September 4, 1966, 60 years ago: The MDA Labor Day Telethon is held for the 1st time, hosted by singer-comedian Jerry Lewis.
Lewis began hosting telethons to benefit the Muscular Dystrophy Associations of America (MDAA) in 1952, after a plea from a staff member who worked with Lewis and Dean Martin on The Colgate Comedy Hour. Lewis had previously taken part in what has been described as the very first telethon, a marathon 1951 broadcast benefiting a cardiac hospital that was organized by Budd Granoff, which featured the Martin and Lewis comedy team, who were his clients at that time.
Until their split in 1956, Martin and Lewis hosted these local telethons from New York together. Lewis then hosted it alone, and was named national chairman of MDAA, doing it on Thanksgiving Day in 1957 and 1959. In 1966, it went national, and was moved to Labor Day, previously one of the few national holidays without a major television connection.
It allowed for a 21 1/2-hour production, which Lewis would begin by singing Charlie Chaplin's theme song, "Smile"; and end with "You'll Never Walk Alone," from the Rodgers & Hammerstein musical Carousel. In between, there would be a constant stream of celebrities: Singers, dancers, comedians, actors performing scenes from Shakespeare's plays and Broadway musicals; and footage of the children the MDA was trying to help, who became known as "Jerry's Kids." Many critics slammed Lewis for appealing to pity, and sometimes the kids' difficulties were hard to watch, but it worked.
Initially, the Telethon was staged at the Americana Hotel, at 811 7th Avenue at 52nd Street in Midtown Manhattan. (It's now the Sheraton New York Times Square Hotel.) It had the necessary facilities: A ballroom with a stage big enough for a talk show-style desk, a performance area big enough for a 19-piece band, seating space, room for phone banks to take the donation calls, and a tote board to keep track of the donations coming in.
The tote board turned out to be key to the broadcast's success. With each new total coming in, a drumroll would begin, and Lewis would call out, "Tympanies!" and the new total would go up, to a standing ovation. The show's national syndicators were skeptical that it could work, but, at the end of the 1st broadcast, Lewis had to get on a ladder and add a number 1, because they had raised more than $1 million, which was a digit more than the tote board could handle: $1,002,114. (In 2022 money, that works out to a little over $9 million.)
By 1970, the Telethon was shown in 64 cities nationwide on "The Love Network." In 1976, it peaked at 213 stations, making it, if for not quite one full day every year, effectively America's 4th-largest television network behind the old standbys NBC, CBS and ABC. Also in 1976, the show hosted a reunion of, and an end to the 20-year feud between, Lewis and Dean Martin, arranged by their common friend, Frank Sinatra, who usually appeared on the Telethon.
One reason Sinatra appeared is that, in 1973, the broadcast was moved to his favorite city, Las Vegas, Nevada. That year, it broke the $10 million barrier in money raised. The 1976 reunion of Martin & Lewis must have struck a chord with many people, because that show was the first to surpass $20 million in donations.
The Telethon was held at the Sahara, then moved to Caesars Palace in 1982, and to the larger Cashman Center in 1989. In 1990, it moved to the Aquarius Theater in Los Angeles, then back to the Sahara from 1991 to 1995, then to CBS Television City in Los Angeles, and then in 2005 to Beverly Hills, and in 2006 back to Vegas at the South Point Hotel, Casino & Spa until 2011. It was still syndicated to 190 TV stations.
Lewis would always host for 16 of the 21 1/2 hours, taking time out for a nap, with Ed McMahon as his co-host, until 1999. By that point, he was over 70 years old, and had serious health issues, made worse by his obvious weight gain. He began hosting the 1st 5 hours, and the last 5, with McMahon (not exactly young and slim himself) and others filling in the gaps.
As Lewis got older, his health got worse, and his behavior became erratic. In 2011, he was fired as MDA Chairman and host. Starting that year, there were 3 co-hosts, all blonde women: Small Town Big Deal co-host Jann Carl, soap opera (and Hallmark Christmas Movie) actress Alison Sweeney, and Entertainment Tonight co-anchor Nancy O'Dell.
Without Lewis, the show was cut back to 6 hours on the night before Labor Day in 2012, and the last one aired on ABC on August 31, 2014. In 2007, the show topped out at $63,759,478 -- just under $90 million in 2022 money. Even in the last year, 2014, it managed to get a little under $57 million.
Lewis died in 2017, at the age of 91. As with many celebrities, the darker side of his personality came out when he was no longer able to fight back and sue. While he was great with his MDA "Kids," his real children, including rock bandleader Gary Lewis, said he was a rotten father. And many other people mentioned the kind of behavior, much of it misogynistic, that got him fired in 2011.
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