Reggie Van Gleason, III

Does anyone know if these shows are on DVD?

Cbeg, sorry to have made so many comments today, but ideas keep coming to mind. Just noticed the picture of Orson Welles that you use. This reminded me of a connection between the two men. In the 1950s the head of the FCC was a man named Newton Minnow who referred to TV as a vast wasteland. This prompted a quip from Orson Welles who dubbed Jackie TV's vaste waistband. Considering Orson later weight gain it seems ironic. But then Reggie does say of his mother, Um Boy is she fat.

Cbeg, Thanks so much for these clips. Reggie was my favorite of Jackie's characters. This clip reminds me of the only moment I remember from the old Gleason show. They were doing a parody of another famous interview show of the day, This is Your Life. And in the skit they go back to Reggie early days and wheel out his baby carriage. Then someone opens a side door to reveal where his milk bottles were kept. Only instead we see that they are tiny bottles of booze with nipples on top.

This is to complete the joke below. Jackie would then reply to Harry, Harry, by stating, well maybe he didn't recognize you. The joke usually got few laughs and Jackie would then state that he thought the joke was funny and that he was going to keep telling it until he got a big response. I'm not sure if he really liked the joke or this was just some stunt, but he would tell it year after year without success. He had another joke about Gefilte fish, but I won't tell that without request

I mentioned before that Jackie would on an annual basis tell a joke about a two headed dwarf. No one asked for it, but here goes. Jackie would mention that he had a friend who was as described above. Jackie would then say how he had recently run into Harry, Harry and had noted how he looked sad, sad. When Gleason would ask why, Harry would answer that the other day he had run into Anthony Quinn, with whom he had made a movie, in the lobby of a hotel, and Quinn did not say hello. Continued

Jackie loosely based Reggie on a character of the old silent film star Ben Turpin who was famous for his crossed eyes. Turpin had his eyes insured with Lloyds of London for $25,000 against straightening out. Turpin had a character he called Rodney St. Clair who was alcoholic and regularly appeared in tuxedo or tails, and Turpin always appeared with that bushy moustache. Gleason was of fan of the silent comedies that feature such men as Turpin, Charlie Chaplin and Laurel and Hardy.

In Reggie's honor, I'm having a bit of Old Smuggler..boooyyy that's good coffee.

Ross was also famous for a very good Eddie Cantor imitation he would do. Before going into it he would comb his hair to obviate somewhat his unusual looks. Gleason also loved to use midgets in his sketches and once a year would tell a joke about a two-headed dwarf.

Eddie Cantor - he had five daughters. The Cantors lived across the street from Agnes Moorehead..which made Agnes very happy...the five daughters that is.

Thanks for the info on Ross.

whats that he put in his nose