From: ahk@chinet.com   
      
   Adam H. Kerman  wrote:   
   >A Friend wrote:   
   >>Adam H. Kerman  wrote:   
      
   >>>The original Alice was Pert Kelton. She performed the role in nine skits   
   >>>between 1951 and 1952. She also played Mrs. Paroo in The Music Man,   
   >>>both on Broadway and in the 1962 movie adaptation. Sadly, she had heart   
   >>>problems and died in 1968.   
      
   >>Pert Kelton was caught up in the blacklist because her husband, Ralph   
   >>Bell, had been listed in a publication called Red Channels, which   
   >>purported to expose communists working in the entertainment industry.   
   >>Gleason was forced by CBS to fire Kelton, but he later recast her as   
   >>Alice's mother in one of the Honeymooners sketches on his 1960s variety   
   >>show.  When he brought out the cast at the end of that show, he told a   
   >>little bit of her story.   
      
   >Huh. I never read that she was affected by the Blacklist in any of my tv   
   >reference books. I assumed she returned to Broadway.   
      
   >Thanks   
      
   Ok. The list she was on came out in 1951. The Wikipedia article suggests   
   that Gleason was pressured to fire her while the Cavalcade of Stars was   
   in its final season on DuMont but Gleason kept her on the show through   
   the end of the DuMont run. IMDb says her last appearance was May 30,   
   1952, so that matches, as Alice in a Honeymooners sketch.   
      
   It sounds like CBS never approved her hiring. She never was on his show   
   after it moved to CBS.   
      
   The heart problems was a lie told by producers trying to save her   
   career. I guess the Red Channels blacklist wasn't as widely known as   
   other blacklists.   
      
   Maybe she didn't have diagnosed heart problems at the time, but she did   
   die of a heart attack.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)