Jackie Gleason Bio Movie TV Actor Honeymooners Smokey Color Money Photos HC/DJ

Description: The Great One - The Life and Legend of Jackie Gleason by William Henry III , copyright 1992 1st edition - This book with dustjacket is in very good condition - dustjacket in very good condition with very minor wear - The book has no torn or missing pages nor writing .. Third life of Gleason in recent months and by far the best--as well as one of the best celebrity bios of recent memory, written with richness and brio by two-time Pulitzer-winner (for journalism) Henry (Visions of America, 1985), who's also a culture critic for Time. Deeply researched and taking nothing for granted, here's a book that gives us a Gleason whose warts match his ego, a man whose imagination was ever hog-wild on alcohol and, as with many active drinkers, whose better nature was often drowned by mean- spiritedness. Henry's Gleason, contrary to the legendary Gleason of thousands of interviews and news stories, is an utterly private, self-enclosed man fearful of revealing his deep-seated insecurities and blackly depressing childhood. He would always move back his mother Mae's death by three years when talking of it, having her die when he was a Dickensian waif of 16 rather than an earning entertainer of 19. His father had abandoned the family during the Depression, and his brother had died when Gleason was a child, leaving the future comedian overprotected by Mae. Despite his freewheeling, big-handed way with money and his many gifts to friends and strangers, Gleason apparently used money to bolster his power over CBS and did not think twice about cruelly uprooting some New York subordinates and replanting them in Florida so he could refine his golf game while producing a new version of his TV show. His famed musical genius and so-called conducting skills evidently were zilch, although his mood-music recordings made zillions. Typically, Henry points out, his buddyship with fellow farceur Art Carney was invented for the papers and did not exist. Though Gleason's extravagances were bottle dreams made real, he died of cancer and not from the drink, gluttony, and chain-smoking that should have killed him. A deep-delving bio for Gleason-lovers. Also listed Julie Andrews SIGNED, Thelma Todd, Jean Harlow, Desi Arnaz, Norma Shearer SIGNED, Jennifer Jones, Hurrell, Joe Dallesandro, Gene Kelly SIGNED, Myrna Loy, Eve Arden SIGNED, Veronica Lake & other Hollywood Items!! Thanks for looking and happy bidding Combine postage offered on all items

Price: 21 USD

Location: Las Vegas, Nevada

End Time: 2024-11-06T03:01:25.000Z

Shipping Cost: 4.5 USD