Word: masons
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Between notches in the Borscht Belt, he sold shoes at Gimbel's, pajamas at Saks and menswear at Macy's. The only item he had trouble merchandising was Jackie Mason. It was not until 1962 that he found his own reproachful voice. Steve Allen caught the act and booked him on his TV show. Later that year, Ed Sullivan granted Jackie spots on what was then the nation's most popular variety program...
Then came the dark night of Oct. 18, 1964. Sullivan was running late. He flashed the two-minute sign offscreen. Sixty seconds later he held up one finger. Mason, on a roll, furiously responded, "Here's a finger for you!" Next morning the stone-faced master of ceremonies informed the press that he was "sick to my stomach" about Mason's on-camera crudities and canceled the comedian's $45,000 contract. An out-of-court settlement got Jackie back on the show but could not restore his reputation. Says Mason: "All of a sudden people started to think...
...started to make repairs by appearing "in Atlantic City a hundred times, Vegas 200 times, Miami Beach a million times." Then came ventures in theater and film. A comedy, A Teaspoon Every Four Hours, featuring Jackie Mason and $100,000 of his money, lasted one night on Broadway. He produced and acted in the celluloid bomb The Stoolie, "another effort in my series of efforts to get somewhere." Through all those trials and travels on the road, Mason, 56, never married "because I didn't want to be intensely involved with someone I knew I wouldn't see a week...
...many years of obscurity made him desperate for stability and recognition. In a final theatrical gesture, Mason allowed his manager to talk him into doing a solo shot on Broadway. To the astonishment of everyone, including the star, it was an immediate smash. New York Times Critic Frank Rich wrote, "So sue me . . . Mason was very, very funny." The professionals closed ranks behind the comedian: Writer-Producer Larry Gelbart (M*A*S*H) returned eight times, and Mel Brooks announced that "nobody makes me laugh harder." Joe Papp, producer of the New York Shakespeare Festival, went further. When Donald Moffat...
Fans have tried to find reasons for the turnaround. Gelbart attributes the Masonic cult to nostalgia: "Jackie is one of the few practitioners left of a style that appeals to an older audience. It's like listening to the Glenn Miller Band." Steve Allen compares Mason with Lenny Bruce: "He is more than a joke-joke comic; he is a philosopher." Mason seems to be the only one who admits that he is a "sensation for the same Jewish jokes that made me a failure." Perhaps, he thinks, it is the setting: "In the theater they...