The Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon (also known as The Jerry Lewis MDA Labor Day Telethon ) is hosted by actor and comedian, Jerry Lewis to raise money for the Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA). It has been held annually since 1966.
As of 2007, the telethon had raised $1.46 billion since its inception. It is held on Labor Day weekend, starting on the Sunday evening preceding Labor Day and continuing until late Monday afternoon, syndicated to approximately 190 television stations throughout the United States.
In recent years, the telethon generally runs live for 21 hours, from 9PM ET to 6PM ET, though actual start and end times may vary by station. Previously, the telethon ran live for 21 1/2 hours, ending at 6:30PM ET; however, the MDA still considers this length to be the official length of the telethon.
MDA calls its network of participating stations the "Love Network". The show has originated from Las Vegas for 23 of the 40 years it has aired.
History
Lewis began hosting telethons to benefit the Muscular Dystrophy Associations of America in 1952 after a plea from a staff member who worked on Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis' editions of the Colgate Comedy Hour . The shows first originated from a variety of locations in New York City in 1954, as local telethons seen exclusively on WABD-TV Channel 5 (later WNEW-TV, now WNYW). After Lewis conducted many 4 hour shows in the NY area to benefit the organization, the idea of a big Telethon came about.
The organization (MDAA) approached Lewis to host the big event and he agreed. Organizers of the telethon chose Labor Day weekend as it was the only time available to hold the event. Many expected that the Labor Day broadcast would fail with many people out of town or away from their TVs on Labor Day weekend. Even New York City officials were skeptical that it would succeed, which made them reluctant to issue them a fund-raising permit.
1960s-1970s
Nevertheless, in 1966, the first Labor Day telethon—a 19-hour affair—was so successful that Lewis had to paint a "1" on the 6-digit tote board when the final tote reached $1,002,114. The show repeated its success in 1967 raising $1,126,846. In 1968, after word of mouth of the success and stars appearing on the show, the "Love Network" was created when four other stations picked up the telethon -- WHEC-TV in Rochester, WGR in Buffalo, WTEV in Providence and WKBG in Boston. However, they met some opposition from the Theater Authority , an organization that represented theatrical-related labor unions, in which their permission is required before the representing talent can perform without charge. That year, permission was granted for talent to appear on the small telethon "network". The addition of the other stations helped raise the total to $1,401,876.
While they originally intended for the entire telethon to be seen, with the obligatory local pauses for station identification, WHEC chose to break in a few minutes every hour to show local volunteers in Rochester taking calls, and, as a result, WHEC had higher proceeds than the other "Love Network" stations. This is how the local cutaway was born. From here on, every Telethon had cutaways and other Telethon events used this formula as well.
By 1970, the telethon was seen nationwide on 64 stations; that year's edition was also the first coast-to-coast telethon, when it added Los Angeles to its station roster. It was also the year the Theater Authority lifted its ban on nationwide telethons. Proceeds this year came to $5,093,385. The show continued to gain popularity and huge stars throughout the next 2 years. Then, in 1973, with 150 "Love Network" stations in tow, the telethon moved to Las Vegas, Nevada, where it originated at the Sahara Hotel.
It was also the year the telethon broke the $10 million mark, with its final tote being $12,395,973. However, the tote board, which was operated on a solari board, only had seven digits (to just under $10 million), so Jerry repeated his 1966 stunt of painting the "1" on the left after Ed came yelling off stage saying "I have a brush, and I have some paint...". The following year, an additional solari number flipper was added to the current seven digits, which would allow for displaying to just under $100 million. In 1976, the "Love Network" grew to 213 stations; it was also the year of the reunion of Jerry and his former partner, Dean Martin, which was arranged by a frequent telethon guest, Frank Sinatra.
1980s-1990s
During the telethon's Las Vegas years in the 1970s and 1980s, the show originated at the Sahara until 1982 when it moved to a bigger space at Caesars Palace. The show continued there until 1989 when it originated from the Cashman Center in Las Vegas - the first and only time it was transmitted from a non-hotel in Las Vegas. Jerry Lewis anchored the entire broadcast—which would eventually expand to 21 1/2 hours—from its inception until 1983, when he rested for a few hours offstage after undergoing bypass surgery the year before.
In 1990, the telethon originated from the Aquarius Theater in Los Angeles, then returned to Las Vegas and the Sahara Hotel until 1995 when it moved again to Southern California, to the CBS studios for 9 years and then in 2005 to Beverly Hills. In 1998, MDA's all star landmark show became the first to be broadcast on the Internet by RealNetworks on the association's website. After the telethon, the site features a special highlights reel of the telethon for that year.
Lewis still continued to host at least 16 hours of his telethon until 1999 (a year when he would suffer from various medical issues) when he would appear for the first five hours and the last five hours of the telecast, with an extended pre-recorded segment presented during late-night hours, and other celebrities filling in for Lewis and Ed McMahon during the morning hours. Co-hosts have included talk show host Larry King, comedians Norm Crosby, Elayne Boosler, Bob Zany, TV personalities Chad Everett, David Hartman, Casey Kasem, Jann Carl, Leeza Gibbons, John Tesh, veteran singers Tony Orlando, Julius LaRosa (who began co-hosting for Jerry in remote locations since 1975), Sammy Davis Jr., and many others.
2000s
The telethon returned to Las Vegas in 2006 at the South Point Hotel, Casino & Spa (which was the South Coast its first year there), and has remained there through the 2009 telethon. In 2009, the telethon extended its coverage to Twitter, Facebook and YouTube, offering additional information and behind-the scenes material for followers of these services.
As of 2009, the national segments of the telethon were not broadcast in high definition, though most stations broadcast their local segments in HD.
Ed McMahon
Ed McMahon was Lewis' long-time co-host. Ed McMahon was involved with the telethon beginning in 1967 and co-hosted the telethon with Jerry from 1973 to 2008. Similar to his regular position as co-host of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson , McMahon was Lewis' co-host, announcing the intros and outros of each segment, welcoming corporate and charitable sponsors with their donations, and of course, calling for a roll of a timpani drum for each million dollar mark passed on the tote board.
The trend of taking a break during the telethon was started in 1985 by McMahon. As with Lewis, McMahon would also appear only when Lewis appears, with his duties as co-host filled in by others. Ed McMahon died June 23, 2009. The 2009 edition of the telethon paid tribute to McMahon with a special video tribute narrated by Lewis, which played during the first hour of the show. Following the tribute, Lewis introduced McMahon's wife, Pamela, who was in the audience. During the telethon for that year, Jann Carl assumed Ed's duties during Jerry's hours on-air, while announcer and KKGO (Los Angeles) deejay Shawn Parr billboarded the start and end of each segment.
Current scheduling
In recent years, more "Love Network" stations over the years have opted not to show the entire telethon, opting to join the show in progress after the 11PM/10PM local news, or even on Labor Day morning, after the network morning shows, while some break from the coverage during the afternoon to show sports, such as CBS' coverage of the U.S. Open.
One such station is Chicago's WGN-TV, which, since the 1970s, pre-empted the afternoon segment of the telethon for Chicago Cubs or Chicago White Sox baseball (except for the 1994 telethon, due to the baseball strike). In another case, some use a sister station affiliated with either The CW, MyNetworkTV or an independent to show the telethon start, and/or air the station's network programming while the telethon station continues to air the telethon; this is the case with CBS affiliate WDJT in Milwaukee and its independent sister station WMLW-CA, which in 2007 aired the first four hours of the telethon during CBS prime time, then aired U.S. Open coverage on Labor Day to allow WDJT to carry the telethon. In Pittsburgh, WPXI carried the telethon, while sending NBC's coverage of the Deutsche Bank Championship golf tournament to independent station WBGN-LP.
Theme songs
- Since the show's inception, its theme has been Smile , a song from Charlie Chaplin's 1936 film, Modern Times .
- The telethon's toteboard theme song is an instrumental version of Burt Bacharach's What The World Needs Now Is Love (1965). It was used from 1970 through 1989 in different arrangements. At the show's 25th Anniversary in 1990, it was
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