Authenticity is Everything
HONEYMOONERS THE ACTRESSES WHO PLAYED TRIXIE NORTON
With the recent death of Joyce Randolph I revisited my own Honeymooner's collection. I had Jackie Gleason, Art Carney, Audrey Meadows, Joyce Randolph, Pert Kelton, Sue Ann Langdon, Shelia MacRae and Jane Kean. I knew I was missing two others. I had all the Alice's but I need two more Trixies. Patricia Wilson had played Trixie Norton on a 1962 Jackie Gleason Show Honeymooners skit "The Kramdens get a TV set." I do not have her but do have Alice as played by Sue Ane Langdon. I was also missing the lady that played the very first Trixie Norton.
Jackie Gleason hosted a show on the Dumont network entitled The Dumont Cavalcade Of Stars. That show was the birth of the Honeymooners in a skit called "Bread" that aired live on October 5, 1951, with Pert Kelton playing Alice. There were no Nortons in that show, however Art Carney appeared as a policeman.
The first time the Nortons appear was in the sketch "The Television,” that aired on November 12, 1951. Art Carney plays Ed Norton and theater star Elaine Stritch plays Trixie Norton. She appeared only in that one episode since Elaine's Trixie was a bit too rough around the edges and Gleason decided a softer version was needed. Her replacement was the wonderful Joyce Randolph.
Elaine Stritch (1925-2014) was a stage actress throughout her career. She did television both American and British. Her film roles included Mavis LaBreche in the Jack Lemon and Walter Matthau movie Out to Sea (1997). In England she had her own television comedy Two's Company 1975-1979. This is a page from a lined notebook belonging to Harvey Kuflik.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Scott Paul on
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Such a tragic mutilation of a historic early piece of a Jackie Gleason document. Documents relating to him are very scarce. As I have said before if they absolutely did not want the inscription just to have it easily matted and framed, they would end up with the same thing without cutting.
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Just found one one of the Pert Kelton items I have. This is an ALS from 1968. I remember as a boy watching the color Honeymooners when they first aired on CBS. In one of the episodes Pert Kelton played Alice's mother. You could see the connection she and Gleason had. I got the ALS and a signed photograph from Jared Gendron years ago.
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Permalink Reply by Eric Keith Longo on
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Do you think we should collaborate on a thread that would cover all other Alice's and Trixie's? You might well have George Petrie and the other guy as well? Mrs. Manicotti? Carlos Sanchez? Thelma the maid? "The Vintage Signatures of The Honeymooners Players" or some such?
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If you set it up, I will be happy to contribute what I have. Feel free to alter this thread or probably create a new one as you see fit. It would be nice to have it all together. Originally, I added it because I got the Elaine Strich autograph. I know I have all the ones that played main characters, except I do not own a Patricia Wilson. There are likely a ton of Playbills out there, but most probably get listed under Tom Bosley since she played his wife in Fiorello." What I would suggest is that the four main ones be listed as Gleason, Carney, Meadows, and Randolph, followed by a subheading for Kelton, Stritch, Langdon, Wilson, and finally, Jane Kean. That way, there would be autographs of everyone who played one of the "core four" in each era.
I think perhaps it would be best to have a separate one for just a "supporting cast" like Petrie. Petrie appeared twice, and I argue at least seven times as "Freddy Mueller." Plus, he did an equal number of other characters. That makes Petrie almost a regular. I know I have had him since he was on TAGS. I have Anne Seymour. She played "Mrs. Stevens" in two episodes, including the Christmas one. I also have Ronnie Burns (son of George and Gracie). I do not have Frank Marth. He was the steely-eyed actor who often appeared. I may have some others. I know I have Jim Boles, one of the gangsters in the episode where Ralph is a double for the mob boss. I have Ken Lynch, who played a policeman. Sadly, I do not own a Zamah Cunningham (Mrs. Manicotti) or Mr. Manicotti.
Should you decide on doing the supporting cast one, I suggest making it the classic 39 episodes. Then, from there, you could go to the "Lost Episodes," Color Episodes, and even the four television specials. If you recall the "Fred's Landing" vacation one, I have the old farmer (Parker Fennelly) I have him.
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ELAINE STRITCH as she appeared in her later years.
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I saw in A Delicate Balance :-)
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She was a remarkable performer and could do everything.
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She was remarkable live. Unbelievable. In Balance. Like a wet powderkeg. I also saw her in...A Little Night Music, in which she forgot all her lines. :-( She should not have bee onstage at that point I am sorry to say. I think that was when I asked her about Trixie.
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I would have loved to see her Martha in Woolf?
"IT may be 2 a.m. when George and Martha stumble home at the beginning of “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?,” but the evening is just getting started. Fueled by a bathtub’s worth of alcohol and culminating in the surfacing of some very ugly truths, Edward Albee’s faculty-mixer-as-blood-sport drama riveted audiences in October 1962 and vaulted the 34-year-old playwright from Off Broadway darling to the cover of Newsweek magazine.
The rough language and scorched-earth gamesmanship that George and Martha engage in with two younger counterparts, Nick and Honey, was both exhilarating and unsettling; the Pulitzer Prize judges selected it for the drama award that year, only to see the Pulitzer board reject the recommendation. (It was rough on the actors, too, and a second cast was quickly added to play the matinees, one that would include Elaine Stritch as Martha.) Mr. Albee would win the Tony Award, as would the director, Alan Schneider, and the play’s two stars, Uta Hagen and Arthur Hill."
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You were very fortunate to have seen her perform live and to meet her. That would have been something to see in fact I think I have a index card signed by Uta Hagen and a Playbill signed by Arthur Hill and Ben Piazzia. May just be a cover will have to look for them.
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I've got this - pardon the small scans. Postcard is 1963, still is 1962:
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Those are great shots. I am glad the early Honeymooner sketches still exist. I am not sure if I ever saw the 1962 Jackie Gleason Show (American Scene Magazine) one with Sue Ann Langdon and Patricia Wilson.
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