Just a repost of an old Medium post I came across last night.
(BW photo is from a short distance away from the color one in the Medium article and dates from earlier in 2014…I think March – cold, early spring).
Pert Kelton – the original Alice Kramden – and Jackie Gleason. Gleason is guest starring as his character “The Poor Soul” on a Honeymooners sketch on Cavalcade Of Stars on the Dumont network in 1951. In two more episodes, Pert would be ejected from the sketches because she was blacklisted as a Communist or something from the politically-correct HUAC.
Now I LOVE Audrey Meadows but Pert was the original, a bit more sandpaper to Audrey’s rose with thorns…and Gleason had a range that we in so so many years later would tend to forget…Joe The Bartender, Reginald Van Gleason, Fenwick Babbitt and many more, making guest appearances on this Christmas special along with contemporary famous people like Jane Pickens (who sings beautifully I might add…).
Don’t steam me Alice, because I’m steamed!
Jimmy Lem - Blister Pop Unlimited 