.
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. 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. 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. She worked steadily in low-budget films released during this period. In 1941, she sang in several soundies, three-minute musicals produced for "movie jukeboxes".
She acted and sang in Monogram Pictures' Frankie Darro series, and played ingénue roles in other Monogram features with the East Side Kids, Edgar Kennedy, and the Three Stooges, most notably in the film Swing Parade of 1946. Monogram had always relied on established actors with reputations, but in Gale Storm, the studio finally had a star of its own. She played the lead in the studio's most elaborate productions, both musical and dramatic. She shared top billing in Monogram's Cosmo Jones, Crime Smasher, opposite Edgar Kennedy, Richard Cromwell, and Frank Graham in the role of Jones, a character derived from network radio.
Storm starred in a number of films, including the romantic comedies G.I. Honeymoon and It Happened on Fifth Avenue, the Western Stampede, and the 1950 film-noir dramas The Underworld Story and Between Midnight and Dawn. U.S. audiences warmed to Storm and her fan mail increased. She performed in more than three dozen motion pictures for Monogram, experience which made possible her success in other media.
In the 1950s, she made singing appearances on such television variety programs as The Pat Boone Chevy Showroom.
In 1950, Storm made her television debut in Hollywood Premiere Theatre on ABC. 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, but ran for 126 episodes on NBC and then CBS. The series was broadcast on CBS Radio from December 1952 to August 1955 with the same actors. Her popularity was capitalized on when she served as hostess of the NBC Comedy Hour in the winter of 1956. That year, she starred in another situation comedy, The Gale Storm Show (Oh! Susanna), featuring another silent movie star, ZaSu Pitts. The show ran for 143 episodes on CBS and ABC between 1956 and 1960. Storm appeared regularly on other television programs in the 1950s and 1960s. She was both a panelist and a "mystery guest" on CBS's What's My Line?
Known For

Abbott and Costello Meet Jerry Seinfeld
Girl in TV Skit About Door Frame (uncredited)
1994

Murder, She Wrote
Maisie Mayberry · (1 episode)
1984

The Love Boat
Gale Storm · (1 episode)
1977

The Love Boat
Rose Kennycott · (1 episode)
1977

Burke's Law
Honey Feather Leeps · (1 episode)
1963

Burke's Law
Dr. Nonnie Harper · (1 episode)
1963

The Mike Douglas Show
Self · (1 episode)
1961

The Dinah Shore Chevy Show
Self · (3 episodes)
1956
The Gale Storm Show
Susanna Pomeroy · (126 episodes)
1956
The NBC Comedy Hour
(18 episodes)
1956
Celebrity Playhouse
(1 episode)
1955

The Wonderful World of Disney
Self · (1 episode)
1954

How to Go Places
Herself
1954

The Ford Television Theatre
Hope Foster · (1 episode)
1952

This Is Your Life
Self · (1 episode)
1952

Woman of the North Country
Cathy Nordlund
1952

My Little Margie
Margie Albright · (126 episodes)
1952
Rim of the Wheel
Virginia Sutton
1951

The Texas Rangers
Helen Fenton
1951

Al Jennings of Oklahoma
Margo St. Claire
1951

Between Midnight and Dawn
Katharine 'Kate' Mallory
1950

The Colgate Comedy Hour
Self · (2 episodes)
1950

The Underworld Story
Catherine Harris
1950

Curtain Call at Cactus Creek
Julie Martin
1950

The Bob Hope Show
Self · (1 episode)
1950

The Kid from Texas
Irene Kain
1950

What's My Line?
Self - Panelist · (1 episode)
1950

What's My Line?
Self - Mystery Guest · (1 episode)
1950

Robert Montgomery Presents
(1 episode)
1950

Abandoned
Paula Considine
1949

Stampede
Connie Dawson
1949

Walk a Crooked Mile
Voice on Tape Recorder
1948

The Ed Sullivan Show
Self · (1 episode)
1948

The Dude Goes West
Liza Crockett
1948

It Happened on Fifth Avenue
Trudy O'Connor
1947

Swing Parade of 1946
Carol Lawrence
1946

Sunbonnet Sue
Sue Casey
1945

G.I. Honeymoon
Ann Gordon
1945

Forever Yours
Joan Randall
1945
I'm a Shy Guy
1943
Glamour Girl
1943

Where Are Your Children?
Judy Wilson
1943

Campus Rhythm
Joan Abbott, aka Susie Smith
1943

Nearly Eighteen
Jane Stanton
1943

Revenge of the Zombies
Jennifer Rand
1943

Cosmo Jones, Crime Smasher
Susan Fleming
1943

Rhythm Parade
Sally Benson
1942
Foreign Agent
Mitzi Mayo
1942

Smart Alecks
Ruth Stevens
1942

Lure of the Islands
Maui
1942

He Plays Gin Rummy
Singer
1942

Man from Cheyenne
Judy Evans
1942

Freckles Comes Home
Jane Potter
1942
The Merry-Go-Roundup
1941

Red River Valley
Kay Sutherland
1941

Uncle Joe
Clare Day
1941

Jesse James at Bay
Jane Fillmore, 'St. Louis Journal' Reporter
1941

Let's Go Collegiate
Midge Lawrence
1941

Gambling Daughters
Lillian Harding
1941
Let's Get Away from It All
1941

Saddlemates
Susan Langley
1941

Penthouse Serenade
1941

City of Missing Girls
Mary Phillips
1941
I Know Somebody Who Loves You
1941

One Crowded Night
Annie Mathews
1940

Tom Brown's School Days
Effie
1940