June
29th --
We are saddened to
announce the passing of a past guest of the
Memphis Film Festival, Gale Storm,
who passed away this past weekend at the age of 87.

With
her wholesome appearance and perky personality, Gale
become one of early TV's biggest stars as she played the title roles
in two very successful sitcoms, "My Little
Margie" from 1952-1956 and "The
Gale Storm Show" (also known as "Oh,
Suzanna") in 1956 to 1960.
Before landing
the starring role in "My Little Margie" in 1952, Gale
appeared in numerous B movies. She went from contracts with
RKO to Monogram to Universal, appearing in such low-budget films
as "Where Are Your Children?"
with Jackie Cooper and "Tom
Brown's School Days" with Freddie
Bartholomew.
She was often
cast in westerns as the girl the cowboy left behind, and appeared
in such B-westerns as "The Dude Goes
West" with Eddie Albert,
"The Kid from Texas" with
Audie Murphy and "The
Texas Rangers" with George Montgomery.

"I was
really scared of horses," she admitted in 2000. "I
only rode them because that's what you had to do."
She appeared
in three Republic westerns with Roy Rogers
and recalled that his horse, Trigger,
did what he could to cause her trouble. As she would smile
and ride alongside Rogers while the
king of the cowboys crooned a song, Trigger
(out of camera range) would lean over and bite her horse's neck.
With her movie
roles diminishing in the early 1950s, Gale
followed the path of many fading movie stars of the day and moved
on to television.
"My
Little Margie" debuted on CBS as a summer replacement
for "I Love Lucy" in 1952.
It quickly became an audience favorite and moved to its own slot
on NBC that fall.
It
was our pleasure to host
Ms. Storm's appearance at the 1995 Memphis
event and our thoughts and prayyers go out to her family.
Gale
Storm
(1922
- 2009) |