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Gale Storm

Josephine Owaissa Cottle (born April 5, 1922), better known as Gale Storm, is an American actress and singer. Her sister gave Josephine her middle name, an American Indian word meaning, "bluebird."

Early life

Storm was born in Bloomington, Texas. Her father, William Walter Cottle, died after a year-long illness when she was just 13 months old, and her mother, Minnie Corina Cottle, struggled to raise her five children alone. Josephine was the youngest, with two brothers and two sisters.

Storm's mother Minnie took in sewing, then opened a millinery shop in nearby McDade, which failed, and finally moved the family to Houston.

Josephine learned to be an accomplished dancer and became an excellent ice skater at Houston's Polar Palace. At Albert Sydney Johnston Junior High School and San Jacinto High School, she performed in the drama club. When she was a 17-year-old senior, two of her teachers urged her to enter "The Gateway to Hollywood Contest", held at the CBS Radio Studio in Hollywood, California. The first prize was a one-year contract with a movie studio. She won and was immediately given the stage name "Gale Storm," while her performing partner, Lee Bonnell from South Bend, Indiana became "Terry Belmont." Josephine and Bonnell married two years later, as soon as her mother would allow it. The Bonnells, as they were known privately, had four children (Phillip, Peter, Paul, and Susan). Josephine was widowed after 45 years of marriage. She now has eight grandchildren (Tristan, Alexis, Ryan, Sean, Erin, Brendan, Kimberly, and Kari) and four great-grandchildren (Clay, Shaun, Haylee, and Ty). She was also widowed a second time by the death of her second husband of eight years, Paul Masterson. Storm now lives in Monarch Beach, California near two of her sons. She today remains busy, attending charity benefits and at film festivals.

Career rise in films

After winning the contest in 1940, Storm made several fims for the studio, RKO Radio Pictures; the first was Tom Brown's School Days. She worked steadily in a number of 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' popular Frankie Darro series, and played ingenue roles in other Monogram features with the East Side Kids, Edgar Kennedy, and The Three Stooges. Monogram had always relied on established actors with reputations, but in Gale Storm the studio finally had a star of its own. She starred in the studio's most elaborate productions, both musical and dramatic. She shared top billing in Monogram's Cosmo Jones in The Crime Smasher (1943), opposite Edgar Kennedy, Richard Cromwell, and Frank Graham in the role of Jones, a character derived from network Radio.

American audiences warmed to Storm and her fan mail increased. Altogether, she performed in more than three dozen motion pictures for Monogram. The early exposure from these film appearances paved the way for her success in other media. Gale Storm became an American icon of the 1950s, starring in two highly successful television series, and it was in this decade that her singing career took off.

Television icon of the '50s and beyond

Storm's television career skyrocketed from 1952 to 1955, with her starring role in My Little Margie. The show, which co-starred former silent film actor Charles Farrell, was originally a summer replacement for I Love Lucy. It ran for 126 episodes.

Storm's popularity was capitalized upon in The Gale Storm Show (aka Oh! Susanna), featuring another silent movie star, ZaSu Pitts. This show ran for 143 episodes between 1956 and 1960. Both later were shown countless times in reruns.

Storm appeared regularly on other television programs in the 1950s and 1960s as well. She was a panelist and one of the What's My Line? Mystery Guests on the popular Sunday Night CBS-TV program.

Recording artist and Billboard hitmaker

In Gallatin, Tennessee in 1954, a 10-year-old girl, Linda Wood, was watching Gale Storm on a Sunday night television comedy show hosted by Gordon MacRae, singing one of the popular songs of the day. Linda's father asked her who was singing and was told it was Gale Storm from My Little Margie.

Linda's father was Randy Wood, president of Dot Records, and he liked Storm so much that he called to sign her before the end of the television show. 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 in 1957 by the haunting ballad, "Dark Moon" that went to No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100. Gale Storm had several top ten songs. She headlined in Las Vegas and appeared in numerous stage plays.

Storm's legacy

In 1981, Storm published her autobiography, I Ain't Down Yet, which described, among other things, her battle with alcoholism. More recently, she was interviewed by author David C. Tucker for The Women Who Made Television Funny: Ten Stars of 1950s Sitcoms, published in 2007 by McFarland and Company.

Gale Storm has four stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for her contributions to Radio, Music,Television and Motion Pictures.

Gale Storm still signs autographed photos with her and Charles Farrell from the "My Little Margie" program at conventions. She has attended the Memphis Film Festival, the Friends of Old-Time Radio and the Mid-Atlantic Nostalgia Convention.