Strips beneath the glitz, glamour, fame, and power of Jackie Gleason's life to reveal an enormously talented, yet deeply private and angry man who was often lonely and depressed. 50,000 first printing. Major ad/promo. Tour.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Following W. J. Weatherby's disappointing Jackie Gleason (Nonfiction Forecasts, Mar. 9), this is a thorough, penetrating, uncompromising study of the Brooklyn-born, Irish-American ghetto kid whose talents took him to the top. The cultural icon's programs dominated TV in the 1950s, and even today reruns of The Honeymooners wipe out the competition, notes Time magazine culture critic Henry, who expertly analyzes the performer's acting on TV, on stage and in film. Although known as "The Great One," so dubbed by Orson Welles, Gleason (1916-1987), shows the author, was a terror in his private life: a glutton, heavy drinker and womanizer who was cruel to friends and associates. The book presents diverse sentiments from those who knew him well, suggesting that he presented many different guises. Or, as a close friend quoted here concludes: "The truth is, I don't know if I ever met Jack Gleason. I know I met some portrayal of him." Photos not seen by PW.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
The life and times of one of Hollywood's legendary comedians is described in careful detail in this audiobook. Many of Gleason's friends, collaborators, and antagonists were interviewed for this biography, and what unfolds for the listener is a tale of the man behind the legend; a man who had money, power, and fame but who was deeply private and at times lonely and depressed. The abridged text is ably narrated by Frank Ferrante, whose performance helps capture the complexities of a man who was once the highest paid star in the business. Recommended for larger collections.
- Denise A. Garofalo, Mid-Hudson Lib. System, Poughkeepsie, N.Y.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Audio Cassette edition.
- Denise A. Garofalo, Mid-Hudson Lib. System, Poughkeepsie, N.Y.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Audio Cassette edition.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Seems well researched but bitter,
By
This review is from: The Great One: The Life and Legend of Jackie Gleason (Hardcover)
As far as I know, this is the only biography written by someone who was not a friend of Gleason's, and it shows. While the book is well-researched, the author takes an inordinate amount of pleasure in pointing out as many of Gleason's faults as he can. I was left with the impression that the author was jealous that Gleason enjoyed such enormous success despite not always being a pleasant person.Audrey Meadows commented at the end of her book "Love, Alice" that the author skewered Gleason for not living up to his (the author's) standards, and that sounds about right. To pay Meadows back for this, the author tries to discredit her story about how she won the role of Alice on "The Honeymooners," but only ends up looking vindictive again, as Meadows has published the photos taken of herself auditioning for Alice that prove her story true. This is only one of several instances where Henry tries to attack people who try to disagree with his negative view of Gleason. There are many instances in the book of phrases like "Gleason said..." or "Gleason often commented..." but very few of these quotes are backed up with any kind of source in the text itself, and there are no endnotes in the book. In addition, many other people quoted in the book are identified only as "colleagues," with no one specific being cited as the source(s) of many of the stories about how horrible Gleason really was. I noted the comments from various celebrities on the back of the dust jacket, and was surprised to hear praise from people who call themselves Gleason's friends. It makes you wonder just what kinds of friends they were.
16 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Bitter, hypocritical, and misinformed,
By
This review is from: The Great One: The Life and Legend of Jackie Gleason (Hardcover)
On the first page of the book you hit the statement that Jackie was "the laziest man alive." For me, that statement sets the tone. A quick look at the picture of the author will show he doesn't know much about excercise himself. I found it laughable that one of the big gripes William makes about Gleason was he proported musical talent was his that belonged to others, when whole paragraphs from the previous two biographies mysteriously found themselves into this book, word for word at times. Whereas the first two books were written by friends of Jackie's, William never had even a personal conversation with him, and spoke to NONE of the family. While he did speak to coworkers, I got the feeling from the beginning that he had set out to write a "Jackie is a smuck" book, and filtered everything accordingly. Within the first few chapters, I lost count of the number of factual errors that I found. Mae's mother had 11 children, not 5. They never actually lived in Ireland. Jackie's darkness didn't come from some ancestral Spainard sunk of the coast of Ireland, but from a maternal Great-Grandfather from Portugal. Herb, the father, was not a decade older than his wife, but three years. These were all easily researched items and were wrong. This cast a long shadow of suspicion over the rest of the book which consists of people's accounts of things long past. We all know how memories can be. The bookcover said the author treated shortcomings with compassion, but I found it closer to intense condemnation, such as with the statement, "the laziest man alive" because Jackie didn't walk 12 blocks in New York. Have to wonder if the author would have hoofed it, or hailed a cab. There may be some facts buried in the pile of misinformation and bad feeling, but it may be hard to find, or to identify. For me, I see Jackie's ever changing stories as a way for him to keep the truth private and just for himself. I certainly hope no one out there really believes that Tom Cruise is telling us the truth about his life, or Julia Roberts. Just because they do something, doesn't mean we deserve the intimate details of theirs lives. And just because Jackie wasn't upfront about his, doesn't change that mystical magic that happens when people watch the Honeymooners. He wasn't perfect, few of us are, but he gave us smiles we didn't have before. His life was sad and hard, but to be so spiteful and mean about it makes William's life even sadder. Imagine implying Jackie shouldn't feel upset because his mother died when he was a "man of nineteen" instead of boy of sixteen. I can't imagine having lost both parents by nineteen and to only have one cousin at my wedding for family. This book will only give you what you want if you already know that it has been written by someone who looked for the bad and down played the good, or quite possibly, simply didn't include those accounts. The book wasn't that interesting, and I certainly could put it down. It left a very bad taste in my mouth.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Bitter, hypocritical, and misinformed,
By
This review is from: The Great One: The Life and Legend of Jackie Gleason (Hardcover)
On the first page of the book you hit the statement that Jackie was "the laziest man alive." For me, that statement sets the tone. A quick look at the picture of the author will show he doesn't know much about excercise himself. I found it laughable that one of the big gripes William makes about Gleason was he proported musical talent was his that belonged to others, when whole paragraphs from the previous two biographies mysteriously found themselves into this book, word for word at times. Whereas the first two books were written by friends of Jackie's, William never had even a personal conversation with him, and spoke to NONE of the family. While he did speak to coworkers, I got the feeling from the beginning that he had set out to write a "Jackie is a smuck" book, and filtered everything accordingly. Within the first few chapters, I lost count of the number of factual errors that I found. Mae's mother had 11 children, not 5. They never actually lived in Ireland. Jackie's darkness didn't come from some ancestral Spainard sunk of the coast of Ireland, but from a maternal Great-Grandfather from Portugal. Herb, the father, was not a decade older than his wife, but three years. These were all easily researched items and were wrong. This cast a long shadow of suspicion over the rest of the book which consists of people's accounts of things long past. We all know how memories can be. The bookcover said the author treated shortcomings with compassion, but I found it closer to intense condemnation, such as with the statement, "the laziest man alive" because Jackie didn't walk 12 blocks in New York. Have to wonder if the author would have hoofed it, or hailed a cab. There may be some facts buried in the pile of misinformation and bad feeling, but it may be hard to find, or to identify. For me, I see Jackie's ever changing stories as a way for him to keep the truth private and just for himself. I certainly hope no one out there really believes that Tom Cruise is telling us the truth about his life, or Julia Roberts. Just because they do something, doesn't mean we deserve the intimate details of theirs lives. And just because Jackie wasn't upfront about his, doesn't change that mystical magic that happens when people watch the Honeymooners. He wasn't perfect, few of us are, but he gave us smiles we didn't have before. His life was sad and hard, but to be so spiteful and mean about it makes William's life even sadder. Imagine implying Jackie shouldn't feel upset because his mother died when he was a "man of nineteen" instead of boy of sixteen. I can't imagine having lost both parents by nineteen and to only have one cousin at my wedding for family. This book will only give you what you want if you already know that it has been written by someone who looked for the bad and down played the good, or quite possibly, simply didn't include those accounts. The book wasn't that interesting, and I certainly could put it down. It left a very bad taste in my mouth.
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