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September 20, 1952…”The Jackie Gleason Show” Debuts On CBS

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Eyes Of A Generation.com

September 20, 1952…”The Jackie Gleason Show” Debuts On CBS

In July of 1950, Jackie Gleason took over as host of Dumont’s “Cavalcade Of Stars”. The original hosts had been Jack Carter, then Jerry Lester, who was followed by Morey Amsterdam.

By the middle of ’51, Gleason and his writing staff developed an idea for a sketch based on the popular radio show “The Bickersons”. After rejecting titles like “The Beast”, “The Lovers”, and “The Couple Next Door”, Gleason and his staff settled on “The Honeymooners” for the name of the new sketch.

The debut sketch on October 5, 1951 was six-minutes and the only two characters were Ralph Kramden and his wife, Alice, who was originally played by Pert Kelton, who in real life was nine years older than Gleason.

Due in part to the success of these sketches, “Cavalcade of Stars” became a huge success for DuMont, as the audience size quadrupled. Gleason’s contract with DuMont expired in the summer of 1952, and the financially struggling network was unable to re-sign him.

On September 20, 1952, “The Jackie Gleason Show” debuted from CBS Studio 50, or what is now known as The Ed Sullivan Theater. Although CBS was very generous with Gleason, they could not accommodate his wishes to bring Pert along to the new show.

Kelton’s husband had been labeled a communist and, by association, she too had wound up on the dreaded “Black List”. A new Alice had to be found, and Audrey Meadows went for an audition. Gleason had seen her as “Linda Lovely”, on “The Bob And Ray” show, and thought she was good, but too glamorous. Meadows heard about this and a few days later auditioned again under another name but this time, with no makeup and a dressed down look. The rest, as they say, is history.

Below is Meadows as Linda Lovely in 1950, and up top, we see Gleason in rehearsal of the opening with The June Taylor Dancers. The cameraman in the foreground is the legendary Pat McBride.

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12 responses to “September 20, 1952…”The Jackie Gleason Show” Debuts On CBS”

  1. Ben Okuly

    Wonderful picture! There are some, but not many, “behind the scenes” pictures of Gleason and his shows. Maybe because rehearsals were so short and scarce? Regardless, as someone else said in the comments, there is so much non-Honeymooners material that it would be nice to see a release of all of this instead of letting it sit in the vaults and collect dust.

  2. Al Streit

    Dumont was the first TV network, but didn’t have the resources that radio revenue brought to NBC, CBS and even Blue Network/ABC. Gleason typified the Dumont talent: hired and made a star by Dumont, then left for CBS because they paid a lot more. Dumont never expanded its network beyond the northeast, and threw in the towel in 1956.

  3. Art Finkelstein

    Went to the Gleason show many times. Also saw Cavalcade of Stars at the Adelphi Theatre, where Gleason returned to shoot The Honeymooners on the then new Dumont Electronicam Camera System.

  4. Richard Warner

    DuMont used the freed-up Gleason money to hire their next big star, Joseph Schildkraut. Pat Weaver tried to get Gleason for NBC, but David Sarnoff said no. “He wants more than I make!” Weaver replied, “But, General, you can’t do the falls.”

  5. Don Newbury

    It used to tick me off when they said Pert Kelton had to leave because of ‘heart trouble’ when it was the stinkin’ black list all along.

  6. Robert Barker

    I did see a complete Gleason from around this time, one on Dumont, and one on CBS, at the Paley Museum in L.A. The one on CBS was startling because it wasn’t much different from the ones I saw as a kid in the 60s. (Which I thought had moments, but were generally predictable.) The CBS one from the early 50s had a little more zip to it as Gleason was younger. I have not been unable to find much on Gleason’s variety shows on You Tube. There has to hundreds and hundreds of hours available, but it appears that none of it is for the public. You’d think with all these nostalgia channels we’d be able to see the fat man sip his drink and say, “How sweet it is” once again.

  7. Samuel Nottingham

    I grew up in the New York area, and DuMont was big in the early 50s on channel 5. Today, most people do not recognize the name. DuMont was a big name in the 50s that not only broadcast, but also manufactured a line of TV sets.

  8. Kent Ayers

    I wonder if Pat McBride was framing his shot off of a monitor since the camera was up so high? Also, another nice viewfinder shade.

  9. Paul Benjamin Mills

    I loved the Jackie Gleason Show as kid. It gave us a lot of catch phrases.

  10. Jim Tolson

    That’s when “under god” popped up as a shibboleth.

  11. Tom Williamson

    I remember how serious the Black List was. I was in grade school at the time, but I heard about it all the time.

  12. Steven B Hammel

    Fascinating. I never knew the reason Pert Kelton was replaced as Alice.

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