When Jackie Gleason--born Herbert John

Gleason on February 26, 1916--first took the

BMT to Times Square from his native Brook-

lyn, he was nineteen years old, he was without

a family, and he had thirty-one cents to this

: name. An older brother had died when Jackie

was three; his father had disapped when

Jackie was nine; and now, his mother had

just died. But Gleason had made it to Broad-

way, and that was all that really mattered. He

looked up at the names on the marquees--Bob

Hope, Milton Berle, Henny Youngman--and

knew that he had found his home.

And indeed, he had. Afteronly a few short

years--in which the young comic played

"joints" all over New Jersey and Pennsylvania

(with fellow unknown Frank Sinatra) and

learned that he was funnier drunk than

sober--Jackie Gleason ad-libbed his way to

the legendary Club 18 on 52nd Street in New

York, where, unknowingly, he insulted Hol-

lywood mogul Jack Warner.

The accident landed Jackie a movie con-

tract, and, by the age of twenty-five, he was

playing against Humphrey Bogart, Edward

G. Robinson, and Betty Grable, and drinking

with Jack Oakie, Jack Haley, and Martha

Raye. But it wasn t until he made it onto

television that Gleason was truly in his ele-

ment. An appearance on "The Ed Sullivan

Show" landed him the lead in "The Life of

Riley" and a two-week appearance--which

became two years--on the Du mont network s

"Cavalcade of Stars," in which the world was

introduced to Reggie Van Gleason IlI, The

Poor Soul, and Joe the Bartender. Jackie had

become the undisputed king of American TV,

and in 1952, CBS-TV paid Jackie an unpre-

cedented $11 million for his show. The Great

One moved into high gear,taking over the bar

at Toots Shot s and carrying on with such

cronies as Bing Crosby, Humphrey Bogart,

Frank Sinatra, the Dorsey Brothers,Mickey

Mantle, Billy Martin, and Joe DiMaggio (to

whom he once hit pop flies in Central Park at

midnight).