(SoapOperaNetwork.com) — An old interview with Michael Storm.
After a nearly two month absence, I am back with my column, and hope to soon return to my in-depth discussions on the current state of “One Life to Live.” Unfortunately, sometimes in life when it rains, it pours. Such has been the case for me lately, with my schedule being extremely full and hectic. Anyhow, here is an old newspaper article about “OLTL.” Enjoy!
The following article is entitled “Michael Storm’s Wife is Expecting: Baby is 1st week of April…but please, not on April 1st!” It originally appeared in the April 1970 edition of “Daytime TV.”
“We expect our baby the first week in April,” says Michael Storm’s wife, Sally. “And I it’s not an April 1st baby. I don’t want the poor child getting joke presents the rest of his life!”
Sally says people snicker when she signs her name, Mrs. Sally Storm. They think it’s funny like Gale Storm or Tempest Storm.
“If our baby is a girl, we promise not to name her April Storm …”
“Especially if it’s a boy,” wisecracks Michael.
Michael (Dr. Larry Wolek on “One Life to Live”) and Sally are Californians and they’ve been living in a New York apartment since Michael succeeded his brother James in the Wolek role a year ago.
When James decided to go to Europe, he suggested his brother for the role. Michael had been singing with The Good Time Singers on the Andy Williams Show, but he had some drama training. So he auditioned for the part. “I was afraid,” he admits.
The writers of “One Life to Live” then eased Michael into the role by letting James become seriously injured in a fire. Then he was shown with his face swathed with bandages, and when the bandages came off, Michael emerged as the new Dr. Wolek. Simple.
Michael has calmed down. He finds playing Dr. Wolek “no problem” and the “job is fabulous!” He asks “Where else could I make so much money and still have time for Sally?”
Michael and Sally were raised as neighbors, and knew each other’s family, but hadn’t really me until about a year before they married. Michael (born in Chicago Aug. 9) moved to Pacific Palisades when he was six years old. Sally, born in Cleveland Aug. 2, moved to the same community when she was two.
They attended the same Episcopalian Church, went to the same grammar school, but didn’t really know each other. Sally recalls she was a skinny kid with braces on her teeth, and at 11, she was enduring her first big crush on an idol – who happened to be the happily-married actor Peter Graves, whom she met in a community theatre.
Sally and Michael finally met in Burbank at the NBC studios, when a mutual friend brought Sally backstage after the Andy Williams Show. As Sally recalls the event, “When I finally met Michael on purpose, he was such a nice person!” And as Michael recalls it, “It was probably raining when we met. I was impressed by her because she was so bright, and because she digs rain, and I like rain.”
“I think we got into my Jaguar and it wouldn’t start. In fact, that Jag would never start. I had bought it for $100, adding $800 in repairs, and sold it for $50.”
The Jag wouldn’t start, but Michael Storm and Sally Beall’s romance started. A year later, when Sally was on her two-week vacation from a video tape company in Hollywood, she visited Michael at Harold’s Club in Reno, Nev., where he was singing – and they decided to marry.
He didn’t actually propose, but a few weeks after they had met, they knew they were meant for each other.
“On our wedding night,” recalls Michael, “we played gin … and she won! She hasn’t beaten me in gin again – because I won’t play gin with her anymore! I play scrabble and dominoes with her, and I beat her … ”
Sally protests, “He’s the worst looser! … He cries! …”
Michael cut in, “No I don’t … I sulk!”
Every couple of weeks now, Michael joins Alan Miler (Dave Siegel), Joe Gallison (Tom Edwards) and Doris Belack (Anna Wolek) for a game of poker, and everybody has fun. But he won’t play gin with anybody, especially you-know-who.
Although both Michael and Sally are Leos, they get along fine. “If anyone says that two Leos can’t make a good marriage … well, it’s not true!” says Michael.
Sally says she’s happy being a homemaker. “I’m not a career girl. I got it out of my system. I had a responsible job, and after we married, I continued to work; but when we moved to New York, I stayed home. I’m satisfied staying home. Michael is home more than most five days a week working husbands, and we have a lot of fun staying home.”
When they were living in California, they stumbled into a business. Michael thought he’d revive a childhood hobby and collect salt-water tropical fish. He started with a 10-gallon fish tank, and then brought in more tanks for the young fish, and eventually they had 15 tanks. They thought it would be smart to buy a tropical fish store. But it turned out to be nerve wracking and not worth it, financially. So they just turned it over to an employee and headed for New York and One Life to Live.
Now they don’t bother with tropical fish, but prefer “to paint, make mobiles and plastic and electronic things.”
They have adjusted to life in New York. “The now is thrilling, “they admit. “The first time I saw snow, I just couldn’t believe it,” says Sally, who’s a beautiful brunet (five-foot-six, 120 pounds, with dark brown hair and hazel eyes.)
“The nice thing about the cold New York weather,” says Michael, “is that you’re freezing, and you rush into the nearest coffee shop and get a cup of steaming coffee, and then it revives you! Then you go out and freeze again, and warm up again. It’s great!”
They enjoy browsing among the city’s gourmet shops, but they deplore the high cost of good beef. “We miss California beef,” says Michael. “Here in New York, there are so many first-rate restaurants that they probably get the fine beef first, and let he poorer beef go into the supermarkets.”
When Michael finishes on “One Life to Live,” they probably will return to California. “I like to garden,” says Sally, “but Michael only likes to watch flowers. Both of us are accustomed to living in private houses, with space around us. I wouldn’t want to raise a child in a big city.”
Michael said, wistfully, “Maybe we’ll be rich enough some day to have a New York apartment and a Los Angeles house, and commute.”
On Feb. 21, they will celebrate their fourth anniversary.
They remember going to the Justice of the Peace in Reno, and noticing that there was a replica of a bomb right in front of the radiator. It looked like a real bomb and when it began to hiss, Michael and Sally were frozen with fright. But it was only the radiator hissing. It did provide their marriage with an “explosive” start, though!
Sally’s 2-week vacation from her job turned into a honeymoon, but they didn’t get a real honeymoon until they went to Bermuda last September for a week. They went swimming, sunning, and snorkel diving.
On the show, Michael, as Dr. Wolek, is involved with Karen Martin (played by Niki Flacks) and Meredith Lord (Lynn Benish). He has romantic scenes, and Sally admits, “I had to get used to watching him romance other girls on TV. But now it doesn’t bother me.”
Michael, a handsome six-foot-two, 170 pounds with blonde hair and hazel eyes, gets a lot of passionate mail from his fans. But it doesn’t bother Sally, she insists.
They have a real good relationship. “We know each other,” Sally explains. “We’re friends as well as husband and wife. In the old days, people married each other, and then learned to become friends. But nowadays, the courtship enables you to get to know a lot about each other before marriage. Marriage follows naturally out of a wonderful friendship.”
“Married people play games with each other. And I’ve tried to take the games out of our marriage. It’s better to confront your mate on a problem than to let it fester. It’s better to straighten out a misunderstanding right away, and get it over with!”
Michael and Sally’s marriage brings together two old families. Michael’s people are mostly German and French, and his great great grandfather was Edward Adolph Joseph Kashmir Mortier, Napoleon’s chief aide and also the first president of France. “He was supposed to blow up the Kremlin, but he failed,” Michael explains. “His statue stands in Paris and in the palace of the Versailles. He looked just like my father.
Sally’s ancestors are of English, Scotch and German stock and they came over on the Mayflower.
Michael’s folks were involved in show business. His father, John Storm, was an actor who quit that work when he married his Margaret, a former child actress. Father became a writer, poet, and playwright. He and Margaret co-authored the cookbook, A Treasure of Fine Desserts. Michael’s grandfather was an actor in silent movies, and his grandmother was a Flora Dora girl.
Michael’s father died in 1960, When Michael was studying at Berkeley University. His mother now lives in La Jolla Calif.; his sister Martha, a former actress, is now married and living in Cleveland; and his brother James is back in New York and living in a Greenwich Village apartment.
Sally has two sisters, both married, and one of them has babies.
Michael and Sally’s baby will be the first grandchild for Michael’s mother, and probably not the last.
Who knows? Their baby could turn out to be twins. “There are twins on my side of the family,” says Sally, mischievously.
“I’m ready for whatever comes,” he says and he means it.
Well, that’s all for this edition of the column. I hope you enjoyed this edition of the column. See you again on October 15th..
And until next time remember, we only have “One Life to Live” …..
