Jackie Masonry

What is Leonard Feather, a jazz critic, doing writing about comedy (“When Mason Crossed the Racial Line,” March 13)?

To paraphrase Jackie Mason himself, “Comedy is not Feather’s field.” Feather’s article about Mason certainly proved that.

In trying to explain away Mason’s success on Broadway with his one-man show, Feather attributes it to New York’s “large Jewish population” and that population’s willingness to “laugh at itself.”

Well, that very same show which, according to Feather, could only appeal to New York Jews, was a smash hit here in L.A. for well over a year before it went to Broadway.

So Mason did four regrettable minutes on the Grammy show. He is still one of the funniest comedians America has ever produced. And as Dan Rather and Vice-President George Bush would agree, nobody’s entire body of work should be judged based on a few regrettable minutes.

As for Feather, those few regrettable paragraphs on comedy are enough. He should stick to jazz.

HAL WOLKOWITZ

Los Angeles