Pert L. Kelton (October 14, 1907 â€" October 30, 1968) was an American
stage, movie, radio, and television actress. She was the first actress
who played Alice Kramden in The Honeymooners with Jackie Gleason and
earlier, during the 1930s, was a prominent comedic supporting and
leading actress in Hollywood films such as Bed of Roses and The
Bowery. She performed in a dozen Broadway productions between 1925 and
1968. However, her career was interrupted in the 1950s as a result of
blacklisting, leading to her departure from The Honeymooners.Pert L.
Kelton was born in 1907 in Great Falls, Montana. Her mother, Sue
Kelton, was a native of Canada; her father, Edward Kelton, a native of
California. Both of her parents were travelling song-and-dance
performers in vaudeville; and her aunt, Jane Kelton, was also a
professional actress in the late 1800s and early 1900s. In fact, it
was her Aunt Jane who is credited with giving Pert her unusual name.
According to Kelton family history, Jane suggested the name to Pert's
mother while reminiscing about her career and describing her favorite
theatrical role, that of the character "Pert Barlow" in a play called
Checkers. Pert, therefore, even from infancy, seemed destined to be an
entertainer, and she quickly became one. 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, South Africa. Upon her return
to the United States with her family, Pert 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.Pert and her parents had moved
to California to work in Hollywood films by the latter half of 1927.
Her first credited movie role there was as the character Rosie in
First National Pictures' 1929 release Sally, a production based on the
Broadway hit by the same name. With regard to the Kelton family's
living arrangements in this period, the federal census of 1930
documents that Pert was residing in Los Angeles at the "Warner-Kelton
Hotel", later called the Hotel Brevoort (and Tropical Gardens) and
sharing room 666. That same census identifies all three of the Keltons
as employed actors in "motion pictures".Pert was a young comedienne in
A-list movies during the 1930s, often portraying the leading lady's
wisecracking friend. She had a memorable turn in 1933 as dance hall
singer "Trixie" in The Bowery alongside Wallace Beery, George Raft,
Jackie Cooper, and Fay Wray. Directed by Raoul Walsh, the film is
based on the story of Steve Brodie, the first man who reportedly
jumped off the Brooklyn Bridge in 1886 and lived to brag about it.
Kelton at one point in the film sings to a rowdy, appreciative crowd
in an energetic dive, using a curious New York accent to good comedic
effect, with Beery and Raft arguing afterwards over her attentions. Pert Kelton Biography, NetWorth, Height, Age, Weight, Family, Married, Son, Daughter