Gale Storm (original) (raw)

Josephine Owaissa Cottle (born April 5, 1922), better known as Gale Storm, is an American actress/singer. Born in Bloomington, Texas, her father passed away before she was a year old and her mother struggled to raise five children alone. In Junior High and High School she performed in the drama club. Two of her teachers urged her to enter the Gateway to Hollywood Contest held at the CBS Radio Studio in Hollywood, California where first prize was a one-year contract with a movie studio.

After winning, she went on to become an American icon of the 1950s, performing in more than thirty-five motion pictures and starring in two highly successful television shows.

From 1952 to 1955, My Little Margie, originally a summer replacement for I Love Lucy, ran for 126 episodes and was immediately followed by The Gale Storm Show, Oh! Susanna, that ran for 143 episodes between 1956 and 1960.

Her first record, "I Hear You Knockin' " (a cover version of a rhythm and blues hit by Smiley Lewis, in turn based on the old Buddy Bolden standard "The Bucket's Got A Hole In It") sold over a million copies. It was followed by the haunting ballad of lost love, "Dark Moon". In her career, Gale Storm had several top ten songs, headlined in Las Vegas, and appeared in numerous stage plays.

In 1981, she published her autobiography, I Ain�t Down Yet, which described, among other things, her battle with alcoholism.

Gale Storm has three Stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for her contributions to Radio, Music, and Television.