About Gale Storm: Gale was born in Texas on April 5, 1922;
we lost her not long ago on June 27, 2009.
RATE & COMMENT ON MY LITTLE MARGIE
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While still a high schooler in her Texas home town,
Josephine Cottle won a "Gateway to Hollywood" contest sponsored by
film producer Jesse Lasky.
Cottle was rechristened "Gale Storm" at the suggestion of a movie
magazine fan, and was promptly cast in "Tom Brown's School Days
along about 1940.
Towards the end of the 1940s, Gale Storm appeared in a number of
better but not great Republic westerns opposite Roy Rogers and
Dale Evans. But when Wanda Hendrix turned down the opportunity to star
in the upcoming TV sitcom "My Little Margie: in 1951,
Gale Storm jumped at the opportunity.
Gale didn't think much of the scripts at first,
but was convinced that it could only get better.
Whether or not "Margie" ever truly evinced signs of improvement
is a moot point: Storm became a bonafide star in the role of
spunky 21-year-old. The series' popularity increased tenfold
when it left prime time in 1954 and entered the syndicated-rerun market.
Capitalizing on her new-found celebrity, she pursued a successful nightclub career,
and 1955-8, for Lawrence Welk's son-in-law Randy Wood's
nefarious Dot record label, had three Top Ten record singles,
"Teenage Prayer," "I Hear You Knocking." (covering Huey Smith's R&B original) and
"Dark Moon." One year later, Gale launched a second successful TV series, "The Gale Storm Show: Oh, Susanna"
in which, for four seasons, she filled the role of Susanna Pomeroy, scatterbrained social director on the luxury liner S.S. Ocean Queen.
None other than Zazu Pitts was her Vivian Vance-like co-star. Following her series' cancellation in 1960, Storm returned to nightclubs and played the straw-hat circuit in such musicals as "Annie Get Your Gun" and then went into semi-retirement, devoting her time to her husband Lee Bonnell (a fellow "Gateway to Hollywood" winner who had long since abandoned acting for the insurance business) and her children. In the late 1970s, Storm re-emerged in the public's consciousness when she announced that she'd been an alcoholic for several years; this was followed by a return to TV as spokesperson for a substance-abuse rehabilitation center in the Northwest. In 1981, Gale Storm published her biography,
"My Little Margie" ran for two seasons on CBS, then less than two seasons on
NBC before hitting the syndication trail, ultimately oblivion until
Oldies Television!
About Charles Farrell
Charles Farrell was born August 9, 1900 in Onset Bay, Massachusetts
(some bios list his birth year 12 1901),
His first role in a major motion picture was a Centurion in the
original 1929 Cecil B. DeMill/Max Sennett silent version of "The Ten Commandments" released
by Paramount. Making numerous movies of general B run, Farrell became best known
as the harried step-dad of gregarious, impulsive Margie. After "My Little Margie"
was canned, CBS tried "The Charlie Farrell Show," no ratings grabber. Farrell
made American International low budget horror flicks in the 70's before
fading away from celebrity life. He died May 6, 1990
in Palm Springs, Florida.
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