Gale Storm
Birth : 1922-04-05, Bloomington, Texas, USA
Death : 2009-06-27
History
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?
Herself
Actress Gale Storm and family take a road trip in their Chevrolet and review the do's and don'ts of auto traveling.
Cathy Nordlund
In 1890 Minnesota Christine Powell is the scheming head of the Powell dynasty, the richest mining empire of the era. But the Powell mine deposits are diminishing. The Mesabi range represents a whole new productive area but the rights to mine there are held by a young geological engineer, Kyle Ramlo. The latter reaches an impasse when he needs money to continue his experimentation with open-pit mining and goes to Miss Powell for financing. She displays great interest in both his inventive mining method and in him personally but secretly plots to destroy him and take over his Masabi rights. The gullible Ramlo falls into clutches while the girl he really loves, Cathy Norlund, tries desperately to open his eyes to Christine's scheme.
Helen Fenton
It's 1874 and the Texas Rangers have been reorganized. But Sam Bass has assembled a group of notorious outlaws into a gang the Rangers are unable to cope with. So the Ranger Major releases two men from prison who are familiar with the movements and locations used by Bass and his men and sends them out to find him.
Margo St. Claire
Bank robber serves his time in prison, tries to go straight.
Katharine 'Kate' Mallory
Rocky and Dan, war buddies, are prowl car cops on night duty. Dan is a cynic who views all lawbreakers as scum; Rocky feels more lenient. Both are attracted to the radio voice of communicator Kate Mallory; but in person, Kate proves reluctant to get involved with men who just might stop a bullet. By lucky chance, Rocky and Dan cause big trouble for murderous racketeer Ritchie Garris; but when he swears vengeance, Kate's fears may prove justified.
Catherine Harris
A blacklisted reporter brings his shady ways to a small-town newspaper after being fired from a big city daily.
Julie Martin
Traveling entertainer gets mixed up with bank robbers.
Irene Kain
Billy the Kid becomes embroiled in Lincoln County, NM, land wars. When rancher who gave him a break is killed by rival henchman, Billy vows revenge. New employer takes advantage of his naivety to kill rivals, lets the Kid take rap. Kid takes to the hills with friends until caught. Escapes hanging but remains in area to be near employer's young wife with whom he's infatuated
Paula Considine
Paula Consodine comes to Los Angeles in search of her missing sister. Newspaperman Mark Sitko, investigating on Paula's behalf, discovers that the sister is dead, a supposed suicide. The whole thing seems a bit fishy to Sitko, and indeed it is: the girl's death was engineered by a black-market adoption racket, headed by one DeCola.
Connie Dawson
Brothers Mike and Tim McCall own a large ranch in Arizona, using the surrounding lands for grazing cattle. Stanley Cox and LeRoy Stanton sell this land to settlers who arrive to find it bone dry, as a dam on the McCall ranch controls the water. Among the settlers are John Dawson and his daughter Connie. The latter goes to the nearest town to take action, but Sheriff Ball tells him there is nothing he can do. Tim falls for Connie but Mike is unimpressed with her charms. While returning from a town dance, Tim discovers Stanton trying to dynamite the dam, and is killed in the ensuing gunfight. Stanton later sends his men to stampede the cattle while he and Cox blow up the dam. Despite the efforts of Mike and Sheriff Ball, the cattle are wiped out and Mike races to the dam and kills Stanton in a gunfight.
Voice on Tape Recorder
A security leak is found at a Southern California atomic plant. The authorities stand in fear that the information leaked would go to a hostile nation. To investigate the case more efficiently, Dan O'Hara, an FBI agent, and Philip Grayson, a Scotland Yard sleuth, join forces. Will they manage to stop the spy ring from achieving their aim?
Liza Crockett
Daniel Bone is aiming for success. A Brooklyn gunsmith by trade, he figures the place to be is where the guns are. So off he goes into the West and becomes the foe of the notorious Pecos Kid, the captive of Paiutes, the target in a saloon showdown, and the lone source of the whereabouts of a fabulous gold strike.
Trudy O'Connor
A New Yorker hobo moves into a mansion and along the way he gathers friends to live in the house with him. Before he knows it, he is living with the actual home owners.
Carol Lawrence
A struggling young singer falls for a nightclub owner whose father, a millionaire, is trying to shut it down.
Sue Casey
Set in New York's Lower East Side during the Gay '90s, this lively low-budget musical follows the exploits of a feisty and talented saloon owner's daughter who loves nothing more than to perform in her father's tavern. Her late-night shenanigans appall her wealthy and socially conscious aunt who launches a secret campaign to shut down the bar and force her niece to reside in her palatial home.
Ann Gordon
In this romantic comedy, set during WW II, an newlywed army couple are unable to consummate their marriage, as on their wedding night the husband is called away to sentry duty. Later they try again, but as he has just completed a 37-mile hike, he finds himself too tired to work up any enthusiasm for conjugal bliss. Fortunately, the bride's understanding aunt intervenes with the young man's colonel and the frustrated couple is at last able to share a night of love.
Joan Randall
A young woman who has been stricken with infantile paralysis gives up hope and is trying to "will herself" to die. A doctor who has been conducting experiments with patients with paralyzed nerves is convinced he can cure her.
Judy Wilson
Judy Wilson (Gale Storm), feeling neglected because both of her parents are working in defense plants, meets and falls in love with Danny Chester (Jackie Cooper), who enlists in the Navy and is sent to San Diego for training. She accepts an invitation to go on a ride to San Diego with her friends Herb (Neyle Morrow), Opal (Evelyn Eaton)and Jerry (Jimmy Zahner) but doesn't know the car has been stolen.
Joan Abbott, aka Susie Smith
Radio singer Joan Abbott, known as the "Crunchy-Wunchy Thrush", does not want to renew her contract with the cereal sponsor, as she wants to go to college. But her guardian, her Uncle Willie signs the contract in order to pay off his own debts. But this time Joan won't take no for an answer and enrolls under an assumed name. When Joan goes missing, the radio institutes a search for Joan via a publicity stunt.
Jane Stanton
A singer pretends to be younger so she can enter a music school.
Jennifer Rand
When Dr. Von Altermann's wife Lila dies mysteriously at his spooky mansion, her relations suspect murder. They little suspect he's turning her into a zombie, to join the army of living dead he hopes to devote to the Nazi cause. Lila, though dead, has developed a will of her own. Meanwhile, Lila's brother Scott and his friends are increasingly alarmed by the eerie events.
Susan Fleming
Cosmo Jones, a correspondence-school detective from a small town, comes to the big city to offer his services to the police. He happens by where a gangster is killed by an opposing gang. Socialite Phyllis Blake is running around with gang member Tom and the opposing gang plan on kidnapping her. Cosmo is with Sergeant Flanagan when the attempt is made in front of a night club, where a bystander is seriously wounded in the gun-battle. Police Chief Murphy blames Flanagan for the shooting and demotes him. Cosmo, with the aid of a porter, Eustace and Flanagan's fiancée, Susan, tries to find the killer. Phyllis is finally kidnapped and Cosmo decides the act was committed by one of the two gangs. He has her father place an ad in the newspaper that contact has been made with the kidnappers. Each gang thinks the other is pulling a double cross, and one gang wipes out the other.
Sally Benson
A nightclub performer, jealous about the talents of an aspiring singer, tries to sabotage her chances at a professional career.
Mitzi Mayo
Hollywood starlet foils an Axis plot to sabotage the L.A. infrastructure.
Ruth Stevens
Danny helps to capture a wanted criminal and receives a $200 reward. However, he has a falling out with the gang when they believe he should share the money with them. Complications ensue when the crook that Danny helped capture escapes from jail and comes looking for him.
Maui
Tana, a voluptuous half-caste girl of the South Seas, falls in love with FBI agent Wally and wishes to marry him and leave the island. Wally, with his pal Jinx, is there to investigate rumored Japanese spy activity. He agrees to marry her if she will help him in his investigations. Through the discovery of a contraband radio set tuned to Japanese reception, Wally learns that the local Commandant is in league with the enemy and is planning an invasion of the island.
Judy Evans
Roy is a government man assigned to a case of cattle rustling in the part of the country where he grew up, unaware that the leader of the gang is a woman, in fact an old flame.
Jane Potter
Freckles Winslow comes home from college and the sheriff accuses him of murder, gangsters put him on the spot, and his girl friend, Jane, falls in love with a confidence man.
Kay Sutherland
To bring water to their valley, ranchers have raised money to build a dam. When that money is stolen, Allison suggests the ranchers sell their stock to a friend of his thereby getting the money needed to complete the dam. Roy has a clue that Allison was involved in the robbery and is out to get control of the valley. So Roy and the boys try to delay the sale of the stock while they look for proof against Allison.
Clare Day
A pretty Chicago teenager (Gale Storm), who's being courted by an older man, is sent by her worried parents to live with her uncle on his Iowa farm.
Jane Fillmore, 'St. Louis Journal' Reporter
When Jesse learns that Krager is cheating settlers, he and his gang rob trains to obtain money for them to purchase their land. Krager, finding a Jesse look alike in Burns, hires him to wreck havoc on the ranchers. When Jesse kills Burns he switches clothes and goes after the culprits.
Midge Lawrence
Rawley University is about to receive a star athlete who could give it the first championship rowing team it's ever had. Unfortunately, he gets drafted into the army before he's able to join the team. Two of the team's members get the bright idea of passing off a burly truck driver as the "athlete". Complications ensue.
Lillian Harding
A couple of rich girls at a private boarding school find themselves mixed up in gambling and blackmail, and must steal from their parents to pay their gambling debts.
Susan Langley
The Three Mesquiteers, as army scouts, soothe hostilities between the Army and Indians after both have been riled by someone with a hidden agenda - a renegade chief, who is found to be masquerading as an Army interpreter.
Mary Phillips
A female reporter goes undercover to investigate the series of mysterious disappearances of young women, who were all linked to a local drama school.
Annie Mathews
The future of a group of strangely connected lives is determined on one crucial night at a dinky motel in the desert.
Effie
When private tutor Thomas Arnold (Sir Cedric Hardwicke) becomes headmaster at Rugby, a boy's preparatory school in England, he puts into place a policy of strict punishment for unruliness and bulying. Arnold finds an ally in Tom Brown (Jimmy Lydon), a new student who is subjected to hazing and abuse by a group of older boys and is pressured by his friends to keep quiet about it. Fed up, he leads his fellow classmates in an underground rebellion against their tormentors. But certain unspoken rules still apply at the school and Brown loses his hero status when he is accussed of breaking the Rugby code of silence.
