Book Review: Gale Storm – A Biography and Career Record
There are a handful of showbiz biographers that one can always comfortably trust. They get their facts straight, they appreciate their subject, and they write in an informative and entertaining manner. One of the best of these is David C. Tucker.
Mr Tucker’s latest book is “Gale Storm: A Biography and Career Record.” Most of us recall Gale with fondness as TV’s “My Little Margie.” However, Gale had a long and varied career as singer, an actress, a performer on stage and in movies as well as TV.
The format of this book, from McFarland publishers, follows the same pattern as the author’s other bios, offering a biography, a filmography, a videography, and discussions of other areas such as radio and recordings. And the information provided in each section gives us further insights about Gale Storm’s life and work.
Ms. Storm’s tenure in movies at Monogram Pictures had her in movies featuring such timeless favorites as The East Side Kids and The Three Stooges, while venturing over to Republic Pictures to do a couple of movies with cowboy great Roy Rogers. After she became a TV hit with “My Little Margie,” Gale used to joke that she was trying to earn enough money to buy the rights to her old movies so she could keep them off television. Of course this was purely in jest, as Gale always responded well to the director, the screenplay, and the other actors, with no qualms about the films being low budget second-features. Ironically, these B-movies have lived on a lot longer than many pretentious epics.
A lot of information is provided for her TV work, not only as Margie but also for “Oh Susanna” which came to be known as “The Gale Storm Show.” Each of these series were big hits with the public and retained their popularity in reruns. The author gives us a great deal of background information on the development of each series, the budgetary restrictions, the creative process, and their ultimate success.
This reviewer found it quite impressive Gale Storm achieved a gold record for her rendition of Dave Bartholomew’s “I Hear You Knocking,” an R&B hit for Smiley Lewis and, much later, a rock and roll version by Dave Edmunds. Her recording career also achieved a hit with a similar cover of the R&B classic “Why Do Fools Fall in Love” made famous by Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers.
Along with complete information about the above, we learn about Gale Storm the person -- How she was the youngest of five children, that her real name is Josephine Cottle, that her marriage to actor Lee Bonnell was a happy one until his death in 1986, and that she was also widowed by her second husband, Paul Masterson. We learn about her early life, her struggles, her Christian faith, and her later years. There are even appendices that discuss her appearance in comics and offer a filmography of her first husband.
The book is an enlightening, enjoyable look at one of the most beloved performers in show business history, and it is filled with interesting information that will please Gale Storms many fans. David C. Tucker has triumphed once again with a top level biography that is both greatly appreciated and highly recommended.
The book is available here.