Bill S.
01-08-2008, 11:13 PM
Well, after watching "The Great Gleason" earlier, I am happy to confirm that several clips from the 1952 version of "Christmas Party" were in fact used throughout the special. Some noticeable differences between this version and the 1953 version are the clothes Alice is wearing and a wreath that can be seen hanging on the wall to the left of the front door in the '52 version. Another interesting thing I noticed is that clips from the beginning, middle and end of the episode were used...part of the Fenwick Babbit segment, part of the Poor Soul segment, part of the Joe the Bartender segment, the part in the beginning when Alice sends Ralph back out, and the part at the end when Ralph & Alice kiss and make up. So much for only one reel of this episode being found...and this isn't anything new either, "The Great Gleason" came out in 1987, a year after "The Honeymooners Lost Episodes" book was published. I guess after all these years, this episode was just held off for being too similar to the 1953 version. Now if we could only get the scoop on "The Fortune Teller"...