28 Facts About Gale Storm

Josephine Owaissa Cottle, known professionally as Gale Storm, was an American actress and singer.

Gale Storm's mother took in sewing, then opened a millinery shop in McDade, Texas, which failed, and finally moved her family to Houston.

Gale Storm learned to be an accomplished dancer and became an excellent ice skater at Houston's Polar Palace.

Gale Storm attended Holy Rosary School in what is Midtown, Houston.

Gale Storm performed in the drama club at both Albert Sidney Johnston Junior High School and San Jacinto High School.

When Gale 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.

Gale Storm won and was immediately given the stage name Gale Storm.

Gale Storm's performing partner, Lee Bonnell from South Bend, Indiana, became known as Terry Belmont.

Gale Storm's first was Tom Brown's School Days, playing opposite Jimmy Lydon and Freddie Bartholomew.

Gale Storm worked steadily in low-budget films released during this period.

Gale Storm acted and sang in Monogram Pictures' Frankie Darro series, and played ingenue 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.

Gale Storm played the lead in the studio's most elaborate productions, both musical and dramatic.

Gale Storm shared top billing in Monogram's The Crime Smasher, opposite Edgar Kennedy, Richard Cromwell, and Frank Graham in the role of Jones, a character derived from network radio.

Gale Storm performed in more than three dozen motion pictures for Monogram, experience which made possible her success in other media.

In 1950, Gale Storm made her television debut in Hollywood Premiere Theatre on ABC.

Gale Storm's 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, featuring another silent movie star, ZaSu Pitts.

Gale Storm appeared regularly on other television programs in the 1950s and 1960s.

The follow-up was a two-sided hit, with Gale Storm covering Dean Martin's "Memories Are Made of This" backed with her cover of Gloria Mann's "Teen Age Prayer".

Gale Storm had several other hits, headlined in Las Vegas and appeared in numerous stage plays.

Gale Storm recorded for only about two years with Dot and then gave up recording because of her husband's concerns with the time she had to devote to that career.

Gale Storm later became an active member of the South Shores Baptist Church.

Gale Storm made occasional television appearances in later years, such as The Love Boat, Burke's Law, and Murder, She Wrote.

Gale Storm 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 continued to make personal appearances and autographed photos at fan conventions, along with Charles Farrell from the My Little Margie series.

Gale Storm attended events such as the Memphis Film Festival, Cinecon, the Friends of Old-Time Radio and the Mid-Atlantic Nostalgia Convention.

Gale Storm lived alone in Monarch Beach, California, near two of her sons and their families, until failing health forced her into a convalescent home in Danville, California.

Gale Storm has three stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for her contributions to television, recordings, and radio.