Gotham Honors A Heavyweight

New York has statues honoring George Washington, Christopher Columbus and Shakespeare. Now there is an unlikely addition to the honor roll.

A statue of Ralph Kramden, perhaps the country's most famous bus driver, was unveiled Monday at the Port Authority Bus Terminal in Manhattan.

Comedian Jackie Gleason immortalized the character during his tenure as Kramden, the fictional New York City bus driver, Raccoon Lodge treasurer and all-around blow-hard on the 1950s CBS sitcom The Honeymooners. On the classic series, Kramden drove a bus on Manhattan's Madison Avenue, earning $62 a week.

Joyce Randolph, who played Gleason's neighbor Trixie on the show, attended the unveiling.

"He loved hoopla and the statue is gorgeous," Randolph said.

TV Land, which airs Honeymooners reruns on cable television, developed the statue with the Jackie Gleason estate and The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

The eight-foot bronze likeness of Gleason weighs half a ton. As Kramden neighbor Ed Norton would no doubt tell you, that's just slightly more than the real thing.

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