Pert Kelton

Pert L. Kelton (October 14, 1907 – October 30, 1968) was an American stage, movie, radio, and television actress. She was the original Alice Kramden in The Honeymooners with Jackie Gleason. During the 1930s, she was a prominent comedic supporting and leading actress in Hollywood films such as Gregory La Cava's Bed of Roses with Constance Bennett and Raoul Walsh's The Bowery with Wallace Beery and George Raft (both released in 1933). She performed in a dozen Broadway productions between 1925 and 1968. She is probably best known for creating the role of Mrs. Paroo in the original 1957 Broadway production of the musical The Music Man, which she reprised in the 1962 movie adaptation. In the early 1950s, her career was interrupted as a result of Hollywood blacklisting,

Kelton was reportedly named by her aunt, who suggested the name "Pert" to her mother after her favorite theatrical role, the character "Pert Barlow" in a play called Checkers.

In 1910, while accompanying her parents and sister on an overseas tour of shows, she debuted on stage at the age of three in Cape Town, Union of South Africa.

Upon her return to the United States with her family, Kelton was enrolled in private schools for her early formal education and for extensive training in dance, voice, and drama. By age 12, after appearing for a while with her parents as "The Three Keltons", she began appearing as a solo act or "single" in vaudeville; and by age 17 she was performing on Broadway, initially as a cast member in Jerome Kern's 1925 musical comedy Sunny, starring Marilyn Miller.

Films Kelton and her parents had moved to California to work in Hollywood films by the latter half of 1927. That same census identifies all three of the Keltons as employed actors in "motion pictures".

Kelton for the remainder of the 1930s performed in over 20 more feature films and shorts. After her appearance in the 1939 film Whispering Enemies, she redirected her career, returning again to theatre and to performing increasingly on radio and later on the rapidly expanding medium of television. She did not return to the "big screen" until 1962, when she was cast as Mrs. Paroo in The Music Man.

Radio and return to New York By April 1940, Pert had left California and was living in New York City again, sharing a $65-per-month apartment in Manhattan on West 55th Street with three other women, two of whom were employed as dancers in the theatre and the third as a secretary. A federal census taker canvassing Manhattan that year concisely identified Kelton in his enumeration ledger as "Actress, Theatre & Movies" and recorded her given age as only 28, although in the spring of 1940 Kelton was actually 32 years old. In his book The Forgotten Network, David Weinstein wrote Kelton remained on Cavalcade of Stars through the final season of the series (1951–1952), and suggests that it may have been because Jackie Gleason had resisted attempts at having her dropped.

In the 1960s, Kelton was invited back to Gleason's CBS show to play Alice's mother in an episode of the hour-long musical version of The Honeymooners (also known as The Color Honeymooners), with Sheila MacRae as a fetching young Alice.

In 1963, Kelton appeared on The Twilight Zone, playing the overbearing mother of Robert Duvall in the episode "Miniature." The next year she guest-starred on the popular family sitcom My Three Sons. In this episode "Stage Door Bub", Kelton portrays Thelma Wilson, a veteran itinerant stage actress who longs for a settled domestic life but soon realizes that that lifestyle is actually ill-suited for her personality.

In her last years, Kelton was strongly identified with Spic and Span because of commercials for the product.

Hotel owner Pert Kelton was part owner of the Warner-Kelton Hotel, built in the late 1920s, at 6326 Lexington Avenue in Los Angeles. Kelton and her parents resided in the hotel during the late 1920s until at least 1930. The building had a small outdoor theater, in a garden to the south, with a wishing well that may have inspired the song "There's a Small Hotel" from the musical On Your Toes (1936). It also housed a speakeasy in the basement. A sign above the hotel entrance reads "Joyously Enter Here". It was later the home of the California Television Society.

Personal life and death When away from rehearsing and performing, Kelton enjoyed art as a pastime and became a "passionate" painter. She was married to actor-director Ralph S. Bell, with whom she had two sons, Brian and Stephen.

Filmography

Features Sally (1929) as Rosie Hot Curves (1930) as Cookie Bed of Roses (1933) as Minnie Brown The Bowery (1933) as Trixie Odbray The Meanest Gal in Town (1934) as Lulu White Sing and Like It (1934) as Ruby Bachelor Bait (1934) as Allie Summers Pursued (1934) as Gilda (uncredited) Lightning Strikes Twice (1934) as Fay, the Fan Dancer Hooray for Love (1935) as Trixie Chummy Mary Burns, Fugitive (1935) as Goldie Gordon Annie Oakley (1935) as Vera Delmar Kelly the Second (1936) as Gloria Sitting on the Moon (1936) as Mattie Cain and Mabel (1936) as Toddy Laughing at Trouble (1936) as Ella McShane Women of Glamour (1937) as Nan LaRoque The Hit Parade (1937) as Eadie White Meet the Boyfriend (1937) as Beulah Potts You Can't Take It with You (1938) as Inmate (uncredited) Slander House (1938) as Mazie Mason Rhythm of the Saddle (1938) as Aunt Hattie Whispering Enemies (1939) as Virginia Daniels Hollywood Bound (1947), Edited from A Night at the Biltmore Bowl The Music Man (1962) as Mrs. Paroo Love and Kisses (1965) as Nanny The Comic (1969) as Mama Bell (posthumous release; final film role)

Short Subjects: Their Wives' Vacation (1930) Next Door Neighbors (1931) as Mrs. Green The Albany Branch (1931) as Pert Kelsey Signing 'em Up (1933) as Herself Screen Snapshots Series 14, No. 8 (1935) A Night at the Biltmore Bowl (1935) as Pert Kelton Pan Handlers (1936) as Pert Cinema Circus (1937) as Pert Kelton (uncredited)