Memories of 1950's Television ~ "My Little Margie"

I know that my age is showing when I do these articles, but I grew up with television. We were both toddlers and grew into our teens together. When I was little we had fun and carefree programs about the difficult situations we could all get into and the consequences. None of these were critical, but the innocence of youth is something that today's television has taken away. Hope I can bring you back to the good old days.

"My Little Margie" starred Gale Storm as Margie Albright from 1952 to 1955. She was the grown up daughter of Vern Albright who was played by Charlie Farrell who was the vice president of an investment firm known as Honeywell and Todd. They lived together in New York at the Carlton Arms Hotel, nice place with an elevator and lovely suites. Vern's boss was George Honeywell played by Clarence Kolb, a gruff and crusty old guy. The other partner in the firm was Mr. Todd who was rarely seen.

The Albrights had a lovely old neighbor named Mrs. Odetts played by Gertrude Hoffman who participated in several of the calamities that Margie would get into. As for a love life, Vern had a girlfriend named Roberta played by Hillary Brooke and Margie's boyfriend was Freddy Wilson played by Don Hayden. She had a way of rolling her tongue and making a chirping kind of noise when she was caught in one of her grand schemes.

Gale Storm was born Josephine Owaissa Cottle. She won a radio contest that led to her getting a one year contract with a movie studio. They changed her name and the rest is history. She became an actress in movies, a singer and a television star which she has three stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for all three contributions to the arts. She passed away in 2009 at the ripe old age of 87. I met her personally when she starred in a musical at a local dinner theater several years ago and she was lovely and cordial.

Charles Farrell's movie credits are vast although he rarely played the lead. He was the on screen paramour of Janet Gaynor in more than a dozen films including; Seventh Heaven, Street Angel and Lucky Star. But he married his sweetheart Virginia Valli and they were married for thirty-seven years until she died. Some of you may remember that he was a big tennis fan and he and Ralph Bellamy opened Palm Springs Racquet Club after he retired from acting. He died in 1990 at 88 years of age.

Sources:

http://www.crazyabouttv.com/mylittlemargie.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Little_Margie

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Farrell