Annie McGarry's "The Honeymooners" book #2

[ChrisTV]

Love the photos from "The New Bowling Ball" rehearsal!

[Bill S.]

Thanks for posting. Great read, loaded with inaccuracies though...

Ralph and Alice first appeared on 22 July 1950, Jackie's third week of hosting Cavalcade of Stars.

In this first episode, Ralph came home from driving the bus and Alice asked him to go downstairs for a loaf of bread. Ralph went into a rage about how he'd been at work all day, and then he was expected to run to the store. Alice responded that she'd been busy, too, and showed him the pie that she made. The argument escalated, and Ralph threw the pie at Alice. Alice ducked, and the pie flew out the window. Ralph and Alice continued to argue, until a knock came at the door. It was Art Carney as a neighborhood cop, covered in pie.

When Gleason needed to find Ed Norton a wife, he said, 'Get me that serious actress.' Trixie, the former burlesque queen, was born, and Joyce Randolph joined the cast of The Honeymooners.

In an early Honeymooners episode, Alice was supposed to serve Ralph a frozen steak, which he would then whack angrily and knock to the floor. There was no rehearsal, and no one told Jackie or Audrey that the 'steak' was made out of wood. When Jackie hit the prop, the steak cracked in half, with one piece flying off the set. With twenty million people watching the live broadcast, Gleason glared at her, waiting for her to save the scene. Audrey simply said, 'There you are Ralph. Tonight I'm serving you half a steak!"

For Jackie's much anticipated return on 23 March, Jackie backed a Honeymooners sketch with his own arrangement of 'romantic jazz,'

Norton and Ralph even dress up in Laurel and Hardy costumes for a bus company party.

Most fans would probably agree, however, that the best Honeymooners episode is the one in which Ralph find an abandoned baby on his bus and brings it home. In their excitement, Alice and Ralph try to fix up their dismal apartment so that they can adopt the baby. The audience laughed and cried so much that they couldn't fit the performance into a half-hour time slot. They had to continue the story the following week. When the baby's mother showed up to claim her, Americans grieved.