What A Team! Their First Teaming And How The Met!
This may be the first candid photo of Jackie Gleason and Art Carney ever taken. Gleason looks very young here and this was probably taken during his tenure as host of the Dumont ‘Cavalcade Of Stars’.

On the Dumont show, Gleason’s regular characters included Charlie Bratten, a lunchroom loudmouth who always spoiled the meal of the mild mannered Clem Finch, played by Carney. Gleason and Carney developed a good working chemistry, and Gleason recruited Carney to appear in other sketches, including of course, The Honeymooners.

In a way, Morey Amsterdam was responsible for this pair meeting. When Morey was the host of ‘Cavalcade Of Stars’ before Jackie’s arrival, he brought in Carney for a few sketches and the director, Joseph Cates (brother of Gil Cates), liked him. When Gleason took over the hosting job and wanted a new straight man for some of his sketches, Cates introduced him to Art Carney.

On both the radio and television versions of ‘The Morey Amsterdam Show’ (1948-50), Carney played a character known as Charlie The Doorman. Carney had seen Gleason in his first television work as the star of ‘The Life Of Riley’, That show only lasted part of one season but it was not canceled because of low ratings or Gleason’s desire to leave…it was a dispute between the producer and the sponsor. Now you know how one of comedy’s best teams came together. Enjoy and share!

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