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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!

Note that this autographed item is part of a remarkable collection. In each of our last several all-signed auctions, we auctioned hundreds of items from this collection and now we are auctioning many more signed photos and miscellaneous other signed items (plus many signed index cards that have a different note on those)!
     In the 1970s, our consignor was a teacher who taught a film class, and he also part-time ran the local movie theater (and he saved all the presskits from the movies the theater showed).
     Starting in the late 1970s through the late 1980s, he wrote to famous celebrities, and enclosed an 8x10 still or repro (or sometimes another item) from his collection, and he wrote a literate personalized letter, talking about his work as a film teacher, and discussing his favorite movie by that star.
     He received signed photos back from a good percentage of the people he wrote to, and if the people simply sent him a stock photo back, he did not save it, but if he felt the autograph was genuine, and if they added a personalized note, then he did save them.
     In the late 1980s, he pretty much stopped sending letters and photos, simply because he was just too busy. So this item (and the vast majority of the other photos and other items we are auctioning for this consignor) were obtained in the late 1970s or 1980s, through personal correspondence with this star. This is of course excellent, because back at that time celebrities were not selling their signatures nearly as much, and many of the stars were pretty forgotten and were happy to get letters from people like our consignor!
     He of course does not have any "Certificates of Authenticity", but he only kept ones he felt were surely authentic, and those are the ones we are auctioning. However, bidders can certainly compare the signatures to known examples on the internet to judge for themselves.

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 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.

Our address for UPS or FedEx only is:
Bruce Hershenson,
306 Washington Avenue, West Plains, MO 65775