'Bang, Zoom, Straight to the Moon!'

35 years ago today, Sunset Park's bus depot was renamed to honor Jackie Gleason and the world's most famous bus driver, Ralph Kramden.

Jackie Gleason as Ralph Kramden on “The Honeymooners.”

When I first moved to Sunset Park, I pointed out the name of the bus depot across the street from the Tacos El Bronco truck to a friend and I was shocked at the response: "Jackie Gleason? Who's that?" Most things fade with time, but "The Honeymooners" seemed eternal, especially since it was still in syndication. (It was even the inspiration for another eternally syndicated show, "The Flintstones.")

Today marks the 35th anniversary of the Fifth Avenue Bus Depot being renamed in honor of Gleason, who was born at home in Brooklyn at 364 Chauncey Street on Feb. 26, 1916. In the 1930s, his mother was a subway change-booth clerk.

Gleason made "The Honeymooners" bombastic star character, Ralph Kramden, the most famous bus driver in the world. Kramden was so beloved that in 1999 he also was honored with an 8-foot-tall bronze statue at Port Authority Bus Terminal. It is hard to overstate the enormity of Gleason's fame at the time the show originally aired in the 1950s, living on in syndication for more than half a century afterward. 

From left, Jackie Gleason as Ralph Kramden, Art Carney as Ed Norton, Audrey Meadows as Alice Kramden, and Joyce Randolph as Trixie Norton.

"People like the show because we are them," Gleason said. But Art Carney, who played his sidekick, Ed Norton, differed: "It was funny, period." While Gleason was the main attraction, he never won an Emmy for his role while Carney won five. Regardless, Gleason was bigger than life and as bright a star as there was in America at the time. Christened "The Great One," he hosted “The Jackie Gleason Show” for two decades. It was there that the characters for "The Honeymooners" originally came to life before being spun off into their own series. 

Gleason's catchphrases as Kramden became so ubiquitous they could be heard in bars, living rooms, and sidewalks across America — and many still can, if you're hanging with an old enough crowd: 

• "Away we go!"

• "Bang, zoom, straight to the moon!"

• "Homina, homina, homina …" 

• "One of these days, pow! Right in the kisser!"

• ''How sweeeeeet it is.''

• "Baby, you're the greatest."

The sign honoring Jackie Gleason on the side of Sunset Park’s bus depot has been broken for a while now.

On June 24, 1987, Gleason died at age 71. As a memorial the next day, many New York bus drivers drove with their lights on. A little more than a year later, on June 30, 1988, about 1,200 people attended the renaming ceremony in Sunset Park, The Associated Press reported. Officials unveiled the new logo for the depot: a moon rising over the New York skyline, similar to what was seen during the show’s credits. (The sign on the side of the depot has been broken for a while now, but let’s hope it’s replaced soon.) As ″The Honeymooners″ theme song played, then-Metropolitan Transportation Authority Chairman Robert Kiley called Gleason ″a great son of Brooklyn."

″His bus driver creation, Ralph Kramden, may have been a blowhard," Kiley added, "but always, deep down, he was a hard worker and a decent human being. He was, as he always said of (his wife) Alice, the greatest."