Bottom to top

ATV’s policy of experiment paid in a big way with My Little Margie. I Love Lucy was a proven success. My Little Margie was not. But within three weeks of the programme replacing Lucy on the Midlands ATV station it was the top rating programme.

Gale Storm, who plays Margie, started her stage career by winning the Texas branch of a competition to play in Gateway to Hollywood. She met the winner of the same contest from Indiana; a year later they were married. Gale had the unfortunate habit of being on the verge of motherhood every time her film studio wanted her to make a picture. Eventually she was pinned down, but five pictures in four months (opposite Donald O’Connor, Dan Duryea, Audie Murphy and Dennis O’Keefe) meant too much time away from her family, so she opted out of her contract.

With the success of My Little Margie has come a host of film offers, but this series and a radio series of the same title keep Gale occupied full time.

Co-starring with her in My Little Margie is Charles Farrell, one of the big names of silent films. Many of you may remember him in the classic film, Seventh Heaven, in which he played the lead opposite Janet Gaynor.

Margie’s career progresses through a series of hilarious incidents. She tries a permanent lipstick and it comes off on her boss’s best client; she lands her friends in jail after they have made her believe that she is radio-active.

Acting talent plus good script-writing have turned My Little Margie into yet another successful domestic comedy series.