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Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 86. Chapters: Milton Berle, Barbara Stanwyck, Abbott and Costello, Jackie Gleason, Jimmy Durante, Bob Hope, Bettie Page, Lili St. Cyr, Blaze Starr, Mae West, Harry Steppe, Josephine Baker, Red Skelton, Candy Barr, Lydia Thompson, Fanny Brice, Phil Silvers, Tura Satana, Gypsy Rose Lee, Bert Lahr, Minsky's Burlesque, Kitten Natividad, Satan's Angel, Cecilia Loftus, Sally Rand, Molly Picon, Little Egypt, Evelyn West, Dorothy Sherwood, Roger Imhof, Pinky Lee, Mara Gaye, Tempest Storm, Ann Corio, Mat Fraser, Leon Errol, Robert Alda, Margaret Hart Ferraro, Jennie Worrell, Hinda Wassau, Joan Warner, Noel Toy, Liz Renay, Jean Mode, Shirley Jean Rickert, Pillow, Sherry Britton, Millie DeLeon, Pauline Markham, Stephanie Blake, Henry E. Dixey, Louise Henderson, Lola LeBelle. Excerpt: Jackie Gleason (February 26, 1916 - June 24, 1987) was an American comedian, actor and musician. He was known for his brash visual and verbal comedy style, especially by his character Ralph Kramden on The Honeymooners, a situation-comedy television series. His most noted film roles were as Minnesota Fats in the drama film The Hustler (1961) starring Paul Newman, and as Buford T. Justice in the Smokey and the Bandit movie series. Gleason was born at 364 Chauncey Street in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, New York. He grew up nearby at 328 Chauncey Street, an address that he later used as the address for Ralph and Alice Kramden on his show The Honeymooners. Originally named Herbert Walton Gleason, Jr., he was baptized as John Herbert Gleason. His parents, both from Faranree, County Cork, Ireland, were Mae (Maisie) (née) Murphy, a subway change-booth attendant, and Herb Gleason, an insurance auditor. Gleason was one of their two children. Gleason's brother, Clemence, died of spinal meningitis at age 14, and his father abandoned the family. He remembered his father as having "beautiful handwriting", as Herbert Gleason often worked at the family's kitchen table writing policies in the evenings. The night before his disappearance, Gleason's father disposed of any family photos he was pictured in; just after noon on December 15, 1925, Herbert Gleason collected his hat, coat and paycheck, leaving the insurance company and his family for good. When it was evident he was not coming back, Mae went to work taking change for the Brooklyn-Manhattan Transit Corporation (BMT). After his father left, young Gleason started hanging around on the streets with a local gang and hustling pool. He attended elementary school at P.S. 73 in Brooklyn. He attended but did not graduate from John Adams High School in Queens and Bushwick High School in Brooklyn. Gleason was raised by his mother, who died when he was 19. Gleason became interested in performing after being part of a class play; when he