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Herbert John Gleason (born Herbert Walton Gleason Jr.; February 26, 1916June 24, 1987), known as Jackie Gleason, was an American comedian, actor, writer, and composer also known as "The Great One". He developed a style and characters from growing up in Brooklyn, New York, and was known for his brash visual and verbal comedy, exemplified by his city bus driver character Ralph Kramden in the television series The Honeymooners. He also developed The Jackie Gleason Show, which maintained high ratings from the mid-1950s through 1970. The series originated in New York City, but filming moved to Miami Beach, Florida, in 1964 after Gleason took up permanent residence there.
Among his notable film roles were Minnesota Fats in 1961's The Hustler (co-starring with Paul Newman) and Buford T. Justice in the Smokey and the Bandit trilogy from 1977 to 1983 (co-starring Burt Reynolds).
Gleason enjoyed a prominent secondary music career during the 1950s and 1960s, producing a series of bestselling "mood music" albums. His first album Music for Lovers Only still holds the record for the longest stay on the Billboard Top Ten Charts (153 weeks), and his first ten albums sold over a million copies each. Joel Whitburn Presents the Billboard Albums, 6th edition, His output includes more than 20 singles, nearly 60 long-playing record albums, and more than 40 CDs.
During his career, Gleason received nomination for an Academy Award, three Golden Globe Awards, and five Primetime Emmy Awards.
Gleason was the younger of two children; his elder brother, Clement, died from complications of meningitis at age 14 in 1919.
Gleason remembered Clement and his father having "beautiful handwriting". He watched his father work at the family's kitchen table, writing insurance policies in the evenings. On the night of December 14, 1925, Gleason's father disposed of any family photos in which he appeared; just after noon on December 15, he collected his hat, coat, and paycheck, and permanently left his family and job at the insurance company. Once it became evident that he was not coming back, Mae went to work as a subway attendant for the Brooklyn–Manhattan Transit Corporation (BMT).
After his father abandoned the family, young Gleason began hanging around with a local gang, hustling pool. He attended P.S. 73 Elementary School in Brooklyn, John Adams High School in Queens, and Bushwick High School in Brooklyn. Gleason became interested in performing after being part of a class play; he quit school before graduating and got a job that paid $4per night () as master of ceremonies at a theater. Other jobs he held at that time included pool hall worker, stunt driver, and carnival barker. Gleason and his friends made the rounds of the local theaters; he put an act together with one of his friends, and the pair performed on an amateur night at the Halsey Theater, where Gleason replaced his friend Sammy Birch as master of ceremonies. He performed the same duties twice a week at the Folly Theater.
Gleason was 19 when his mother died in 1935 from complications of sepsis from a large neck carbuncle that young Jackie had tried to lance. He had nowhere to go and 36 cents to his name. The family of his first girlfriend, Julie Dennehy, offered to take him in; Gleason, however, was headstrong and insisted that he was going into the heart of the city. His friend Birch made room for him in the hotel room he shared with another comedian.
"He has an uncanny instinct for hauling willing laughs from paying guests," reported a newspaper columnist in 1941. "His unsmiling, watchful countenance reminds one of a portly Romeo being rebuffed. Audiences instinctively trust him for laughs and are rarely let down. The man can even insult people and make them like it." Pittsburgh Press, Aug. 12, 1941, p. 18.
By age 24, Gleason began appearing in motion pictures, under the name Jackie C. Gleason (the middle initial standing for Clement, in tribute to his late brother). Pittsburgh Press, p. 18. When director Lloyd Bacon visited the Club 18, Gleason took him aside and asked for a chance in pictures. Gleason then took the nightclub floor and began heckling Bacon, which convinced the director to bring Gleason to Hollywood. Gleason signed with Warner Bros. (at $250 a week) for Bacon's Navy Blues (1941) with Ann Sheridan and Martha Raye. Gleason's other major Warner credit was the Humphrey Bogart feature All Through the Night (1942), which also featured a young Phil Silvers. Warners cast Gleason in four more films of diminishing importance; one of them, Lady Gangster (1942) had Gleason as a getaway-car driver for a gang of bank bandits.
In the wake of Abbott and Costello, most of the movie studios tried to imitate the team's military comedies. Warners loaned Gleason to Columbia Pictures, where he was paired with nightclub and movie comic Jack Durant for the Army comedy Tramp, Tramp, Tramp (1942). Gleason accepted another loan-out to Twentieth Century-Fox, where Gleason played Glenn Miller's bass player in Orchestra Wives (1942). He had a modest part as an actor's agent in the 1942 Betty Grable–Harry James musical Springtime in the Rockies. Warners had no further plans for Gleason and did not renew his contract.
Gleason had supplemented his movie salary by signing a $150-a-week deal to appear at Maxie Rosenbloom's popular nightclub. "He was a smash hit," wrote biographer W. J. Weatherby, "but none of the Hollywood executives who congratulated him offered him a movie role worthy of his talent."W. J. Weatherby, Jackie Gleason: An Intimate Portrait, Berkley, 1992, p. 46. At the end of 1942, Gleason and Lew Parker led a large cast of entertainers in the roadshow production of Olsen and Johnson's New 1943 Hellzapoppin. He also became known for hosting all-night parties in his hotel suite; the hotel soundproofed his suite out of consideration for its other guests. "Anyone who knew Jackie Gleason in the 1940s", wrote CBS historian Robert Metz, "would tell you The Fat Man would never make it. His pals at Lindy's watched him spend money as fast as he soaked up the booze." Rodney Dangerfield wrote that he witnessed Gleason purchasing marijuana in the 1940s.
Gleason was initially exempt from military service during World War II because he was a father of two. However, in 1943, the U. S. Army started drafting men with children. When Gleason reported to his induction, doctors discovered that his broken left arm had healed crooked (the area between his thumb and forefinger was nerveless and numb), that a pilonidal cyst existed at the end of his coccyx, and that he was 100 pounds overweight. Gleason was, therefore, classified 4-F and rejected for military service. The Golden Ham: A Candid Biography of Jackie Gleason
During an acute employment slump in late 1943, Gleason took the only job he could get: a guest shot on NBC's radio show The Chamber Music Society of Lower Basin Street, a hot-jazz jam session. Gleason was that week's "intermission commentator" and delivered a comic monologue about a girl who ran off with a trumpet player. He collected $350 for the appearance. As W. J. Weatherby related, "There were so many phone calls praising it as the funniest program listeners had ever heard that Jackie was invited back. 'Wait till I'm that desperate again,' he said."Weatherby, p. 50.
Gleason's first significant recognition as an entertainer came on Broadway theatre when he appeared in the hit musical Follow the Girls (1944), starring singer Gertrude Niesen and comic dancer Tim Herbert.
Renamed The Jackie Gleason Show, the program became the country's second-highest-rated television show during the 1954–55 season. Gleason amplified the show with even splashier opening dance numbers inspired by Busby Berkeley's screen dance routines and featuring the precision-choreographed June Taylor Dancers. Following the dance performance, he would do an opening monologue. Then, accompanied by "a little travelin' music" ("That's a Plenty", a Dixieland classic from 1914), he would shuffle toward the wings, clapping his hands and shouting, "And awaaay we go!" The phrase became one of his trademarks, along with "How sweet it is!" (which he used in reaction to almost anything). Theona Bryant, a former Powers Girl, became Gleason's "And awaaay we go" girl. Ray Bloch was Gleason's first music director, followed by Sammy Spear, who stayed with him through the 1960s; Gleason often kidded with his music directors during his opening monologues. He continued developing comic characters, including:
In a 1985 interview Gleason explained how some of his invented comic characters were associated with his youth in Brooklyn. The Mr. Dennehy whom Joe the Bartender greets is a tribute to Gleason's first love, Julie Dennehy. The character of The Poor Soul was drawn from an assistant manager of an outdoor theater he frequented. When one of Gleason's biographers likened him to Charlie Chaplin, Gleason asked, "Couldn't you compare me to Buster Keaton? Chaplin only plays one role, but Buster Keaton had a whole group of fantastic characters -- fantastic, but earthbound, too."Weatherby, p. 6.
Gleason disliked rehearsing. Using photographic memory he read the script once, then watched a rehearsal with his co-stars and stand-in and shot the show later that day. When he made mistakes, he often blamed the cue cards.
Gleason developed catchphrases he used on The Honeymooners, such as threats to Alice: "One of these days, Alice, pow! right in the kisser" and "Bang! Zoom! To the Moon, Alice, to the Moon!"
The Honeymooners originated from a sketch Gleason was developing with his show's writers. He said he had an idea he wanted to enlarge: a skit with a smart, quiet wife and her very vocal husband. He described that while the couple had their fights, underneath it all, they loved each other. Titles for the sketch were tossed around until someone came up with The Honeymooners.
The Honeymooners first appeared on Cavalcade of Stars on October 5, 1951, with Carney in a guest appearance as a cop (Norton did not appear until a few episodes later) and character actress Pert Kelton as Alice. Darker and fiercer than the milder later version with Audrey Meadows as Alice, the sketches proved popular with critics and viewers. In these early episodes with Kelton playing Alice, Gleason's frustrated bus driver character had a battleaxe of a wife, and the arguments between them were harrowingly realistic; when Meadows (who was 15 years younger than Kelton) took over the role after Kelton was blacklisted, the tone of the episodes softened considerably.
When Gleason moved to CBS, Kelton was left behind; her name had been published in Red Channels, a book that listed and described reputed communists (and communist sympathizers) who worked in television and radio, and CBS did not want to hire her. Gleason reluctantly let her be removed from the cast; the reason was covered up by telling the media that she had "heart trouble". At first, Gleason turned down Meadows as Kelton's replacement. Meadows wrote in her memoir that after her unsuccessful audition, she frumped herself up and slipped back in to audition again to convince Gleason that she could handle the role of a frustrated (but loving) working-class wife. Rounding out the cast, Joyce Randolph played Trixie, Ed Norton's wife. Elaine Stritch had played the role of a tall and attractive blonde in the first sketch but was quickly replaced by Randolph. Comedy writer Leonard Stern always felt The Honeymooners was more than sketch material and persuaded Gleason to make it into a full-hour-long episode.
In 1955 Gleason gambled on making it a The Honeymooners. The result was the "Classic 39" episodes, which finished 19th in the ratings during their only season. They were filmed with a new DuMont process, Electronicam. Like kinescopes, it preserved a live performance on film; unlike kinescopes (which were screenshots), the film was of higher quality and comparable to a motion picture. Using this higher-quality video process turned out to be Gleason's most prescient move. A decade later, he aired the half-hour Honeymooners in syndicated reruns that began to build a loyal and growing audience, making the show a television Pop icon. Its popularity was such that in 2000, a life-sized statue of Jackie Gleason, in uniform as bus driver Ralph Kramden, was installed outside the Port Authority Bus Terminal in New York City.
Gleason returned to a live show format for 1956–57, with short and long versions, including hour-long musicals. Ten years later, these musical presentations were reprised in color, with Sheila MacRae and Jane Kean as Alice and Trixie.
Audrey Meadows reappeared for one black-and-white remake of the '50s sketch "The Adoption," telecast January 8, 1966. Ten years later, she rejoined Gleason and Carney (with Jane Kean replacing Joyce Randolph) for several TV specials (one special from 1973 was shelved).
The Jackie Gleason Show ended in June 1957. In 1959, Gleason discussed the possibility of bringing back The Honeymooners in new episodes; his dream was partially realized with a Kramden-Norton sketch on a CBS variety show in late 1960, and two more sketches on his hour-long CBS show The American Scene Magazine in 1962. Jackie Gleason and His American Scene Magazine ran from 1962-1966, and The Jackie Gleason Show was reprised from 1966-1970. The Paley Center for Media considers all iterations as one series, running from 1952-1970." Jackie Gleason Show, The {THE Honeymooners: The Honeymooners In England} (TV)," The Paley Center for Media, © 1995–2025. Retrieved Aug 3 2025.
Gleason's first album, Music for Lovers Only (Capitol Records, 1952), still holds the record for the longest stay on the Billboard Top Ten Charts (153 weeks), and his first ten albums sold over a million copies each. At one point, Gleason held the record for charting the most number-one albums on the Billboard 200 without charting any hits on the Top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart.Gael Fashingbauer Cooper (June 15, 2014). Casey Kasem's 'American Top 40' reached for the stars . NBC News. Retrieved June 15, 2014. "An unparalleled storyteller, Kasem loved to drop a teasing question about a song or a band, then cut to commercial, making his trivia so tantalizing that listeners just had to stay tuned to find out the answer. ... Who had the most No. 1 albums without a Top 40 single? (Comic and mood-music expert Jackie Gleason, at least at the time.)"
Gleason could not read or write music; he was said to have conceived melodies in his head and described them vocally to assistants who transcribed them into musical notes. These included the well-remembered themes of both The Jackie Gleason Show ("Melancholy Serenade") and The Honeymooners ("You're My Greatest Love"). In spite of period accounts establishing his direct involvement in musical production, varying opinions have appeared over the years as to how much credit Gleason should have received for the finished products. Biographer William A. Henry wrote in his 1992 book, The Great One: The Life and Legend of Jackie Gleason, that beyond the possible conceptualizing of many of the song melodies, Gleason had no direct involvement (such as conducting) in making the recordings. Red Nichols, a jazz great who had fallen on hard times and led one of the group's recordings, was not paid as session-leader. Cornetist and trumpeter Bobby Hackett soloed on several of Gleason's albums and was leader for seven of them. Asked late in life by musician–journalist Harry Currie in Toronto what Gleason really did at the recording sessions, Hackett replied, "He brought the checks".
But years earlier Hackett had glowingly told writer James Bacon:
The composer and arranger George Williams has been cited in various biographies as having served as ghostwriter for the majority of arrangements heard on many of Gleason's albums of the 1950s and 1960s. Williams was not given credit for his work until the early 1960s, albeit only in small print on the backs of .
Gleason's lead role in the musical Take Me Along (1959–60) won him a Tony Awards for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical.
In addition to his salary and royalties, CBS paid for Gleason's Peekskill, New York, mansion "Round Rock Hill". Set on six acres, the architecturally noteworthy complex included a round main home, guest house, and storage building. It took Gleason two years to design the house, which was completed in 1959. Gleason sold the home when he relocated to Miami.
In October 1960 Gleason and Carney briefly returned for a Honeymooners sketch on a TV special. His next foray into television was the game show You're in the Picture, which was canceled after a disastrously received premiere episode but was followed the next week by a broadcast of Gleason's humorous half-hour apology, which was much better appreciated. For the rest of its scheduled run, the game show was replaced by a talk show named The Jackie Gleason Show.
In 1962 Gleason resurrected his variety show with more splashiness and a new hook: a fictitious general-interest magazine called The American Scene Magazine, through which Gleason trotted out his old characters in new scenarios, including two new Honeymooners sketches. He also added another catchphrase to the American vernacular, first uttered in the 1963 film Papa's Delicate Condition: "How sweet it is!" The Jackie Gleason Show: The American Scene Magazine was a hit that continued for four seasons. Each show began with Gleason delivering a monologue and commenting on the attention-getting outfits of band leader Sammy Spear. Then the "magazine" features would be trotted out, from Hollywood gossip (reported by comedian Barbara Heller) to news flashes (played for laughs with a stock company of second bananas, chorus girls and dwarfs). Comedienne Alice Ghostley occasionally appeared as a downtrodden tenement resident sitting on her front step and listening to boorish boyfriend Gleason for several minutes. After the boyfriend took his leave, the smitten Ghostley would exclaim, "I'm the luckiest girl in the world!" Veteran comics Johnny Morgan, Sid Fields, and Hank Ladd were occasionally seen opposite Gleason in comedy sketches. Helen Curtis played alongside him as a singer and actress, delighting audiences with her 'Madame Plumpadore' sketches with 'Reginald Van Gleason.'
The final sketch was always set in Joe the Bartender's saloon with Joe singing "My Gal Sal" and greeting his regular customer, the unseen Mr. Dennehy (the TV audience, as Gleason spoke to the camera in this section). During the sketch Joe would tell Dennehy about an article he had read in the fictitious American Scene magazine, holding a copy across the bar. It had two covers: one featured the New York skyline and the other palm trees (after the show moved to Florida). Joe would bring out Frank Fontaine as Crazy Guggenheim, who would regale Joe with the latest adventures of his neighborhood pals and sometimes show Joe his current Top Cat comic book. Joe usually asked Crazy to sing—almost always a sentimental ballad in his fine, lilting baritone.
Gleason revived The Honeymooners—first with Sue Ane Langdon as Alice and Patricia Wilson as Trixie for two episodes of The American Scene Magazine, then with Sheila MacRae as Alice and Jane Kean as Trixie for the 1966 series. By 1964 Gleason had moved the production from New York to Miami Beach, Florida, reportedly because he liked year-round access to the golf course at the nearby Inverrary Country Club in Lauderhill (where he built his final home). His closing line became, almost invariably, "As always, the Miami Beach audience is the greatest audience in the world!" In 1966, he abandoned the American Scene Magazine format and converted the show into a standard variety hour with guest performers.
Gleason kicked off the 1966–1967 season with new, color episodes of The Honeymooners. Carney returned as Ed Norton, with MacRae as Alice and Kean as Trixie. The sketches were remakes of the 1957 world-tour episodes, in which Kramden and Norton win a slogan contest and take their wives to international destinations. Each of the nine episodes was a full-scale musical comedy, with Gleason and company performing original songs by Lyn Duddy and Jerry Bresler. Occasionally Gleason would devote the show to musicals with a single theme, such as college comedy or political satire, with the stars abandoning their Honeymooners roles for different character roles. This was the show's format until its cancellation in 1970. (The exception was the 1968–1969 season, which had no hour-long Honeymooners episodes; that season, The Honeymooners was presented only in short sketches.) The musicals pushed Gleason back into the top five in ratings, but audiences soon began to decline. By its final season, Gleason's show was no longer in the top 25. In the last original Honeymooners episode aired on CBS ("Operation Protest" on February 28, 1970), Ralph encounters the youth-protest movement of the late 1960s, a sign of changing times in both television and society.
Gleason (who had signed a deal in the 1950s that included a guaranteed $100,000 annual payment for 20 years, even if he never went on the air) wanted The Honeymooners to be just a portion of his format, but CBS wanted another season of only The Honeymooners. The network had canceled a mainstay variety show hosted by Red Skelton and would cancel The Ed Sullivan Show in 1971 because they had become too expensive to produce and attracted, in the executives' opinion, too old an audience. Gleason simply stopped doing the show in 1970 and left CBS when his contract expired.
In April 1974 Gleason revived several of his classic characters (including Ralph Kramden, Joe the Bartender and Reginald Van Gleason III) in a television special with Julie Andrews. In a song-and-dance routine, the two performed "Take Me Along" from Gleason's Broadway musical.
In 1985, three decades after the "Classic 39" began filming, Gleason revealed he had carefully preserved kinescopes of his live 1950s programs in a vault for future use (including Honeymooners sketches with Pert Kelton as Alice). These "lost episodes" (as they came to be called) were initially previewed at the Museum of Television and Radio in New York City, aired on the Showtime cable network in 1985, and later were added to the Honeymooners syndication package.
Some of them include earlier versions of plot lines later used in the 'classic 39' episodes. One (a Christmas episode duplicated several years later with Meadows as Alice) had all Gleason's best-known characters (Ralph Kramden, the Poor Soul, Rudy the Repairman, Reginald Van Gleason, Fenwick Babbitt and Joe the Bartender) featured in and outside of the Kramden apartment. The storyline involved a wild Christmas party hosted by Reginald Van Gleason up the block from the Kramdens' building at Joe the Bartender's place.
He was nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Academy Award for his portrayal of pool shark Minnesota Fats in The Hustler (1961), starring Paul Newman. Gleason made all his own trick pool shots. In his 1985 appearance on The Tonight Show, Gleason told Johnny Carson that he had played pool frequently since childhood, and drew from those experiences in The Hustler. He was extremely well-received as a beleaguered boxing manager in the film version of Rod Serling's Requiem for a Heavyweight (1962). Gleason played a world-weary army sergeant in Soldier in the Rain (1963), in which he received top billing over Steve McQueen.
Gleason played the lead in the Otto Preminger-directed Skidoo (1968), considered an all-star failure. In 1969 William Friedkin wanted to cast Gleason as "Popeye" Doyle in The French Connection (1971), and Gleason wanted the part, but the studio refused because of the poor reception of Gigot and Skidoo. Instead, Gleason wound up in How to Commit Marriage (1969) with Bob Hope, as well as the movie version of Woody Allen's play Don't Drink the Water (1969). Both were unsuccessful.
Eight years passed before Gleason had another hit film. This role was the cantankerous and cursing Texas sheriff Buford T. Justice in the films Smokey and the Bandit (1977), Smokey and the Bandit II (1980) and Smokey and the Bandit Part 3 (1983). He co-starred with Burt Reynolds as the Bandit, Sally Field as Carrie (the Bandit's love interest), and Jerry Reed as Cledus "Snowman" Snow, the Bandit's truck-driving partner. Former NFL linebacker Mike Henry played his dimwitted son, Junior Justice. Gleason's gruff and frustrated demeanor and lines such as "I'm gonna barbecue yo' ass in molasses!" made the first Bandit movie a hit.
Years later, when interviewed by Larry King, Reynolds said he agreed to do the film only if the studio hired Jackie Gleason to play the part of Sheriff Buford T. Justice (the name of a real Florida highway patrolman, who knew Reynolds' father). Reynolds said that director Hal Needham gave Gleason free rein to ad-lib a great deal of his dialogue and make suggestions for the film; the scene at the "Choke and Puke" was Gleason's idea. Reynolds and Needham knew Gleason's comic talent would help make the film a success, and Gleason's characterization of Sheriff Justice strengthened the film's appeal to blue-collar audiences.
During the 1980s Gleason earned positive reviews playing opposite Laurence Olivier in the HBO dramatic two-man special, Mr. Halpern and Mr. Johnson (1983). He also gave a memorable performance as wealthy businessman U.S. Bates in the comedy The Toy (1982) opposite Richard Pryor. Although the film was critically panned, Gleason and Pryor's performances were praised. His last film performance was opposite Tom Hanks in the Garry Marshall-directed Nothing in Common (1986), a success both critically and financially.
According to writer Larry Holcombe, Gleason's interest in UFOs prompted Richard Nixon to share information with him and to disclose some UFO data publicly.Larry Holcombe: The Presidents and UFOs: A Secret History from FDR to Obama. New York: Macmillan, March 2015.
In early 1954 Gleason suffered a broken leg and ankle on-air during his television show. His injuries sidelined him for several weeks. When Halford went to visit Gleason in the hospital, she discovered that Marilyn Taylor, a dancer from his television show, was also visiting him. Halford filed for a legal separation in April 1954. A devout Catholic Church, Halford did not grant Gleason a divorce until 1970.
Gleason met his second wife, Beverly McKittrick, at a country club in 1968, where she worked as a secretary. Ten days after his divorce from Halford was final, Gleason and McKittrick were married in Ashford, England on July 4, 1970. The couple divorced in 1975. Gleason reconnected with Taylor and married her in December 1975. They remained married until he died in 1987.
Gleason's daughter Linda became an actress and married actor-playwright Jason Miller. Their son is actor Jason Patric.
Gleason struggled with weight issues throughout much of his life, often weighing close to 300 pounds. His diet primarily consisted of red meat and rich desserts, with little to no vegetables. Additionally, Gleason did not engage in regular exercise and consumed alcohol excessively.
In The Golden Ham: A Candid Biography of Jackie Gleason, author Jim Bishop notes that Gleason had three separate wardrobes to accommodate his fluctuating weight, which varied between 185 and 285 pounds.
In 1978 he suffered chest pains while touring in the lead role of Larry Gelbart's play Sly Fox and later underwent triple-bypass surgery.
Gleason delivered a critically acclaimed performance as an infirm, acerbic, and somewhat Archie Bunker-like character in the Tom Hanks comedy-drama Nothing in Common (1986), Gleason's final film role. During production he was diagnosed with colon cancer, which had metastasized to his liver. He was also suffering from phlebitis and diabetes. He kept his medical problems private, although there were rumors that he was seriously ill. On June 24, 1987, he died at age 71 in his Florida home.
After a funeral mass at the Cathedral of Saint Mary, Gleason was entombed in a sarcophagus in a private outdoor mausoleum at Our Lady of Mercy Catholic Cemetery in Miami. Gleason's sister-in-law June Taylor is buried to the left of the mausoleum, next to her husband and attorney, Sol Lerner.
(1985). 031239621X, St. Martin's Press. 031239621X Birch also told him of a week-long gig in Reading, Pennsylvania, which would pay $19—more money than Gleason could imagine (equivalent to $440 in 2025). The booking agent advanced his bus fare for the trip against his salary, granting Gleason his first job as a professional comedian. Following this, he would always have regular work in small clubs.
Career
Gleason worked his way up to larger clubs in Manhattan, first Leon and Eddie's and then Jack White's madcap Club 18, where insulting the patrons was the order of the day. Gleason greeted noted skater Sonja Henie by handing her an ice cube and saying, "Okay, now do something."
Early television
Gleason's big break occurred in 1949 when, working nightclubs and earning the attention of New York City's inner circle, he landed work with the fledgling DuMont Television Network. His first role with DuMont was the role of blunt but softhearted aircraft worker Chester A. Riley for the first television version of the radio comedy The Life of Riley, replacing William Bendix, who was unable to take the role due to contractual issues. Despite positive reviews, the show was canceled after one year, in part to DuMont's substantial disadvantages. (Bendix did resume the role beginning in 1953 for a more successful five-year series.) As Gleason's time on The Life of Riley ended in 1950, DuMont's Cavalcade of Stars variety hour in 1950 had an opening when that show's host Jerry Lester jumped to NBC to host the first late-night comedy/variety series Broadway Open House. Comedy writer Harry Crane, whom Gleason knew from his days as a stand-up comedian in New York, recommended Gleason for the job. UCLA Newsroom: "UCLA Library Acquires Papers of Television Pioneer Harry Crane" by Teri Bond Michael November 18, 2004 The program initially had rotating hosts; Gleason was first offered two weeks at $750 per week. The offer was extended to four weeks when he responded that this arrangement would not be worth the train trip to New York. Gleason returned to New York for the show and soon became permanent host. He framed the acts with splashy dance numbers, developed sketch characters he would refine over the next decade, and became enough of a presence that CBS wooed him to its network in 1952.
The Honeymooners
Gleason's most famous character by far was blustery bus driver Ralph Kramden. Drawn mainly from Gleason's harsh Brooklyn childhood, the Ralph Kramden sketches became known as The Honeymooners. The show was based on Ralph's many get-rich-quick schemes, his ambition, his antics with his best friend and neighbor, scatterbrained sewer worker Ed Norton, and clashes with his sensible wife, Alice, who typically pulled Ralph's head down from the clouds.
Music
Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, Gleason enjoyed a prominent secondary music career, producing a series of bestselling "Beautiful music" albums with jazz overtones for Capitol Records. Gleason believed there was a ready market for romantic instrumentals. His goal was to make "musical wallpaper that should never be intrusive, but conducive". He recalled seeing Clark Gable play love scenes in movies; the romance was, in his words, "magnified a thousand percent" by background music. Gleason reasoned, "If Gable needs strings, what about some poor schmuck from Brooklyn?"
Jackie knows a lot more about music than people give him credit for. I have seen him conduct a 60-piece orchestra and detect one discordant note in the brass section. He would immediately stop the music and locate the wrong note. It always amazed the professional musicians how a guy who technically did not know one note from another could do that. And he was never wrong.Bacon, James. How Sweet It Is. . p. 118.
Return to television
In 1956 Gleason revived his original variety hour (including The Honeymooners), winning a Peabody Award. He abandoned the show in 1957 when his ratings for the season came in at No. 29 and the network "suggested" he needed a break. For his final season, 1956–57, he returned to live Honeymooners of varying lengths and presented a number of hour long musicals (reprised a decade later, in colour, with a "new" Alice and Tricia, Sheila McCrae and Jane Kean). He returned in 1958 with a half-hour show featuring Buddy Hackett, which did not catch on.
Honeymooners revival
Gleason did two Jackie Gleason Show specials for CBS after giving up his regular show in the 1970s, including Honeymooners segments and a Reginald Van Gleason III sketch in which the gregarious millionaire was portrayed as a comic drunk. When the CBS deal expired, Gleason signed with NBC. He later did a series of Honeymooners specials for ABC. Gleason hosted four ABC specials during the mid-1970s. Gleason and Carney also made a television movie, Izzy and Moe (1985), about an unusual pair of historic Federal prohibition agents in New York City who achieved an unbeatable arrest record with highly successful techniques including impersonations and humor, which aired on CBS in 1985.
Film
Gleason did not restrict his acting to comedic roles. He had also earned acclaim for live television drama performances in "The Laugh Maker" (1953) on CBS's Studio One and William Saroyan's "The Time of Your Life" (1958), which was produced as an episode of the anthology series Playhouse 90.
[[File:Jackie Gleason - 1966.jpg|thumb|left|Gleason as [[Minnesota Fats (character)|Minnesota Fats]] in ''[[The Hustler]]'' (1961)]]
Gleason wrote, produced and starred in Gigot (1962), in which he played a poor, mute janitor who befriended and rescued a prostitute and her small daughter. It was a box office flop. But the film's script was adapted and produced as the television film The Wool Cap (2004), starring William H. Macy in the role of the mute janitor; the television film received modestly good reviews.
Personal life
Fear of flying
For many years Gleason traveled only by train; his fear of flying arose from an incident in his early film career when he was flying back and forth to Los Angeles for relatively minor film work. During one flight to New York two of the plane's engines stopped, and the pilot executed an emergency landing in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Gleason borrowed $200 from a Tulsa hardware-store owner to purchase a train passage to New York.
Interest in the paranormal
Gleason was interested in the paranormal, reading many books on the topic as well as books on parapsychology and UFOs. During the 1950s he was a semi-regular guest on a paranormal-themed overnight radio show hosted by Long John Nebel, and he also wrote the introduction to Donald Bain's biography of Nebel. After his death, his large book collection was donated to the library of the University of Miami.
Marriages and family
Gleason met dancer Genevieve Halford when they were working in vaudeville and they were married on September 20, 1936. Halford wanted a quiet home life but Gleason led an active nightlife. Separated for the first time in 1941 and reconciled in 1948, the couple had two daughters, Geraldine ( 1940) and Linda (b. 1942). Gleason and his wife informally separated again in 1951. It was during this period that Gleason had a romantic relationship with his secretary Honey Merrill, who had been a showgirl and Miss Hollywood of 1956.
Later years, health problems and death
As early as 1952, when The Jackie Gleason Show captured Saturday night for CBS, Gleason regularly smoked six packs of cigarettes a day.
Legacy and honors
Works
Television
1949–1959
1960–1986
Stage
Film
Music
Singles discography
1951 "What Is a Girl?" Decca Records 27684 Non-album tracks 1952 "Melancholy Serenade" Capitol Records F2361 Melancholy Serenade (EP) 1953 "Alone Together" Capitol F2437 Music For Lovers Only 1953 "My Funny Valentine" Capitol F2438 1953 "But Not for Me" Capitol F2439 1953 "I'm in the Mood for Love" Capitol F2440 1953 "Terry's Theme from Limelight" Capitol F2507 Non-album track 1953 "White House Serenade" Capitol F2515 Melancholy Serenade (EP) 1953 "Mystery Street" Capitol F2659 Non-album tracks 1955 "I'll Never Be The Same" Capitol F3092 1955 "The Band Played On" Capitol F3144 1955 "Autumn Leaves" Capitol F3223 Autumn Leaves (EP) 1956 "Capri in May" Capitol F3337 Non-album track 1957 "To A Sleeping Beauty" Capitol EAP871 The Best of Jackie Gleason 1958 "Where Is She Now?" Capitol F4062 Non-album tracks 1962 "Melancholy Serenade" Capitol 4704 The Best of Jackie Gleason 1962 "Allo 'Allo 'Allo" Capitol 4800 Jackie Gleason Presents His Original Music For "Gigot" 1963 "La La La La" Capitol 4933 The Best of Jackie Gleason 1964 "Bird Brain" Capitol 5131 Non-album tracks 1965 "I Had But 50¢" Capitol 5420 1966 "One of Those Songs" Capitol 5584 Silk 'n' Brass
Album discography
1 1952 Music for Lovers Only Capitol H352 (10") No. 1 (153 total weeks within the Billboard Top Ten) 2 1953 Lover's Rhapsody Capitol H366 (10") No. 1 3 1953 Music to Make You Misty Capitol H455 (10") No. 1 4 1954 Tawny Capitol L471 (10") No. 8 5 1954 And Awaaay We Go! Capitol H511 (10") No. 1 6 1954 Music, Martinis and Memories Capitol W509 No. 1 7 1954 Melancholy Serenade Capitol E532 (EP) - 8 1955 Lonesome Echo Capitol H627 (10") No. 1 9 1955 Music for Lovers Only Capitol W352 No. 7 10 1955 Music to Make You Misty Capitol W455 No. 11 11 1955 And Awaaay We Go! Capitol W511 No. 85 12 1955 Jackie Gleason Plays Romantic Jazz Capitol W568 No. 2 13 1955 Music to Remember Her Capitol W570 No. 5 14 1955 Lonesome Echo Capitol W627 No. 1 15 1956 Captain Gleason's Garden Band Capitol E646 (EP) - 16 1956 Music to Change Her Mind Capitol W632 No. 8 17 1956 Night Winds Capitol W717 No. 10 18 1956 Merry Christmas Capitol W758 No. 16 19 1957 Music for the Love Hours Capitol W816 No. 13 20 1957 Velvet Brass Capitol SW/W859 No. 16 21 1957 "Oooo!" Capitol SW/W905 No. 14 22 1958 The Torch with the Blue Flame Capitol SW/W961 No. 2 23 1958 Riff Jazz Capitol SW/W1020 No. 27 24 1959 Rebound Capitol SW/W1075 No. 18 25 1959 That Moment Capitol SW/W1147 No. 36 26 1959 Take Me Along (original cast) RCA Victor LSO1050 - 27 1960 Aphrodisia Capitol SW/W1250 No. 49 28 1960 The Actor's Prayer (spoken by Gleason) The Marsalin Institute - 29 1960 Opiate D'Amour Capitol SW/W1314 No. 53 30 1961 Lazy Lively Love Capitol SW/W1439 No. 57 31 1961 The Gentle Touch Capitol SW/W1519 No. 62 32 1962 A Lover's Portfolio (two records in a "briefcase") Capitol SWBO/SBO1619 No. 135 33 1962 Love Embers and Flame Capitol SW/W1689 No. 103 34 1963 Gigot (soundtrack) Capitol SW/W1754 - 35 1963 Champagne, Candlelight and Kisses Capitol SW/W1830 No. 97 36 1963 Movie Themes – For Lovers Only Capitol SW/W1877 No. 82 37 1963 Today's Romantic Hits – For Lovers Only Capitol SW/W1978 No. 115 38 1964 Lover's Portfolio Vol. 1 (Music for Sippin' – Music for Dancin') Capitol SW/W1979 No. 128 39 1964 Lover's Portfolio Vol. 2 (Music for Listenin' – Music for Lovin') Capitol SW/W1980 No. 137 40 1964 Today's Romantic Hits – For Lovers Only Vol. 2 Capitol SW/W2056 No. 82 41 1965 Last Dance – For Lover's Only Capitol SW/W2144 No. 131 42 1965 Silk 'n' Brass Capitol SW/W2409 No. 141 43 1966 Music from Around the World – For Lovers Only Capitol SW/W2471 No. 102 44 1966 How Sweet It Is for Lovers Capitol SW/W2582 No. 71 45 1967 A Taste of Brass – For Lovers Only Capitol SW/W2684 No. 200 46 1967 'Tis the Season Capitol ST/T2791 No. 37 47 1967 The Best of Jackie Gleason Capitol SW/W2796 - 48 1967 The Best of Jackie Gleason Capitol Record Club SWAO-90601 - 49 1968 Doublin' in Brass Capitol SW/W2880 No. 165 50 1969 The Best of Jackie Gleason, vol. 2 Capitol SKAO-146 - 51 1969 The Now Sound Capitol SW/W2935 No. 200 52 1969 Irving Berlin's Music – For Lovers Only Capitol SW106 - 53 1969 Close Up Capitol SW255 No. 192 54 1969 All I Want for Christmas Capitol ST346 No. 13 55 1970 Softly Capitol SL6664 - 56 1970 Romeo and Juliet – A Theme for Lovers Capitol ST398 - 57 1971 Come Saturday Morning Capitol ST480 - 58 1972 Words of Love Capitol ST693 -
Compact disc discography
1984 Lush Moods Pair 1987 Music, Martinis and Memories Capitol 1987 Intimate Music for Lovers CEMA Special Markets 1990 Merry Christmas Capitol 1991 Night Winds / Music to Make You Misty Capitol 1993 The Best of Jackie Gleason Curb Records 1994 Shangri-La Pair 1995 Merry Christmas Razor & Tie 1995 Body & Soul Pair 1995 22 Melancholy Serenades CEMA Special Markets 1996 And Awaaay We Go Scamp 1996 How Sweet It Is! The Velvet Brass Collection Razor & Tie 1996 Romantic Moods of Jackie Gleason (Two Disc Set) EMI Capitol 1996 Thinking of You CEMA Special Markets 1996 'Tis the Season Capitol 1996 The Best of Jackie Gleason Collectibles 1999 Music for Lovers Only / Music to Make You Misty Collector's Choice 2000 Best of Jackie Gleason EMI Special Products 2000 Tawny / Music, Martinis and Memories Collector's Choice 2000 Music, Moonlight and Memories (Three Disc Set) Reader's Digest 2001 Lonesome Echo Collector's Choice 2001 Music to Remember Her Collector's Choice 2001 Lover's Rhapsody / And Awaaay We Go Collector's Choice 2001 Snowfall EMI 2002 For Lovers Only: 36 All Time Greatest Hits (Three disc set) Timeless Media Group 2003 Plays Romantic Jazz Collector's Choice 2004 Music to Change Her Mind Collector's Choice 2005 Night Winds Collector's Choice 2006 A Taste of Brass & Doublin' in Brass Capitol 2007 Complete Bobby Hackett Sessions (Four Disc Set) Fine & Mellow 2009 Take Me Along (1959 Original Broadway Cast) DRG 2009 'Tis the Season Capitol 2011 That Moment / Opiate D'Amour Dutton Vocalion 2011 The Torch with the Blue Flame / The Best of 'Oooo!' Dutton Vocalion 2012 Music For Lovers Only Real Gone Music 2012 Movie Themes - For Lovers Only / The Last Dance - For Lovers Only Dutton Vocalion 2012 Romeo and Juliet - A Theme for Lovers / Music Around the World - For Lovers Only Dutton Vocalion 2012 Gigot Dutton Vocalion 2012 Champagne, Candlelight and Kisses / Love Embers and Flame Dutton Vocalion 2012 'Tis the Season / Merry Christmas Relayer Records
Sources
Further reading
External links
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