In response to the emails and comments, here’s more of the REAL “The Great One,” Jackie Gleason. In yesterday’s post (chain linked below this post) we offered you Gleason as Reginald Van Gleason III, the rich playboy.
Below you’ll find another one of his incredible talents: his mastery of pantomime. In this clip from his 1963 “American Scene Magazine” show on CBS, Gleason portrays the drunk character Rum Dum. Not one word of dialog. NOTE:
–Gleason’s priceless facial expressions.
–The way he uses body language to convey the character.
–What appears to be an apparent slip, where his spaghetti falls off the plate and how he handles it (and audience reaction).
–The bald man seen for a few seconds before this skit and at the end. It is Sidney Fields, who wrote and appeared in many of the classic Abbott and Costello TV shows as landlord Mr. Fields. This show was shot in New York City. Gleason later moved his entire production to Miami Beach, Florida (Fields did not follow him in the move).
–The show had an ostensible director, but the REAL director who called all the production and comedic direction shots was Gleason.
–Gleason hated to rehearse and felt it ruined comedy’s spontaneity so what you saw was the result of few (or sometimes no) run throughs.
–The background music was written by Gleason.
Pantomime is a lost art in television comedy (Mr. Bean was an excellent series). Savor this brief example of Gleason making it glow. NOTE: A REAL compilation of Gleason’s comedy work has yet to appear on the market.
Once again: if you’re an older reader, this will be nostalgia. If you’re a younger reader or interested in comedy it is something to watch and study.
You can buy Gleason biographies here.
You can buy Gleason DVDs here.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.