Classic Movie Travels: Audrey Meadows

Audrey Meadows

Audrey Cotter was born on February 8, 1922, in New York, New York, as the youngest of four children (two girls and two boys). Her parents were Reverend Francis James Meadows Cotter and Ida Miller Taylor, who worked as Episcopal missionaries in Wuchang, Hubei, China. While she spent her early years in China, the family returned to the United States.

There, she attended the Barrington School for Girls in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. After her high school years, Cotter expressed an interest in performing and sang in the Broadway musical Top Banana. She regularly appeared on The Bob and Ray Show on television. She would also take on the stage name of Audrey Meadows by this point.

Ultimately, her claim to fame would be playing Alice Kramden on The Jackie Gleason Show after Pert Kelton, who originated the role, was forced to leave the show due to the blacklist. By far, the biggest success of The Jackie Gleason Show was its “Honeymooners” sketches.

Interestingly, the part of Alice was a role that Meadows wanted very much; however, she was initially dismissed because she was deemed too pretty to play Alice. In response, she arranged for an “ugly” photo shoot and changed her look drastically, resubmitting photos of herself to Gleason. Gleason was interested and ultimately baffled that this was the same gorgeous actress who had previously auditioned for him. As a result, the part became hers.

Eventually, The Honeymooners became its own half-hour situation comedy on CBS. Even after a hiatus, Meadows would return to the role when Gleason produced Honeymooners specials during the 1970s. She also reprised the role on The Steve Allen Show, as Allen was her brother-in-law; Allen was married to her sister, Jayne Meadows. Additionally, she appeared as Alice on The Jack Benny Program during a parody sketch.

During the course of The Honeymooners’ run, Meadows was married to Randolph Rouse, a real-estate businessman. They were married in 1956 and divorced in 1958. In 1961, she married Robert F. Six, who was president of Continental Airlines, in Honolulu, Hawaii. They were married until his passing in 1986.

In addition to her work in entertainment, Meadows was director of the First National Bank of Denver for 11 years and was the first woman to secure the distinction. She was also an advisory director of Continental Airlines from 1961 to 1981, working in marketing programs that dealt with flight attendant and customer service agent uniform designs, in addition to aircraft interior design, and the designs of Continental’s airport lounges.

Of the core Honeymooners cast members from the classic 39 episodes, Meadows was the only one to earn residuals from the show when it began airing in syndication. Her brother, Edward, was a lawyer and added a clause to her contract calling for her to be paid if the shows were ever rebroadcast, leading her to earn millions over the years.

Beyond The Honeymooners, Meadows made guest appearances on other shows, including Alfred Hitchcock Presents; The Red Skelton Show; and Murder, She Wrote. She also voiced a character named Bea Simmons, girlfriend to Grampa Simpson, on an episode of The Simpsons. Additionally,Meadows published a memoir in 1994, entitled Love, Alice: My Life as a Honeymooner.

Meadows smoked and developed lung cancer in 1995. She was given one year to live and declined all but palliative treatments. She passed away on February 3, 1996, in Los Angeles, California. She is at rest at Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City, California, next to her second husband. She was 73 years old.

Today, there are some places of relevance tied to Meadows’ life. Her family’s 1930s home at 70 Barnes St., Providence, Rhode Island, stands today.

In 1948, she resided at 615 Hauser St., Los Angeles, California, which also remains.

She also had a property at 50 E. 72^nd St., New York, New York. This building still exists.

In 1962, she lived at 1009 Park Ave., New York, New York, which stands.

Her 1973 home at 350 Trousdale Pl., Beverly Hills, California, has since been razed.

Finally, she has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame honoring her work in television. It is located at 6100 Hollywood Blvd., Los Angeles, California.

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–Annette Bochenek for Classic Movie Hub

Annette Bochenek pens our monthly Classic Movie Travels column. You can read all of Annette’s Classic Movie Travel articles here.

Annette Bochenek of Chicago, Illinois, is a PhD student at Dominican University and an independent scholar of Hollywood’s Golden Age. She manages the Hometowns to Hollywood blog, in which she writes about her trips exploring the legacies and hometowns of Golden Age stars. Annette also hosts the “Hometowns to Hollywood” film series throughout the Chicago area. She has been featured on Turner Classic Movies and is the president of TCM Backlot’s Chicago chapter. In addition to writing for Classic Movie Hub, she also writes for Silent Film Quarterly, Nostalgia Digest, and Chicago Art Deco SocietyMagazine.