Pert Kelton (1907-1968) was an American vaudeville, movie, and television actress. Kelton was the original Alice Kramden in television's The Honeymooners (1950-1952) featuring Jackie Gleason as her husband Ralph Kramden and Art Carney as their upstairs neighbor Ed Norton. Kelton appeared in the original sketches, generally running about 15 or 20 minutes, shorter than the later one-season half-hour series and 1960s hour-long musical versions, but she was intensely believable on a level never seen in later permutations. The early incarnation of The Honeymooners was much darker and harsher than the softened, toned-down CBS version that appeared after Kelton was blacklisted during the McCarthy Era and was replaced by Audrey Meadows. In the early shows, Gleason's character was a young fat man married to a middle-aged battle-axe instead of a vibrant young beauty, and the arguments and comedy were harrowingly realistic, almost like watching your neighbors through a keyhole. Prior to The Honeymooners, Kelton had worked as a beautiful young comedienne in A-list movies during the '30s, with a particularly memorable turn in 1933 as a gorgeous dance hall singer called "Trixie" in Raoul Walsh's The Bowery (1933 film) with Wallace Beery, George Raft, Jackie Cooper, and Fay Wray. Cover of a book about the Honeymooners. ... Jackie Gleason and Audrey Meadows in a staged publicity shot for The Honeymooners. ... Art Carney starring as Ed Norton from The Honeymooners Art Carney (November 4, 1918 – November 9, 2003) was an American actor in film, stage, television, and radio. ... Audrey Meadows (February 8, 1922 - February 3, 1996), born Audrey Cotter, was an American actress best known for playing Alice Kramden in the 1950s American television comedy, The Honeymooners. ... The Bowery (1933) is a classic period film about the Lower East Side of Manhattan at the turn of the century. ... Wallace Beery (April 1, 1885 – April 15, 1949) was an American actor, best known for his many cinema appearances. ... Raft in They Drive by Night George Raft (September 26, 1895 - November 24, 1980) was an American film actor most closely identified with his portrayals of gangsters in crime melodramas of the 1930s and 1940s. ... Jackie Cooper as a child actor Jackie Cooper (born John Cooper, Jr. ... Publicity photo for King Kong ca 1933 Fay Wray (September 15, 1907 – August 8, 2004) was a Canadian-American actress, who was born Vina Fay Wray on a ranch near Cardston, Alberta, Canada. ...

Perhaps Kelton's finest role was also in 1933, as the wise-cracking young "Minnie" in Gregory LaCava's amazing pre-Code comedy Bed of Roses (1933 film), in which she and Constance Bennett play a pair of bawdy and beautiful prostitutes fond of getting admiring men helplessly drunk before robbing them, at least until getting caught and tossed back into jail. Kelton has all the best lines, surprisingly wicked and amusing observations that would never be allowed in an American film after the adoption of the Hayes Code. The film remains extremely realistic in terms of the interactions of the characters and features an early turn by Joel McCrea as the leading man, the skipper of a small boat who pulls Bennett's character out of the river after she's dived off a ship to escape capture. Bed of Roses (1933) is an extremely bawdy pre-Hayes Code comedy featuring Constance Bennett and Pert Kelton (the original Alice in Jackie Gleasons The Honeymooners) as a pair of rollickingly bawdy prostitutes who occasionally get hapless male admirers drunk before robbing them, at least until the girls are... Constance Campbell Bennett (October 22, 1904 - July 24, 1965) was a US actress known more for her elegant persona than her acting talents. ... The Production Code (also known as the Hays Code) was a set of guidelines governing the production of motion pictures. ... Joel McCrea in Foreign Correspondent Joel Albert McCrea, (November 5, 1905 - October 20, 1990) was an American film actor. ...

Ironically, Kelton's last movie for years, released in 1939, was called Whispering Enemies. Her next screen appearance was on television, in The Honeymooners and other sketches on the Gleason show. In the 1960s, she was brought back to the cast to occasionally play Alice's mother-in-law in the hour-long musical version of The Honeymooners, with Sheila MacRae as a fetching young Alice. Cover of a book about the Honeymooners. ... Sheila MacRae (born Sheila Margaret Stephens on September 24, 1924, in London, England) is an actress and author. ...