ROCKY MARCIANO INTERVIEWS JACKIE GLEASON
The Main Event Originally Aired October, 1960 on the Du Mont network, NJ
More about this clip & Jackie's Jersey days (with photo) below!
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It was little noted that champion fighter Rocky Marciano had
his own interview show. He started on the
then tiny, independent, Newark, NJ station WATV channel 13 in 1959 before
going into syndication, replacing Hy Gardner in many markets. Rocky was one of two
people Jackie would confide in (the other was Bishop Fulton J. Sheen, who had a weekly
series on the now defunct Dumont network, where Jackie first introduced
The Honeymooners. It was a cinch, then, that Jackie would be an honored guest
on The Rocky Marciano Show and talk about the old Jersey and Brooklyn days.
having to cut back, even on essentials, while other people seem to be unaffected and
spending more, even on luxuries? Click here for the income answers and your financial solution.
About Rocky Marciano Not to be confused with Rocky Graziano,
Rocky Marciano was the only heavyweight champion ever to retire never being defeated.
He had a phenomenol 49-0 record and only 43 knockouts.
Rocky Marciano started his professional boxing career in 1947, reigning champ from 1952 until his retirement
in 1956. Eocky Marciano ranks among the world's foremost boxing's greats.
Rocco Francis Marchegiano, who would come to be known as Rocky Marciano, was born on September 1, 1923, in Brockton, Massachusetts, the son of working class parents. An immigrant from Italy, his father worked in a shoe factory. This factory made a big impression on the young Marciano. It was Marciano's job in the family to take lunch to his father at work each day, and there he saw first-hand the toll factory work took on the people who worked there. Marciano vowed that he would never make his living that way.
In high school, Marciano excelled in sports. He played on the Brockton High football team as a linebacker, once intercepting a pass and running sixty-seven yards for a touchdown. His dreams were of baseball, however, and he planned to become a professional player after he dropped out of school at the age of sixteen. He worked in blue-collar jobs, including a two month stint at the shoe factory, while he trained to become a professional baseball player. His fledgling baseball career was interrupted, however, when the United States entered World War II at the end of 1942.
Drafted into the army in 1943, Marciano discovered the sport that was to be his career when he took up boxing to avoid kitchen duty. After serving in Wales and at Ft. Lewis, Washington with the 150th Combat Engineers, Marciano was discharged following the close of the war. He worked at odd jobs to support himself while he pursued a career in baseball. His hard work paid off when he landed a tryout with the Chicago Cubs as a catcher and first baseman. But he failed to make he team after a throw from home plate to second base fell short.
Now the only heavyweight boxing champion to retire completely undefeated, Marciano spent the next ten years making personal appearances. He died on the night of August 31, 1969 when the private plane in which he was a passenger crashed outside of Des Moines, Iowa. He died one day shy of his 46th birthday. He was survived by his wife Barbara—to whom he had been married for nineteen years—and his two children, Rocco Kevin, and Mary Anne. He was said to have had many close friends and to be a loving husband and father, but nevertheless to be extremely secretive about his post-boxing business dealings. He died without making a will, and without revealing where he had placed much of his fortune.
Somewhat awkward, not noted for his speed or agility, Marciano nevertheless overcame his opponents through sheer drive, determination, and the power of his punches. He remains today the only heavyweight champion boxer to retire completely undefeated.
About Jackie Gleason
Jackie Gleason was born on February 26th, 1916 in Brooklyn, New York. This future great was born into a poor family of Irish Catholic immigrants, living in Brooklyn. His father, Herbert Gleason, was an insurance clerk who ran out on his family when Jackie was only nine years of age. His mother, Mae Kelly Gleason, died when he was nineteen. This, and the fact that his only sibling, Clemence, was diagnosed with tuberculosis when Jackie was three, made Jackie have a very sad and lonely childhood. Gleason, who attended Public School 73, dropped out before he was sixteen, and instead hung out with an organization that was basically a street gang. Even though he was a gigantic eater as a teenager, he was very good at sports, particularly boxing and football. Right from the beginning, Jackie seemed to be a natural for the entertainment field. He appeared in many church and school plays, and eventually won an award for an original comedy routine. From there, we was a master of ceremonies at a vaudeville house, Folly Theater. After leaving school, he began to travel around New York, picking up jobs as he went. He also worked in hotels in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. After working in other various jobs, he married Genevieve Halford, a dancer, in the year 1936. They had two daughters, Geraldine and Linda, the only children he ever had. After several separations, the couple finally split up in 1954, though the legal divorce would occur later in 1970. In 1941, Jack Warner signed Gleason, who had been working in nightclubs and musicals, to a contract, and he headed out to Hollywood at the age of 25. His early movies unsuccessful, Warner contributed his signature on the contract to drunkenness. After failing in Hollywood, Jackie grew to hate Los Angeles, and his future works would take place on the East Coast, in New York and Florida. Depressed, Jackie returned to nightclubs and the stage, and even tried radio. But it was when his agent, George "Bullets" Durgom suggested he work in television that Gleason went on his way. He was cast in the title role of "The Life of Riley," but he was not right for the part, and it was soon cancelled. His television career really began when he signed on with the DuMont network as the summer host of "Calvacade of Stars." After two episodes, he was signed on as permanent host. It was here where he created his most memorable characters, including Ralph Kramden. But, after guest hosting several shows on other networks, Jackie signed an exclusive contract with CBS as the host of "The Jackie Gleason Show."
In the 1955-1956 season, he took Ralph Kramden's "The Honeymooners" and made it into its own show for a season. Today, this is one of the most beloved sitcoms, even making number 3 on TV Guide's recent "The 50 Best TV Shows of All Time."
Gleason continued to make several movies, including "The Hustler" which earned him an Oscar nomination, and "Requiem for a Heavyweight." In "The Hustler" Jackie did all of his own pool shots for the camera. Gleason also recorded his own records, writing his own music even though he could not read a note. In 1962 Jackie returned to television with "Jackie Gleason's American Scene Magizine," but the name was soon changed back to "The Jackie Gleason Show."
In July 1970 he married Beverly McKittrick, but they were divorced in 1974. The following year he married Marilyn Taylor, sister of June Taylor of the June Taylor Dancers. After working on a series of movies throughout the 80's, Gleason died on June 24th, 1987, of colon and liver cancer.
What was the DuMont Television Network (the "forgotten network")?
For the fascinating
history of the innovations and downfalls of The DuMont Television Network and it's
founder, click here.
More about Jackie Gleason & his career below
Jackie Gleason's Jersey Days Jackie actually got his start in, of all places, a tiny town in
Northern New Jersey called Singac (sing yak),near Paterson and today's Willowbrook Mall in Wayne.
Jackie performed stand up in a small gin mill then known as The Four Corners. The Great One
had performed in clubs in Newark (The Miami Club, Vinnie's) and in Brooklyn, NY, but it was in Singac that an agent caught the act
and took him under his wing. That agent (operating under the psuedonym Morty Wax) also handled
personal appearances for Rocky Marciano. Jackie Gleason was introduced to the big wigs (or as
Norton would say, muckity-mucks) at the old Du Mont Network and, voila, The Jackie Gleason Show
and later, The Honeymooners was born. In the original Honeymooner's sketched Perk Kelton
played Alice until she was branded for her liberal views as a Communist by the McCarthy commission.
Jackie originally turned down Audrey Meadows for the replacement because she was too glamorous.
Aggressive Audrey re-auditioned dressed down and got the part. The rest is history as we know and love it.
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