As a huge Honeymooners fan, I’ve always recognized that although Jackie Gleason and Art Carney always portrayed Ralph Kramden and Ed Norton respecitively, there were four actresses each who played their wives Trixie and Alice. I had always been puzzled as to why I had never seen one single photo of Sue Ann Langdon in her portrayal of Alice (nor Patricia Wilson as Trixie) from the time when Gleason performed Honeymooners sketches on The American Scene Magazine. Pictured at right is a rare shot of Frank Fontaine, June Taylor, Jackie Gleason, and Sue Ann Langdon – but obviously not in character. I later learned one reason that shots of her on the Honeymooners set were uncommon (or possibly non-existant): there were only two episodes of this Honeymooners incarnation. I had always assumed that there was an entire season’s worth of episodes.
So the photo below was the only available next-best-thing – a reproduction of the cover of Life Magazine from 1962 in which she ‘appears’ alongside Jackie Gleason. The caption notates her as his ‘new TV wife.’ I had her personally sign this to me when I met her at the Hollywood Collectors Show during my Summer trip in 1995.
I had the opportunity to meet up with Ms. Langdon once again three years later at a Mayberry Squad Car Rendezvous in Bradford, OH (the location chosen because of the faithful reproduction of Walley’s service station on the premesis). I said I had the opportunity…but I didn’t take it. Since I had acquired her autograph in 1995, I didn’t bother getting another one…and to date have still not gotten a photo taken with her.
Autographs and encounters from Hollywood ’95 will continue…
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