“He was raised Catholic,” noted Cristina Favretto, head of special collections at the University of Miami Libraries, “and remained one. He felt there was a certainty in the afterlife, and he wanted to investigate it.”
Investigate, Gleason did: witches and fairies, spirits and ghosts. There is a story that in 1973, President Richard Nixon, a friend of Gleason, called the comedian up and invited him to Homestead Air Reserve Base in Florida. Gleason went and returned home badly shaken. Why? He claimed to have seen the embalmed bodies of four alien beings, two feet long, with small heads and big ears.
Gleason’s collection was donated to the University of Miami by his widow, Marilyn, after he died in 1987 from colon cancer. It is open to researchers and has been highlighted in campus exhibitions over the years. “When life feels out of control,” Favretto said, “and when the world’s events are worrisome, we need to find comfort. We need to find the answers.” She surmises the same was true for Gleason, seeking answers to life’s big questions as he acquired book upon book. Perhaps the next title would answer for him if we are truly alone. Maybe the next book would tell him what happens after we die. Favretto observed, “It must have been comforting to him to have that belief.”
And what can these books teach us? “A bit of everything and a ton of nothing,” Lampert said. “Knowing where you’re going is overrated. Getting lost opens up more opportunities.”
Gleason would roar on The Honeymooners his famous catchphrase: “To the moon, Alice!” What’s up there and far beyond? Just like Gleason, we are still trying to find answers in the unanswerable.
