On October 18, 1964, Jackie Mason made his 13th appearance as a guest on The Ed Sullivan Show. The popular nightclub comic was quickly rising in the ranks at the time, and it seemed like nothing could get in the way of his ascent. What he didn’t anticipate that evening was that a speech from President Lyndon B. Johnson would soon interrupt his act. Sullivan started frantically making hand gestures at Mason offstage to tell him to cut things short, and Mason, not understanding what Sullivan was trying to say, decided to make fun of the variety show host during the live broadcast.
Mason threw up some hand gestures of his own while they were still on the air, and according to Sullivan, gave him the middle finger in the process. Mason denied the accusation, but the damage was already done. Whether or not it was true, Sullivan was offended at the idea of it, and Mason was branded unreliable and vulgar. He was also banned from appearing on Sullivan’s show moving forward. The fallout made it difficult for Mason to get TV bookings for decades.
“I never starved,” Mason told People in 1987. “I worked. I always worked. Miami. Las Vegas. Atlantic City. I made $500,000 a year. Some years I made close to a million.” However, his desire for artistic recognition left him unfulfilled in the wake of the Sullivan incident. “I was frustrated,” Mason remembered. “I went into debt. I knew that I should have been a superstar.”
Mason later sued Sullivan for defamation in an attempt to clear his name. Most of his complaint was dismissed by the court. Despite the bad blood between the two, they eventually made amends, and Sullivan welcomed Mason back to his show in 1966. In his monologue that night, Mason expressed his love for Sullivan and joked, “I haven’t been here so long, I forgot my act.” He then proceeded to mock his gracious host for the entirety of his set:
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