Jackie Gleason: Library of the Paranormal

by Jackie Gleason (Editor)

88 pages, Hardcover

Published April 28, 2026

About the author

Herbert John Gleason (born Herbert Walton Gleason Jr.; February 26, 1916 – June 24, 1987), known as Jackie Gleason, was an American comedian, actor, writer, and composer.

He developed a style and characters from growing up in Brooklyn, New York, and was known for his brash visual and verbal comedy, exemplified by his city bus driver character Ralph Kramden in the television series The Honeymooners.
He also developed The Jackie Gleason Show.

Among his notable film roles were Minnesota Fats in 1961's The Hustler (co-starring with Paul Newman) and Buford T. Justice in the Smokey and the Bandit trilogy.

Gleason also enjoyed a prominent secondary music career during the 1950s and 1960s.

Reviews

[Tosh · Rating 5 out of 5]

What an iincredible reference, and all under the eyes and mind of the great comedian and actor Jackie Gleason. Who would have known?

[Markel Tumlin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This slender book is a load of fun. Heavily illustrated from Gleason’s personal collection now housed at the University of Miami, the text is largely made up of excerpts from contemporaneous periodicals about Gleason’s interest in the subject.

[Tom · Rating 4 out of 5]

Probably still best remembered for his role as the bus driver Ralph Kramden in the 1950s TV series “The Honeymooners,” the star of his own variety show in the 1960s, and Academy Award-nominee for his performance in the film Minnesota Fats, Jackie Gleason was a household name. Less remembered is his outspoken interest in UFOs and the paranormal. Jackie Gleason: Library of the Paranormal collects decades’ worth of newspaper clippings of interviews with Gleason eager to talk about those interests, which he often buttresses with reference to his collection of several thousand books and pamphlets on the subjects, kept in his flying saucer-shaped house. How to Contact Space People, issues of The Occult Digest, Have You Lived Before This Life? (by L. Ron Hubbard!), Satan Is Alive and Well on Planet Earth, and other titles filled the shelves of his collection, many of which were donated to the University of Miami Library after his death.

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