The CBS Movie Gleason vs. the Real Gleason
Gleason: The Jackie Gleason Story (2002)
Brad Garrett as Jackie Gleason
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Cast:
Brad Garrett .... Jackie Gleason
Gretchen Egolf .... Genevieve Halford
Terry Farrell .... Marilyn Gleason
Michael Chieffo .... Art Carney
Paula Jean Hixson .... Mae Gleason
Directed by Howard Deutch
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Things that the film portrayed erroneously:
Gleason’s age (and how far along he was in his career) when his mother died was incorrect in the movie. He was only 19 when his mother really died, and he had certainly not met his future wife, Genevieve Halford, at that time.
Also, the way they showed Jackie finding his mother dead was purely fictional.
The scene in which he broke his leg was incorrectly portrayed, though it is true that he did break his leg in a fall while performing on his show.
There is not any indication that Jackie ever received any pictures (or anything of any sort) from his father in his later years. After Gleason had achieved television stardom, J. Edgar Hoover instigated an FBI search of what happened to Herb Gleason. What they turned up was an already dead Connecticut man, who could possibly have been Gleason’s father, Herb.
Gleason’s early career in Hollywood was fallaciously portrayed. He was not fired from the movie Navy Blues. Indeed, the film was beneficial to him by introducing him to contacts and friends. After Navy Blues, he went on to make 5 more films for Warner Bro. or while being loaned out to other studios. Most of these roles, however, were small, and they did not by any means make him a star.
Also misrepresented is the way the movie shows Audrey Meadows getting the part of Alice on The Honeymooners after Pert Kelton, the original Alice was unable to continue in the role (either because of sickness or accusations against her of being a Communist sympathizer). The way Audrey Meadows described the event was, however, similar. Instead of returning to do another audition for “The Great One” as shown in the movie, she made herself up as a dowdy housewife and had herself photographed in various poses. She then sent these pictures to Gleason, who hired her. This story was for a long while discounted as probably having been made-up, however, to refute these charges, in her autobiography, Love, Alice: My Life as a Honeymooner, Meadows included copies of the actual photographs that she had sent to Gleason, lending much credence to her version of the facts.
The Honeymooners clips included in the movie were not totally accurate either, and also the theme music for the show was changed.
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Some things the film portrayed that were correct:
Jackie’s love of pool was indicated in the film. He spent much of his youth in the local pool hall in his neighborhood in Brooklyn, and in his later years he made sure always to have a pool table nearby.
Also as the movie shows, he would often treat his writers with harshness (he always resented writers and would often complain greatly about them and their work).
Also correctly portrayed was the insulting nature of the jokes Gleason delivered in his nightclub act at Club Miami, a club that was renowned for this type of humor long before Gleason appeared there. As legend has it, Gleason did get his job at Warner Bros. by insulting Jack Warner during one of his acts.
His wife’s religious convictions that led her to refuse him a divorce were also properly indicated in the movie. (Because of this refusal, he was not able to get a divorce until 1970 after many years of trying to get one.)
Indeed, as the film shows, after he broke his leg, his wife did visit him in the hospital only to find him there with his future wife, Marilyn Taylor, and she did make a scene.
Jackie, as were both his parents, was a heavy drinker (though the film shows him almost always drinking alone, in reality he usually liked to drink with others, often even engaging in drinking contests with friends.)
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Some things the film left out:
Gleason’s monetary generosity to friends and gifts to charity are absent in the movie.
Also absent is any mention of his love of reading and his self-taught learning and, especially, his fascination with studying paranormal psychology and happenings. (He owned hundreds of books and could even tell when any of them were out of place in his library.)
It also does not mention the continuance of Honeymooners sketches on the Jackie Gleason Show after the "Classic 39." Indeed, the film seems to indicate after the one season of The Honeymooners (1955-56), there were no more Honeymooners episodes. Yet all the Honeymooners sketches from the next season (1956-57) of The Jackie Gleason Show have been syndicated along with all the rest of the earlier Honeymooners episodes. In addition, the Honeymooners came back to life in the 1960s with a new Alice and Trixie, and there were Honeymooners specials in the 70s with the old Alice (Audrey Meadows) and an even newer Trixie (Jane Kean).
His religious convictions elude mention in the film. He was a believing Catholic, yet he did not live a very holy life. He was well aware of this contradiction between his beliefs and actions, and he was often bothered greatly by this. Occasionally, he tried to reform, but he always slipped back into his usual lifestyle. One time, for example, a long discussion with a priest led him to attempt a reconciliation with his wife, but they eventually drifted apart again.
Also absent in the movie is Jackie’s later film career in which he was quite successful (he received an Academy Award nomination for his part of “Minnesota Fats” in The Hustler with Paul Newman). His most prominent films include among others, besides The Hustler, Smokey and the Bandit, Gigot, Requiem for a Heavyweight, and Nothing in Common (with Tom Hanks, his last film).
His music career was also not portrayed even though he was engaging in it at the time of The Honeymooners run. All in all, he released 18 records, several of them hits.
Also, without mention in the movie was Jackie’s stage career, besides the Broadway play Along Fifth Avenue, which was portrayed. In the 60s, he won a Tony award for his portray of Uncle Sid in the musical Take Me Along, an adaptation of Eugene O’Neill’s play Ah, Wilderness.
His last two marriages are not portrayed, though the last one is mentioned by Gleason in the film’s ending segment.
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If you would like to learn more about the real life Jackie Gleason, there have been four biographies devoted to him:
The Golden Ham by Jim Bishop
How Sweet It Is: The Jackie Gleason Story by James Bacon
Jackie Gleason: An Intimate Portrait of The Great One by W.J. Wetherby
The Great One: The Life and Legend of Jackie Gleason by William A Henry III
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All of these books are out-of-print, but you can almost always find at least a couple of them, as well as Audrey Meadow's autobiography and books on The Honeymooners and Art Carney, on eBay, along with numerous magazines with cover stories on Gleason (plus memorabilia, photos, videos, recordings, and more). Search here:
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