From humble comic beginnings in New York, the Borscht Belt, and comedy clubs around the country, Jackie Mason rose to be one the hottest comics in America in the early 1960’s. He reached the apex of American entertainment culture when he became a regular performer on the nation’s preeminent television variety program, “The Ed Sullivan Show,” only to fall into Sullivan’s disfavor over the interpretation of a now legendary hand gesture during a live performance in 1962, an incident which cast a shadow over Mason’s career for more than a decade.