Gale Storm, 1950s Sitcom Star, Passes Away

With all the high-profile celebrity deaths that have occurred recently, it would be easy to overlook Gale Storm, who passed away of natural causes yesterday at age 87. Storm isn't a recognizable name today, but she was one of the biggest sitcom stars of the 1950s as the lead actress in My Little Margie from 1952-1955 and The Gale Storm Show (known as Oh, Susanna in its syndicated run) from 1956-1960. Margie was one of a number of I Love Lucy-inspired shows to follow the success of Lucille Ball's iconic sitcom, and starred Storm as the title character, a flighty 21-year-old living with her widowed father in New York City. After Margie's cancellation, Storm went on to star in her eponymous sitcom as a cruise director traveling around the world. Both shows were quite popular in their time but are mostly lost to obscurity today, although they're now in the public domain, and Margie is available on DVD, and can also be watched online at the Internet Archive.

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