Jackie Gleason- He Will Always Be the Great One.
“The worst thing you can do with money is save it.”
Although he grew up on 328 Chauncey Street in Brooklyn, it was also the address he used for Ralph and Alice on his television show, The Honeymooners, Jackie Gleason never forgot his neighborhood or where he grew up. He was baptized John Herbert Gleason. His mother was a subway change-booth attendant, and his father was an insurance auditor. After removing any family photos depicting himself, Herbert Gleason, on December 15, 1925, collected his pay check, hat and coat and never returned home.
Young Jackie took to running with tough local gangs and getting a world-class education hustling pool. When he was 19, mother Mae died. He never finished high school and took to the lure of the stage and performing. He became a $4 a night MC at a local theater, stunt diver and carnival barker. He shared rooms in flophouses with friends until he got his first job as a professional comedian, in Reading, Pennsylvania.
Jackie never let marriage get in the way of his wild evenings out after a show. He married three times.
Jackie started to build a reputation with luck he impressed his audiences. While working a club in New York, Jack Warner quickly saw potential in this young and wild comedian. Warner signed him to a film contract for a whopping $250 per week. By age 24, he was making films with Betty Grable, Harry James, Edward G. Robinson, Humphrey Bogart, and Martha Raye.
In the 1940s, friends never thought Jackie would survive his own lifestyle. He was known for all-night parties in his hotel suite as well his ability to consume vast quantities of alcohol. It got so bad that his hotel soundproofed his hotel rooms purely out of consideration to other guests. He appeared in the Broadway hit musical, Follow The Girls in 1944.
Jackie got a major break when he appeared as Chester A. Riley in the television version of the radio show, The Life of Riley. Jackie held the role for a year until William Bendix returned to the role.
Great things were about to happen. Jackie was asked to be a host of the DuMont network’s Cavalcade of Stars variety show. Jackie took it for four weeks at $750 a week and revamped the show to feature Vegas-style dancing girls and character sketches.
“Modesty in an actor is as fake as passion in a call girl.”
Jackie didn’t like to rehearse. Once he read the script he retained it. This left more time for golf and drinking.
The show proved to be such an enormous success that CBS in 1952 brought him to their network. The Jackie Gleason Show became the country’s second-highest rated show during the 1954-1955 season. He made the dancing numbers slightly spicier. His opening monologues were famous for phrases such as “a little travelin’ music” and, “away we go.” He brought in the Ray Bloch and later Sammy Spear with their orchestras.
The show was a proving ground as Jackie introduced the world to Reginald Van Gleason III, Joe the Bartender, The Poor Soul. Fenwick Babbitt and a chubby Brooklyn bus driver. All of his characters were drawn from childhood experiences. The Honeymooners was a short segment on the variety show on October 6, 1951. Jackie wanted to develop a sketch about a smart, quiet wife and her pompous and vocal husband. They fought but at the end always stated their love for each other.
Art Carney was Norton and Pert Kelton played Alice.
Sensing the national mood, Gleason took a chance and made it a separate series in 1955. They became known as the Classic 39 episodes.
Jackie also had a great desire to make music. Not as a musician, he could not read or write music. He created melodies in his head and described and hummed them to his staff who transcribed it into written music. His mood music albums have sold millions and are still available.
“I’m no alcoholic. I am a drunkard. There’s a difference. A drunkard doesn’t like to go to meetings.”
During the 1960s and 1970s, Jackie kept reviving the Honeymooners and the concept of the show when he felt like working. He never wanted for work or money. He expanded his skills to larger roles. He received critical acclaim in such films as, The Hustler, Requiem for a Heavyweight and Soldier in the Rain.
It was revealed years later that Burt Reynolds would only do the Smokey and the Bandit films if Jackie played the vulgar and excitable Texas sheriff Buford T. Justice. In fact, the director allowed Jackie to ad-lib and rewrite scenes. In the 1980s, he played in a dramatic HBO two-man special with Lawrence Olivier and other films.
Because of his comedic and serious acting skills, Orson Welles started calling him, “The Great One.”
Suffering from diabetes and phlebitis coupled with smoking five packs a day and his drinking and lifestyle, Jackie developed colon cancer and liver cancer.
On June 24, 1987, Jackie died at his Florida home. He was a young 71 years old. At the base of his outdoor mausoleum is inscribed, “And Away We Go.” The Miami Beach Auditorium was renamed The Jackie Gleason Theater of the Performing Arts. His hotel where he lived for years in New York City has the Jackie Gleason suite, while city parks and bus depots also have his name.
When pulling off the Brooklyn Bridge and entering the borough, look up at the sign stating, “How Sweet It Is.”
“Drinking removes warts and pimples. Not from me. But from those I look at.”
Contributed by staff writer George Khoury