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Jackie Gleason was born Herbert John Gleason in the Bushwick section of Brooklyn in New York City in 1916. His father left his family when he was a boy, and his mother died when he was a teenager. He grew up very poor, and worked at all sorts of odd jobs after dropping out of school. He had some bit parts in movies in the early 1940s, but had little success, and started a night club act. In 1949, it LOOKED like he got his big break when he was cast as the lead in the TV version of The Life of Riley (because William Bendix was too busy with his movie career). But Gleason bombed out, and only 12 shows aired before it was cancelled, surprising, because it had been a huge radio hit (and in 1953 Bendix was finally free to star, and the show ran for 6 years!). In 1950, Gleason got another shot at his own TV show, and this was Cavalcade of Stars, a variety show for the fledgling DuMont network, and it was successful enough that CBS hired him away in 1952 (and re-named the show). This show had production numbers and skits with Gleason's memorable characters, including Reginald Van Gleason III, Joe the Bartender, and of course, Ralph Kramden, among others. If you don't know who Ralph Kramden is, go out and rent some of the Honeymooners episodes and watch the funniest TV show ever created! If you do know, I don't need to explain about that show. The Jackie Gleason show continued on TV until 1957, and Gleason brought back the show and The Honeymooners in various forms in the 1960s and 1970s. In those years he also appeared in a number movies, some excellent, and some not so good. To my mind, his two best performances were as Minnesota Fats in Robert Rossen's The Hustler (nominated for the Best Supporting Actor Academy Award for this film) in 1961, and as Master Sergeant Maxwell Slaughter in Blake Edwards' Soldier in the Rain in 1963. Gleason had a major hit in 1977's comedy Smokey and the Bandit, where he played Sheriff Buford T. Justice. He continued acting until 1986, the year before he passed away at the age of 71.

Important Added Info: Note that this still has been personally autographed (signed) by Jackie Gleason!

This autographed item was obtained from the estate of a consignor, who recently passed away. He started collecting mostly lobby cards and stills in the late 1960s, and he hit on the idea that he could get a lot of them signed, because he knew that many of the stars were still alive, but that many of them lived in the Motion Picture Home run by the Academy, and he visited there many times, becoming friendly with a number of the stars there. He also was able to meet other older stars, and acquired most of his signatures in person, although a few were acquired through the mail. He went out of his way to obtain signed items from his favorite films and stars, which included It's a Wonderful Life and Harvey (because he became friends with Jimmy Stewart). He was also friends with Moe Howard and Larry Fine, and he obtained many signatures on items from their films, which he loved, and he also was friends with Margaret Hamilton, Ray Bolger, Jack Haley, and most of the Munchkins, because he especially loved The Wizard of Oz! His family does not have certificates of authenticity for any of his items, but they do have multiple pictures of him with the stars who signed for him, and we are 100% certain that the items we are auctioning from his collection were personally signed by the stars!

As is true of all the signed items we are currently auctioning, we give every buyer 30 days in which to review what they purchased (although we prefer they do any "authenticating" while the auction is "live" and before they place a bid) and they can return any item as long as it is within 30 days of the end of the auction. On non-signed items, we give a "lifetime guarantee" on everything we auction, but on signed items, we give the above modified guarantee of 30 days after the auction closes.

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