‘The Great One’ Jackie Gleason had a big role in South Florida. Take a look
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- Jackie Gleason relocated his CBS variety show to Miami Beach in 1964.
- Local officials valued Gleason's Miami Beach presence at $9M in annual publicity.
- The Miami Beach Auditorium, now The Fillmore, became home to Gleason’s show.
You may know Jackie Gleason just from the name of a Miami Beach theater. He was much more than that.
Gleason brought his TV show to the city from New York in the 1960s and he retired to Inverrary in Lauderhill, spending lots of time on the golf course.
“The Jackie Gleason Show,” a fixture on CBS since 1952 and featuring “The Honeymooners,” moved to Miami Beach in 1964 and stayed there until it went off the air in 1970. Each week during his variety show from “the sun and fun capital of the world,” Gleason proclaimed: “The Miami Beach audience is the greatest audience in the world!”
In the summer of 1964, Gleason made a highly publicized 36-hour train trip from New York to Florida, when he and more than 100 actors, dancers, musicians, crew members and their families moved south for the TV show. Miami Beach at the time estimated that Gleason’s working in South Florida was worth $9 million a year in publicity alone. Every show opened with a dramatic water view of the skyline.
Gleason did his show at the Miami Beach Auditorium, later converted to a performing arts center and now known as The Fillmore Miami Beach at The Jackie Gleason Theater.
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Let’s take a look at Gleason’s time in South Florida through the photo archives of the Miami Herald:
In Miami Beach with Mike Douglas
On the golf course in South Florida
On stage in Miami Beach
Man about town
Show cast members
Farewell
This story was originally published June 23, 2025 at 9:28 AM.