Big Blue Huddle

It's weird seeing a different Alice. I like the replacement Alice better

If Pert Kelton looks familiar, you may have seen the movie version of "The Music Man."

It starred Robert Preston & Shirley Jones, whose mom was played by Pert Kelton (and her little bro was played by none other than "Opie Griffith" - Ron Howard - in the part that made his career... and IMO his entire life).

If you haven't seen the movie and like (or don't mind) musicals it's a must-see with great songs, adequate (albeit a bit over-the-top) acting & lots of 1950's style comedy. I highly recommend everyone see it at least once.

Bob

Quote from: Jolly Blue Giant on July 22, 2024, 01:08:55 PMIt's weird seeing a different Alice. I like the replacement Alice better

Jolly: I get it. For one thing, Pert Kelton's voice was all wrong.

Funny, but too high-pitched to match up with Gleason... and not dead-pan enough to deliver the zingers.

Audrey Meadows is my favorite female TV sitcom actress ever, not because she was "The Greatest" actress (heh heh... I made a little joke there) but because she fit the role so well & had impeccable comic timing (which IMO is much more difficult to achieve in front of a live studio audience than on a closed sound stage).

Bob

It had to start somewhere, didn't it? This "Cavalcade of Stars" version with Pert Kelton and Art Carney, with all his Ed Norton mannerisms, portraying a cop, what would have made it a real knee-slapper would have been sound effects of all the stuff hitting the ground after they threw them out the window. But not bad for a five-minute TV comedy bit from the early 50s!

Pert played Alice for the first two seasons, which coincided with the end of the Cavalcade of Stars run, then was replaced by Audrey Meadows. There are differing stories behind her being let go. One had to do with her having a medical condition (i.e. heart), while the other was that she was blacklisted. Though it was never proven she or her husband had ties to the Communist party, she didn't do much in the line of acting until Jackie Gleason asked her back to play Alice's mom in the Color Honeymooners which Alice was portrayed by Sheila MacRae. Before passing in 1968, she could be seen doing "Spic and Span" commercials.

The Honeymooners' "Alice" character will always be tied to Audrey Meadows, whose chemistry on stage with Gleason made the character legendary, but honorable mention should be given to the actress who was the "first Alice," Pert Kelton, whose career in radio, television, the stage and the big picture contributed vastly to American entertainment in the first half of the twentieth century.

Peace!