Halsman Archive File 05 -Jackie Gleason 1950

We see Jackie Gleason, in one frame of a 1955 contact sheet, gracefully levitating for one of Halsman’s iconic jump shots. At the time of the shoot Gleason’s TV show “The Honeymooners” was at the pinnacle of its popularity, but it wasn’t an easy journey to get there. At age 19 his mother died, and with 36 cents to his name, he dove head first into the NY nightlife as a master of ceremonies and stand up comic. His quick wit was recognized and led to a movie contract. Over the years he appeared in minor roles, but his bread and butter was being a touring comic and the host of traveling variety stage shows. As a teen he had worked in pool halls and as a carnival barker, which gave him inspiration for creating a variety of characters for the stage. One of these characters was Ralph Kramden, a Brooklyn bus driver full of get rich quick schemes, a short fuse, a devoted no BS wife, and bad luck. What started as a six minute sketch comedy routine in the variety show, eventually became so popular with live audiences that it became its own 30 minute show on CBS. It was unique at the time to have a show based on a blue-collar worker. The characters became so iconic that the Flinstones cartoon was inspired by the four main characters decades later. Gleason, who never rehearsed before the live filming of the episodes in-front of an audience of 1000, would often improve lines. Some of his popular refrains were “To the moon Alice”, and “How sweet it is,” which appears on the Welcome to Brooklyn sign on the Brooklyn bridge. The Honeymooners remained in the fabric of the cultural consciousness for the next few decades, and of the 3 shoots Halsman had with Gleason one resulted in a TV guide cover, and another as his 92nd LIFE cover. In the bottom frame of the contact sheet we can see Halsman and Gleason together looking at a magazine full of Halsman’s photos. After the Honeymoon popularity set, Gleason appeared in many Hollywood films (the most popular being “Smokey and the Bandit”), and composed popular mood music records. Two years before his death in 1987 he revealed he had kept recordings of the original 39 episodes of The Honeymooners in his vault. These eventually made it to late night TV, where they were discovered by a whole new generation of night owls.