Show I p L ffiRSTEP IT f 0M:M26 IfIf la fratUya 193S-71tw-v HATEVER YOUR NAME IS V ' r i : ' " Vf no matter how many times he has been told to Jackie Glea- son you will always be a“pal" “Yes pal" “No pal" “You’re right pal" That is how a conversation with Gleason goes 1 fust saw him a generation ago riding a silly float in the Macy’s parade on Thanksgiving a raw New York morning the great man risking frostbite Then recently when he announced a batch of relatively unseen episodes of The Honexmooners that would be released to television I had a second chance to interview him in The “2 1 " Club in Manhattan I was “pal" then I am “pal" now He is a large sleek man but trim at the same time who moves despite his size with a dancer's grace He was wearing a splendidly hued pearl-gra- y suit a very large flower in his lapel and an angry razor cut on his cheek where he had cut himself shaving 1 have interviewed a number of Presidents one king and Bo Derek Only Gleason ever intimidated me I think it is because Americans my age grew up with him in our living rooms He was always on the tube: Ralph Kramden the Poor Soul Reggie Van Gleason Joe the Bartender Meeting him face to face is a cultural shock as if you went into church Saturday afternoon to confess your sins and the Pope was sitting there ready to hear them Gleason is simply larger than life Perhaps Alice could handle him he is too much for the rest of us We think of him as Ralph Kramden the bumbling posturing bus driver He is also a brilliant character actor (remember him as Minnesota Fats playing opposite Paul Newman and George C Scott in The Hustler and more than holding his own?) He is a composer with some 20 successful albums 1 of dreamy mood music to his credit And when I mentioned Gleason to ' an old CBS pal recently our mutual friend said “The man's a genius He can do anything Years ago he designed an absolutely haitt full-belli- ed McKMtrick If 71-7- 4 Mariya Tqriar face If 75 Made toiy towi 1541 FILMS: 71 Motor 1X1 fife IK a 1X2 Satofer to tot to 1X3 St hi tort MW tt NMxlKf towflt If 77 ftp 1X2 The The Sttv41X3 v 4 V ' -7 - ftefiMtlf44 htolbAtov 1X0 (Taay tonwdlj TV:7teIrf Kttey 1949-5- 0 Cantos affitore& '’ c course like the one where they hold the Tournament Players' Championship down in Florida Years ahead of its time CBS wouldn't put up vf 'ftv — 1 revolutionary golf C s o -t- Ms wetkyhh new film “Nothing in Common' wittbe released with Jackie and Eva Marie Saint playingparents whose marriage is failing and Tom Hanks as their son i -- aliiaiiiila-j iWisi'- - the money and it was never built" But we remember him for giving us superbly comic television I asked him where those characters came from Kramden and Ed Norton “Pal” he said “I knew guys just like that in Brooklyn" He said some of his old neighborhood friends occasionally see themselves in a Honexmooners character “They drop me a line they call they come by when they're in Florida" I wanted to know if Alice Kramden wasn't the first really liberated woman the way she stood up to Ralph's zany schemes and chauvinist bluster “You know pal" Gleason said genuinely thoughtful “you may be right" But when I asked Audrey Meadows die same thing she smiled “You've got to understand that all those dumb things Ralph tried to do and failed at were all done from love That's what we had: love" Q MCE 14 JUIY 20 MM PfUUK MMZME |