Comedian Jay Leno dropped a bombshell about late-night talk show legend Johnny Carson during Leno’s appearance on Bill Maher’s “Club Random” YouTube show. In the episode, Leno recounted how Carson narrowly escaped a mob hit after an incident at a notorious New York bar spiraled out of control.
The revelation came after Maher joked about recent National Enquirer speculation claiming Leno’s recent accidents, including falling down a hill in Pennsylvania, might be tied to alleged gambling debts with organized crime.
Though Maher entertained the theory briefly, he quickly dismissed it as ridiculous, considering Leno’s estimated $450 million fortune. Leno used the moment to share a jaw-dropping story that shed light on his “Tonight Show” predecessor’s dangerous encounter with the criminal underworld.
According to Leno, the ordeal took place in 1970 at Jilly’s Saloon, a well-known mobster hangout on 52nd Street and Eighth Avenue in Manhattan. Carson, accompanied by his then-lawyer Henry Bushkin, unknowingly crossed a line when he flirted with two women at the bar.
“They’re having drinks, and they start hitting on these two girls kind of rudely. Turns out they’re mob girlfriends,” Leno explained to Maher.
The situation escalated quickly, leaving Carson in serious danger.
“They put a hit out on Carson. So, Carson stops ‘The Tonight Show’ for the week. He just goes, he leaves, because this is real,” Leno said.
What followed was an extraordinary negotiation with alleged mob boss Joe Colombo, who orchestrated a way for Carson to be spared.
“Joe Colombo went to NBC and said, ‘If you cover the Italian parade, we’ll pull the hit on Carson,’” Leno revealed. The Italian Unity Day parade, a Five Families-backed event, had been largely ignored by other networks, but NBC agreed to broadcast it in exchange for Carson’s safety.
Details of the confrontation were later documented in Bushkin’s book, “Johnny Carson,” which was published 2013, eight years after Carson died at 79 in 2005. However, Bushkin claimed he wasn’t directly involved, learning about the incident secondhand. His account painted an even more intense picture.
“An attractive brunette at the bar caught Carson’s eye, and he was doing his considerable best to convince her to leave with him,” Bushkin wrote, according to a New York Post article. “And when her boyfriend — a major figure in the underworld — arrived, he was not grateful to Johnny for entertaining his ‘goomar’ in his absence.”
For context, “goomar” is Italian-American slang for a mobster’s mistress.
According to Bushkin, Carson was dragged off his bar stool and thrown down a flight of stairs by the mobster and his crew. The incident could have ended much worse had it not been for the intervention of Jilly Rizzo, the saloon’s owner.
Despite Rizzo’s efforts, the mob boss still ordered a hit on Carson. Terrified, Carson fled to his UN Plaza penthouse, where he stayed hidden for three days, missing three episodes of “The Tonight Show,” which at the time was still filmed in New York and would not move to NBC’s Burbank, California, studios until 1972.
Both Leno and Bushkin agreed that NBC executives, including David Tebet and George Wood of the William Morris Agency, played key roles in resolving the situation. The network’s decision to cover the Italian Unity parade marked a rare moment of cooperation between television executives and organized crime.
Fans of Leno — who took over “The Tonight Show” in 1992 when Carson retired after 30 years as host — and Maher were captivated by the story, with many praising Leno’s knack for storytelling.
One YouTube viewer commented, “I could listen to Jay telling his show business stories for hours.”
Another story that Leno shared was how he circumvented being mob adjacent. He said, unlike other comedians, he didn’t take tips from them.
Early in his career, after one of his shows, a mobster approached him, calling him a “funny kid” while trying to slip $100 into his pocket. Despite the awkward situation, Leno politely declined, telling him, “I don’t mean any disrespect but… give it to the church or something… I’m OK but thank you.”
The man’s response proved unexpectedly positive.
“You’re a smart kid,” he told Leno. “You don’t take money from people like me – that’s smart.” This decision earned Leno respect in certain circles, as he notes that after this interaction, “nobody ever bothered me again.”
Ever again means even now. Hopefully, mafia rumors about Leno can be put to rest as the 74-year-old enjoys his retirement from the NBC late-night show he stepped down from in 2014.
