Jackie Gleason and UFOs

I have good memories of watching Jackie Gleason (yes, I'm that old) his show, the Honey Mooners, etc. ("Norton" always cracked me up.) Gleason was more than just an actor in a television comedy program, he was a very talented man. This is from his obitutary from the New York Times:

When he was not performing, Mr. Gleason was often conducting or composing mellow romantic music, ''plain vanilla music'' he called it, which was marketed in record albums with such unpretentious titles as ''Lazy Lively Love'' and ''Oooo!'' He recorded more than 35 albums with the Jackie Gleason Orchestra, and millions of the records were sold. ~ (June 25, 1987)

It's an interesting obituary, full of information about his creative life, but no mention (naturally) of his UFO interest.

I remember reading in FATE magazine a few years ago, in a “filler” or sidebar type thing, that the great Jackie Gleason donated his library of UFO books to, I think, someplace in Florida. Gleason had something like over 200 books about UFOs. Here’s an item about Gleason’s “occult library” on exhibit in Miami, Florida.

On Frank Warren’s excellent blog, there’s a piece on Gleason and UFOs that was posted in 2005 (the piece is written by Bill Knell.) Jackie Gleason, Richard Nixon and ET. It’s full of fun information on Gleason and his UFO interests and what Knell learned from talking with Gleason.

Jackie Gleason’s Trip to the Alien Morgue, by Marty Murray, is about a classic UFO legend: President Richard Nixon took Gleason to see alien bodies in a morgue at Homestead Air Force base.

There’s another article on this by the always entertaining and interesting Timothy Green Beckley: Jackie Gleason and the Little Men From Mars.