Actor Jackie Gleason died on 24th June 1987. Raised by a single mother who worked at a subway token booth in New York, Gleason dropped out of high school and began performing on the vaudeville circuit in his teens. Signed to a movie contract by the time he was 24 years old, Gleason played character roles in a handful of movies in 1941 and 1942, but found much more success in television. He became one of TV's most popular stars in a number of shows, including The Jackie Gleason Show, which ran throughout most of the 1950s and '60s. On the show, he created the character of Ralph Kramden, a bus driver who became the beloved star of the spin-off television show The Honeymooners.


Jackie Gleason's start in television as told by head writer, Harry Crane; courtesy of ShowTime, 1988.







This was the opening for a Richard Nixon fundraising telethon, taken from the National Archives.

Labels: Family Guy, honeymooners, Jackie Gleeson, Nixon

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