Oct. 19, 1964 - Ed Sullivan accused Jackie Mason (right) today of having made “obscene gestures on-camera” on his television show and canceled the comedian’s $45,000 contract for six appearances. Bob Precht, producer of the CBS program, said Mason would not even be paid the $7,500 he was to receive for his six-minute monologue last night.
Sullivan and the producer also charged the comedian with “insubordination and gross deviation from material agreed upon” after dress rehearsal and before the show went on the air.
The incident that led to the obscenity charge occurred just after the televised speech by President Johnson, which had interrupted the Sullivan show at the halfway point, 8:30. In the studio, the performance had continued on schedule. When the network returned to the show at about 8:52, Mason was in the final minutes of his monologue.
Sullivan moved on stage, but not into camera range, and held up two fingers, indicating to Mason that he had two minutes to go. A minute later, Sullivan held up one finger.
“The studio audience laughed, and I started making jokes about fingers,” Mason said today.
What was visible to millions of viewers was an upward thrust of a finger by the comedian. He told the audience he had been “getting lots of fingers tonight.” Pointing in different directions, he added: “Here’s a finger for you and a finger for you and a finger for you.” Mason also thumbed his nose at the camera.
He said today that none of the gestures were intended to be offensive. “I had no obscene thoughts in my mind,” he asserted.
Sullivan appeared to be upset when he came back on camera after Mason had left the stage, but he did not comment about what had happened.
“I was furious and sick to my stomach,” he said today by telephone from Las Vegas,
Mason said that after the show, Sullivan walked over to him and said, “I will destroy you in show business.” Sullivan denied this.
Elaborating on the charge that Mason had deviated from the material agreed upon, Precht said: “During dress rehearsal yesterday afternoon, Jackie had lots of Goldwater and Johnson jokes. As we near a Presidential election, we always ask comedians to drop political jokes because it’s a touchy situation.
“Ed talked to Jackie about this after rehearsal, and they went over lots of new material to be substituted. The new material was put on cue cards, which Jackie could read when the show was on.
“But when the show was on the air, I noticed that after Jackie got the signal to go off, he started using material that had not been agreed upon.”
Mason, 33 years old, denied that he had made an agreement about all the material he would use on the show.
Mason, who was ordained as a rabbi and served as one for several years before exchanging his pulpit for a nightclub stage, has appeared on the Sullivan show many times. “He started on my show,” Sullivan said.
The comedian, expressing concern about the charges made against him by his former employer, threatened today “to sue for everything I can get.”

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