To The Moon, Alice!

Alice Kramden was famously unimpressed when her husband Ralph regularly threatened to send her to the moon. The hugely successful and iconic series ‘The Honeymooners’ starred Jackie Gleason as the frustrated bus driver Ralph and Audrey Meadows (as sensible housewife Alice. It was just one part of the hugely successful career of Jackie Gleason. In fact, the series was so enduring and popular (though perhaps a little shocking by today’s standards) that in 2000, a life-size statue of Jackie Gleason, in uniform as bus driver Ralph Kramden, was installed outside the Port Authority Bus Terminal in New York City.

By the time Gleason was age of 71, he had established an entertainment legacy that included one of the most financially lucrative shows in history (The Honeymooners), a list of memorable films like The Hustler’ with Paul Newman and Smokey and the Bandit with Burt Reynolds, as well as, a collection of romantic music LPs, the first of which, ‘For Lovers Only,’ sold over half a million copies.

The larger than life star, who had entertained audiences for more than half a century, was a self-made man who propelled himself beyond the limitations of his background. A high-school dropout, Gleason was born on February 26, 1916, to a poor Irish-Catholic immigrant family from Brooklyn, New York. Originally named Herbert John Gleason, his childhood, and adolescence were scarred by hardship. Gleason’s father abandoned him when he was only 8 years old, five years after the death of his only sibling from tuberculosis. 8 years after that, he would find himself completely alone at age 16, after the death of his mother.

Initially involved with a street gang called ‘The Nomads’, Gleason was well- known for his acerbic tongue, fashion sense and pool table smarts. He resolved to make a career out of his understated talent for wordplay. He used the streets to develop a comedic style and create a slew of characters that eventually won him first prize in a neighborhood talent contest for an original comedy routine. He headed in the direction that this early achievement pointed, becoming a club emcee before landing his first job in broadcasting, working as a part-time disc jockey on Newark radio.

His ability to turn life’s lemons into lemonade became a notable part of Gleason’s biography. Although the pathway to fame was far from smooth, he had learned how to hustle on the streets of New York. He saw failure from two different perspectives. When for instance, he was hired to host a TV game show that was cancelled after only one episode, Gleason apologized on air, and landed himself what was to become the precursor to the Honeymooners – ‘The Jackie Gleason’ show. Later, when he couldn’t sell his music album to a major company, he paid Capitol to publish it, and of course, the sales did nothing but prove his instincts right.

What’s your favorite Jackie Gleason memory?