Radio-TV mirror (Jan-June 1954)

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Clear, expressive eyes are fascinating. 2 drops of soothing EYE-GENE in each eye floats away that tired, strained, irritated look and feeling in seconds — dramatically lights upyour ^^sffSTSSBs^ whole expression! Safe EYE-GENE^^^*^ ^ is like a tonic for your eyes. Use it ( Go*l Hnutknaliif every day. 35c, 60c, $1 in handy Xj,u J^> eye-dropper bottles at Druggists. producer of the Gleason show: "There's a world of difference between funny acting and acting funny." And everyone who has anything to do with Jackie and the show says that, first and foremost, Jackie is an actor. Zamah Cunningham, who has been with him since his beginning TV days on Du Mont (she plays Reggie Van Gleason's mother and the other dignified dowagers to whom undignified things happen), says he is a truly great "sketch" comedian. Says Zamah, "His timing is superb. He is a joy to act with. He plays right to you and enables you to get the very most out of your own lines. You know there are comedians, and serious actors, too — who hog the stage, want all the laughs for themselves and will kill other performers' lines. But not Jackie. He only cares about the show itself. "And he's just as nice off stage, too. Hollywood called me once to play the part of Bob Hope's mother in a movie. I had a contract with Jackie and told them I couldn't do it. Well, they called back and made me promise to ask Jackie. So I called him and told him what it was about. Do you know what he said? He roared over the phone, 'Zamah, what are you waiting for? Pack your bag and get on a plane this very day.' 'But, Jackie,' I said, 'I don't want to lose out with you. My contract means •more to me than the Hope picture.' Jackie came right back with, 'Who said anything about losing out? You'll be back, won't you? And the contract will go on.' I can't say anything that will describe Jackie more clearly than that." Sometimes when a group of people who work together are referred to as a "big happy family" or a "team," it turns out that the top man is as mean as Scrooge, and all the other members of the "team" find it politic to be yes-men. But this isn't true in the Gleason organization. The enthusiasm of the people who work with Jackie is genuine and unstinted. They each have their own idea of him. They each see him a little differently, but the net result is the same. The consensus of the gang is that he's a grand guy to work with and for. Listen to Lee Reynolds, for instance — and who knows a man better than his secretary? Lee has been with Jackie for more than a year now and, young as she is, she had worked for and around show people for some time before that. But she says, in talking of her present job, "I wouldn't have believed that working could be this much fun. That anyone could be as kind, generous and considerate as Jackie. 'Seeing is believing' with me, and I have to respect the person I am working for because I give so much of my life to my job. And, believe me, he's a wonderful guy." This is an opinion shared by Art Carney, who has been with Jackie for some four years. He was with him on Du Mont, and he's the man who plays Ed Norton, "the man upstairs," Clem Finch, and Reggie Van Gleason Ill's father. Art is a comedian and an actor — and, when an actor goes all out in praise of the "top banana," it means something. According to Art, "Gleason is out in the open with everything. He's generous, too. He has his hand in everything. He has his own ideas about how things should be done. And the funny part of it is, he's almost always right. When he directs a sketch, if Jackie tells you to do it a certain way, it turns out that it's better that way. The guy is almost uncanny. If he says a thing can be done, it usually works out that way. And the wonderful thing about Gleason is that he doesn't have to be 'on' all the time — you know, like some guys who are acting all the time, on stage or off. He's an ambitious guy and, above all, a good actor. "That's possibly the key to Jackie," Art continues. "He really can act. He did a straight show, 'The Laugh Maker,' for Studio One and he was terrific. He makes up his mind fast, too, seems to know instantly what he wants — like the time I tried out for him at Du Mont. He listened a few minutes and that was that. I've been with him ever since." The sketch that draws the most mail is "The Honeymooners," in which Jackie and Audrey Meadows play the parts of Ralph and Alice Kramden. Ralph is a bus driver, and Alice is his slightly acid wife who understands and puts up with him. This sketch always ends with a note of sentiment. And it is loved not only for its human quality but for the catch phrase, "One of these da-a-ays, Alice, so help me — pow! Right in the kisser." Audrey, who has plaved Alice ever since the show moved to CBS-TV, thinks that every character in the Gleason galaxy is a little bit of himself. "There is," says pretty auburn-haired Audrey, "a bit of Jackie in the Poor Soul, in Reggie Van Gleason, in Ralph, in Rudy the repairman, and in the bartender. Jackie's life has been so varied, so colorful — and, at times, so hard. He has drawn on his experiences, his love and knowledge of people, to create these understandable and familiar characters. It was just the sort of thing that would happen to the Poor Soul when, some years ago, Jackie, appearing at the Miami Club in Newark, invited a heckler to step outside— and the heckler turned out to be prizefighter Tony Galento!" Reggie Van Gleason's exaggerated ideas of fun are typical, too. Jackie loves a party, he loves to play, he loves to have his friends around him. But he's too serious to be considered a playboy. His work means too much to him. It is given the right of way over everything else in his life. All of Jackie's characters have a common denominator: They show people trapped by little everyday things. The secret of Jackie's humor is that it is basic and completely honest. The two men on whose shoulders falls the giant task of putting together this hour-long comedy show, each week, are Jack Philbin, the executive producer, and Jack Hurdle, the assistant producer. Both have known Gleason a long while. And Philbin, tall, lean and sardonic looking, was formerly one of Gleason's two managers. He heads the production meeting at the beginning of each week, in which the heads of the various departments participate— June Taylor, who does the dance routines for the show, the scenery designer, the costume designer, the director. There, ideas are discussed, approved or rejected. Estimates of costs are studied. Then Jack Hurdle, a big, hearty, square-faced man, takes over details of construction of the scenery and the props. The script is, of course, the key to everything, and that has to be approved by Gleason. He looks over the ideas for the scenery and costumes, too. And, according to Philbin, if he doesn't like one of the costumes, Jackie takes a pencil and draws a new design for one. For Jackie is a versatile guy, as has been pointed out, and there is nothing connected with his show that he can't have a hand in. He knows the technicalities of lighting, too. And Jack Philbin claims that he has been known to do "the impossible" with the lights — things, at least, that experienced electricians told him could not be done. Apparently, Jackie took to heart that schoolbook maxim, "there is no such word as can't," for that is the way be operates. Jackie, according to his producers and his manager, Bullets Dorgum, has integrity. He won't permit "gimmicks" in his show. There are, for instance, no closeups of