Jackie Gleason’s Paranormal Legacy
By. The Miami Paranormal Research Society
Jackie Gleason, born Herbert Walton Gleason, Jr., was born on February 26, 1916. He was born into a poor family in Brooklyn New York, his father having abandoned him at age nine. However, it was his father who had first introduced him to Vaudeville and silent films when he was just six years old. It was from that early influence of theater that Jackie Gleason knew he wanted to be an entertainer.
Gleason was always ambitious and was supporting himself as a professional boxer, a pool shark, and carnival barker before establishing himself as the world famous comedic genius who entertained million. His most famous role was that of Ralph Kramden on the highly successful Honeymooners television series. Jackie Gleason has a special connection to Miami because it was at the Fillmore theater, located at 1700 Washington Avenue in Miami Beach, now known as the Fillmore Miami Beach at the Jackie Gleason Theater that he filmed “The Jackie Gleason Show.” He ended every show with, “the Miami Beach audience is the greatest audience in the world.”
Gleason loved Miami. He didn’t just film or vacation here. He also called Miami his home. Mr. Gleason owned luxurious homes in Hialeah, Miami Beach and Inverrary. It was at the Inverrary home that he died of cancer.
A fact that most people are unaware of is that Jackie Gleason was extremely interested in all things paranormal. Gleason even claimed to have viewed evidence of aliens out at the Homestead Florida Air Force Base by way of his personal friend President Richard Nixon, a story which his second wife Beverly Gleason McKittrick corroborated in an interview with Esquire Magazine. Once inside the high security area, Gleason observed a pile of wreckage on the floor. Unsure of just what this wreckage was, an officer explained to him that this matter was recovered from Roswell. He also viewed the bodies of the alien life that were discovered in the wreckage. Gleason was reportedly very traumatized by what he saw during his visit to the Air Force base. He suffered from insomnia and spent his nights reading from his massive library.
Mr. Gleason was not considered a Ufologist but like his golfing buddy President Nixon, was a person who had a more than avid interest in extraterrestrials. Unlike some of the more questionable people who have come forward with stories of sightings of aliens and Unidentified Flying Objects, Jackie Gleason was and still is, a household name. The story gains credibility over the fact that Gleason’s motives were surely not to garner publicity or headlines. Gleason already had that. He had attained fame, fortune and respect prior to this information being leaked to the news media. In fact, someone of Gleason’s stature stood to lose his respect and credibility by association of such a controversial subject. While I believe that Mr. Gleason did have a deep interest in this field of study, it was necessary for the iconic comedian to downplay his knowledge and interest in UFO’s and the paranormal. Speaking publicly about such things has always been very risky.
Aside from his interest in UFOs, Jackie Gleason also had a life long interest in the paranormal and the occult. In his book, ” The Life and Legend of Jackie Gleason” William A. Henry III wrote ” Jackie Gleason had a lifelong fascination with the supernatural. . .He would spend small fortunes on everything from financing psychic research to buying a sealed box said to contain actual ectoplasm, the spirit of life itself. He would contact everyone from back-alley charlatans to serious researchers like J.B. Rhine of Duke University and, disdaining the elitism of the scholarly apparatus, would treat them all much the same way.”
Jackie Gleason made a significant contribution to the paranormal research field with his impressive library that he amassed. The library contains over 1700 books, magazines, journals and other printed matter on all areas of parapsychology, paranormal research, the occult, and UFOs. Gleason amassed one of the largest private library collections in the United States. In 1987, Jackie Gleason died at age 71 of cancer and is buried in a beautiful mausoleum in Our Lady Of Mercy Cemetery in Miami.
Following the comedian’s death, his widow Marilyn Gleason, donated his entire library collection to the University of Miami in 1988.
Florida Academy of Psychical Sciences 
Interesting i would’ve never known about this. Its stuff like this that makes you wonder more about the mysteries of everything. I hope I can one day look at these books that was in his library.