Jackie Gleason (February 26, 1916 – June 24, 1987) was an American comedian, actor and musician. He was known for his brash visual and verbal comedy style, especially by his character Ralph Kramden on The Honeymooners The Honeymooners is a situation comedy television show that was created by Marvin Marx, and shot before a live audience which debuted as a half-hour series on October 1, 1955. Although initially a ratings success — it was the #2 show in the United States its first season — it faced stiff competition from the Perry Como Show, the show, a situation-comedy A television situation comedy, often shortened to sitcom, is a genre of comedy that features recurring characters in a common environment such as a home or workplace, accompanied with jokes as part of the dialogue television series. His most noted film roles were as Minnesota Fats in the drama film The Hustler (1961) starring Paul Newman Paul Leonard Newman was an American actor, film director, entrepreneur, humanitarian, and auto racing enthusiast. He won numerous awards, including an Academy Award for best actor for his performance in the 1986 Martin Scorsese film The Color of Money and eight other nominations, three Golden Globe Awards, a BAFTA Award, a Screen Actors Guild, and as Buford T. Justice in the Smokey and the Bandit Smokey and the Bandit is a 1977 movie starring Burt Reynolds, Sally Field, Jackie Gleason, Jerry Reed, Pat McCormick, Paul Williams, and Mike Henry. It inspired several other trucking films, including two sequels, Smokey and the Bandit II , and Smokey and the Bandit Part 3. There were also a series of 1994 television movies (Bandit Goes Country, movie series.
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Life
Early years
Gleason was born at 364 Chauncey Street in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, New York.[1] Originally named Herbert Walton Gleason, Jr., he was baptized as John Herbert Gleason.[2] His parents, both from Faranree, County Cork County Cork is one of the traditional counties of Ireland. It is located within the province of Munster, and was named after the city of Cork (Irish: Corcaigh). The southernmost of the Irish counties, it is also the largest, covering an area of just under 7,500 square kilometres, Ireland, were Mae (Maisie) (née A married name is the family name adopted by a person upon marriage. In many cultures it is common practice for a person to assume the family name of his or her spouse, this new name typically replaces the maiden name) Murphy, a subway change-booth attendant, and Herb Gleason, an insurance auditor.[3] Gleason was one of their two children. Gleason's brother died when he was young, and his father abandoned the family. He attended elementary school at P.S. 73 in Brooklyn. He attended but did not graduate from John Adams High School in Queens and Bushwick High School in Brooklyn. Gleason was raised by his mother, who died when he was 19.[2]
By age 24, Gleason was appearing in movies, first at Warner Brothers Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. is an American producer of film and television entertainment as Jackie C. Gleason in such films as Navy Blues (1941) with Ann Sheridan Born Clara Lou Sheridan in Denton, Texas, she was a college student when her sister sent a photograph of her to Paramount Pictures. She subsequently entered and won a beauty contest, with part of her prize being a bit part in a Paramount film. She abandoned college to pursue a career in Hollywood and Martha Raye and All Through the Night (1941) with Humphrey Bogart Humphrey DeForest Bogart was an American actor. He is widely regarded as a cultural icon. The American Film Institute ranked Bogart as the greatest male star in the history of American cinema; then at Columbia Pictures Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production and distribution company. Columbia Pictures now forms part of the Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group, owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment, a subsidiary of the Japanese conglomerate Sony. It is one of the leading film companies in the world, a member of the so-called Big Six. It for the B military comedy Tramp, Tramp, Tramp (1942); and finally, at Twentieth Century-Fox Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation , also known as 20th Century Fox, or simply 20th or Fox, is one of the six major American film studios as of 2010[update]. Located in the Century City area of Los Angeles, just west of Beverly Hills, the studio is a subsidiary of News Corporation, the media conglomerate owned by Rupert Murdoch, where Gleason played the Glenn Miller Alton Glenn Miller was an American jazz musician, arranger, composer, and bandleader in the swing era. He was one of the best-selling recording artists from 1939 to 1943, leading one of the best known "Big bands". Miller's signature recordings include In the Mood, American Patrol, Chattanooga Choo Choo, Tuxedo Junction, Moonlight band's bassist in Orchestra Wives (1942). Gleason also had a small part as the soda shop clerk in Larceny, Inc. (1942) with Edward G. Robinson Edward G. Robinson was an American actor born in Romania. Although he has played a wide range of characters, he is best remembered for his roles as a gangster, most notably in his star-making film Little Caesar.
Gleason, however, did not make a strong impression in Hollywood at first. At the same time, he developed a nightclub act that included both comedy and music. He also became somewhat known for hosting all-night parties at his hotel suite. "Anyone who knew Jackie Gleason in the 1940s," wrote CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major American television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of the company's logo. It has also been called the " 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." Gleason's first recognition as a significant entertainer finally came on Broadway Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 large professional theatres with 500 seats or more located in the Theatre District, New York in Manhattan, New York City. Along with London's West End theatre, Broadway theatre is usually considered to represent the highest level of, when he appeared in the hit musical Follow the Girls (1944).
Entering television
Gleason's big break arrived in 1949, when he landed the role of blunt but softhearted aircraft worker Chester A. Riley for the first television version of the radio hit The Life of Riley. (William Bendix originated the role on radio, but was unable to take the television role at first because of film commitments.) The show received modest ratings but positive reviews; however, Gleason left the show, claiming he could do better things. The Life of Riley became a television hit in the early 1950s. By that time, however, Gleason was long gone from the show, and his nightclub act had begun receiving attention from New York City's inner circle and the small DuMont Television Network The DuMont Television Network, also known as the DuMont Network, DuMont, Du Mont, or Dumont[a] was one of the world's pioneer commercial television networks, rivalling NBC for the distinction of being first overall. It began operation in the United States in 1946. It was owned by DuMont Laboratories, a television equipment and set manufacturer.
DuMont career
Gleason was hired to host DuMont's Cavalcade of Stars variety hour in 1950. He framed the show with splashy dance numbers, developed sketch characters he would refine over the next decade, and became enough of a presence that CBS wooed and won him over to its network in 1952.
Renamed The Jackie Gleason Show, it became the country's second-highest-rated television show during the 1954–1955 season.[4] Gleason amplified the show with even splashier opening dance numbers, inspired by Busby Berkeley screen dance routines and featuring the precision-choreographed Choreography is the art of designing sequences of movements in which motion, form, or both are specified. Choreography may also refer to the design itself, which is sometimes expressed by means of dance notation. The word choreography literally means "dance-writing" from the Greek words "χορεία" and "γραφή" 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 Dixieland music, sometimes referred to as Hot jazz, Early Jazz or New Orleans jazz, is a style of jazz music which developed in New Orleans at the start of the 20th century, and was spread to Chicago and New York City by New Orleans bands in the 1910s. Dixieland jazz combined brass band marches, French Quadrilles, ragtime and blues with collective, classic from 1914), he would shuffle toward the wing, clapping his hands inversely and hollering, "And awaaay we go!" The phrase became one of his trademarks along with "How Sweet It Is!", used in reaction to almost anything at all.[4] Theona Bryant, a former Powers Model, became Gleason's "And awaaay we go," girl logo. Ray Bloch was Gleason's first music director, followed by Sammy Spear, who stayed with Gleason through the 1960s; Gleason often kidded both men during his opening monologues.
Gleason continued developing comic characters, including the following:
- Reginald Van Gleason III, the top-hatted millionaire with a taste for both the good life and the wild invention or fantasy.
- Boisterous, boorish Rudy the Repairman.
- Gregarious Joe the Bartender, with friendly words for the never-seen Mr. Dennehy, who always entered his bar first.
- The Poor Soul, a silent character who could and often did come to grief in the least-expected places or show sweet gratitude at things no more complicated than being allowed to share a newspaper on a subway.
- Rum Dum a character with a brush-like mustache who often stumbled around as if he were drunk and confused.
- Fenwick Babbitt, a friendly but addle-headed young man usually depicted working (and invariably failing) at various jobs.
- Loudmouth Charlie Bratton, a boor who frequently picked on the mild-mannered Clem Finch (portrayed by Art Carney Arthur William Matthew “Art” Carney was an American actor in film, stage, television and radio. Carney portrayed the upstairs neighbor and sewer worker Ed Norton, opposite Jackie Gleason's Ralph Kramden in the situation comedy The Honeymooners).
- The Bachelor
The Honeymooners
By far, Gleason's most popular character was the blustery bus driver Ralph Kramden. Possibly inspired by another radio hit, The Bickersons, and largely drawn from Gleason's harsh Brooklyn childhood, these sketches became known as The Honeymooners and customarily centered on Ralph's incessant get-rich-quick schemes, the tensions between his ambitiousness and his friend Norton's scatterbrained aid and comfort, and the inevitable clash when his sensible wife Alice tried pulling her husband's head back down from the clouds.
The Honeymooners first appeared on Cavalcade of Stars on October 5, 1951, with Carney as Norton and the character actress Pert Kelton as Alice. Darker and fiercer than they later became with Audrey Meadows as Alice, the sketches proved popular with critics and viewers. As Kramden, Gleason played a frustrated bus driver with a battle-ax wife in harrowingly realistic arguments; when Meadows (who was 15 years younger than Kelton) took over the role after Kelton was blacklisted The Hollywood blacklist—more precisely the entertainment industry blacklist, into which it expanded—was the mid-twentieth-century list of screenwriters, actors, directors, musicians, and other U.S. entertainment professionals who were denied employment in the field because of their political beliefs or associations, real or suspected. Artists, the tone softened considerably. In fact, early sketches come as something of a shock to some modern critics.
When Gleason moved to CBS, Kelton was not part of the move, since her name had turned up in Red Channels, the book that listed and described reputed Communists and/or Communist sympathizers in television and radio. Gleason reluctantly let her leave the cast, with a cover story for the media that she had "heart trouble". He also turned down Meadows as Kelton's replacement, at least at first. Meadows wrote in her memoir that she slipped back to audition again and frumped herself up to convince Gleason that she could handle the role of a frustrated but loving working-class wife. Rounding out the cast with an understated but effective role, Joyce Randolph played Trixie Norton. Elaine Stritch Elaine Stritch is an American actress and vocalist, best known for her performance of "The Ladies Who Lunch" in Stephen Sondheim's 1970 musical Company, her 2001 one-woman show Elaine Stritch at Liberty, and most recently for her role as Jack Donaghy's mother Colleen on NBC's 30 Rock had played the role as a tall and attractive blonde in the first sketch, but she was quickly replaced by Randolph.
The Honeymooners sketches proved popular enough that Gleason gambled on making it a separate series entirely The Honeymooners is a situation comedy television show that was created by Marvin Marx, and shot before a live audience which debuted as a half-hour series on October 1, 1955. Although initially a ratings success — it was the #2 show in the United States its first season — it faced stiff competition from the Perry Como Show, the show in 1955. These are the so-called Classic 39 episodes, which finished 19th in the ratings for their only season.[4] However, they were filmed with a new DuMont process, Electronicam Electronicam was a television recording system that shot an image on film and television at the same time through a common lens. It was developed by James L. Caddigan for the DuMont Television Network in the 1950s, before electronic recording on videotape was available. Since the film directly captured the live scene, its quality was much higher, which allowed live television to be preserved on high-quality film. That turned out to be the most prescient move the show made, since — a decade after they first aired — the half-hour Honeymooners in syndicated reruns started to build a loyal and growing audience that made the show a television icon A pop icon is a celebrity, character, or object whose fame in pop culture constitutes a defining characteristic of a given society or era. Although there is no single definitive test for establishing "pop icon" status, such status is usually associated with elements such as longevity, ubiquity, and distinction. Moreover, "pop icon&. Its popularity was such that even today, a life-size statue of Jackie Gleason, in full uniform as bus driver Ralph Kramden, stands outside the Port Authority Bus Terminal in New York City.
Brendan Behan Brendan Francis Behan (9 February 1923 – 20 March 1964) was an Irish poet, short story writer, novelist, and playwright who wrote in both Irish and English. He was also an Irish republican and a volunteer in the Irish Republican Army with Jackie Gleason, in Gleason's dressing room after a performance of Take Me Along (1960).Musical work
Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, Gleason enjoyed a secondary music career, lending his name to a series of best-selling "mood music" albums with jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States from a confluence of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th century American popular music. Its West African pedigree overtones for Capitol Records Capitol Records is a major United States-based record label, formerly located in Los Angeles, but currently operating in New York City as part of Capitol Music Group. Its former headquarters building, the Capitol Tower, is a major landmark near the corner of Hollywood and Vine. It is a wholly-owned subsidiary of EMI. Gleason felt there was a ready market for romantic instrumentals. He recalled seeing Clark Gable William Clark Gable was an American film actor, nicknamed "The King of Hollywood" in his heyday. In 1999, the American Film Institute named Gable seventh among the greatest male stars of all time play love scenes in movies, and the romance was, in his words, "magnified a thousand percent" by background music. Gleason reasoned, "If Gable needs music, a guy in Brooklyn must be desperate!"
Gleason's first album, Music for Lovers Only still holds the record for the album staying the longest in the Billboard Top Ten Charts (153 weeks), and his first ten albums all sold over one million copies.[5]
Gleason could not read or write music in a conventional sense; he was said to have conceived melodies in his head and described them vocally to assistants. These included the well-remembered themes of both The Jackie Gleason Show ("Melancholy Serenade") and The Honeymooners ("You're My Greatest Love"). There has been some controversy over the years as to how much credit Gleason should have received for the finished products; Gleason biographer William A. Henry III wrote in his 1992 book The Great One: The Life and Legend of Jackie Gleason that beyond the possible conceptualizing of many of the songs, Gleason had no direct involvement (such as conducting) in the making of these recordings. Red Nichols Ernest Loring "Red" Nichols was an American jazz cornettist, composer, and jazz bandleader, a jazz great who had fallen on hard times and led one of the groups recorded, did not even get session-leader pay from Gleason. Nearly all of Gleason's albums are still available, and have been re-released by Capitol Records onto compact disc.
He also took the role of a lead performer in the musical Take Me Along, which ran from 1959 to 1960; he won a Tony Award The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Theatre, more commonly known as a Tony Award, recognizes achievement in live American theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ceremony in New York City. The awards are for Broadway productions and performances, and an award is given for for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical.
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Q. My dad insists he remembers seeing it live on TV, yet I think he would've been too young to remember. But in searching online for info about this, I can't find anything except people saying that he once broke a leg on live TV. Any hard info on this event? Any video remaining of it happening?
Asked by Jonny_eh - Thu Jul 23 16:27:28 2009 - - 1 Answers - 0 Comments
A. 1978
Answered by LoveMaker L - Thu Jul 23 16:31:00 2009
