Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon
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The Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon is an annual telethon hosted by Jerry Lewis for the Muscular Dystrophy Association. It has been held since 1966.
It is always held on Labor Day weekend, starting on the Sunday evening preceding Labor Day and continuing for about 22 hours until late Monday afternoon, syndicated to 190 television stations throughout the US. MDA calls its network of participating stations The Love Network.
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[edit] History
While smaller, local telethons in support of the MDA (some of them hosted by Jerry) have existed since the 1950s, the modern-day telethon first originated from the Americana Hotel in New York City in 1966, as a local telethon seen exclusively on WNEW-TV. The organisers of the telethon has chosen Labor Day weekend, as it was the only time available to hold a telethon. But many people thought that the event would fail, as many people are out of town on Labor Day weekend. Even New York City officials were skeptical that it would succeed, as they were reluctant to issue them a fund-raising permit. Nevertheless, the first telethon, which was 19 hours in length, was so successful, that Jerry had to paint a "1" on the 6-digit toteboard when the final tote reached $1,002,114.
In 1968, the Love Network was created when four other stations picked up the telethon -- WHEC-TV in Rochester, WGR-TV in Buffalo, WTEV-TV in Providence and WKBG-TV in Boston. However, they met opposition from the Theater Authority, an organisation that represented theatrical-related labor unions, in which their permission is required before the representing talent can perform without charge. In 1968, they gave permission for their talent to appear on the small telethon "network".
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. As a result, the local cutaways became the norm for all participating stations the following year.
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.
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 toteboard only had seven digits, so Jerry repeated his 1966 stunt of painting the "1" on the left.
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.
During the telethon's Las Vegas years in the 1970s and 1980s, the show originated either at the Sahara, or at Caesar's Palace.
In 1990, the telethon originated from CBS Television City in Los Angeles, then returned to Las Vegas for much of the 1990s before relocating back to Southern California, first at CBS and then in 2005 in Beverly Hills.
In 2006, the telethon returned to Las Vegas at the South Coast, which, following the sale to new owners in October of that year, would later be renamed the South Point. Jerry announced plans for the telethon to return to the South Point in 2007.
In 1998, MDA's successful all star landmark show became the first to be broadcast on the internet by RealNetworks on the association's website, http://www.mda.org. After the telethon, the site features a special highlights reel of the telethon for that year.
In total, the MDA Telethon has originated from Las Vegas for 23 of the 40 years it has aired. In the past, Jerry Lewis anchored the entire 22-hour broadcast, but for the past decade he only appears for the first five hours and the last five hours of the telecast, allowing others to co-host. Ed McMahon, Lewis' long-time co-host, also follows this trend, having appeared through the entire broadcast in the early going. In recent years, the telethon often takes a two-hour break in the late-night hours for a special, pre-recorded segment (usually a concert), and in the morning hours following, another host and co-host takes over for Jerry (in recent years, talk show host Larry King and comedian Norm Crosby took the honors).
In addition, 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. One of these is Chicago's WGN-TV, which, since the 1970s, pre-empted the afternoon segment of the telethon for Chicago Cubs baseball.
[edit] Canada
Through the 1980s, there were also Canadian Love Network affiliates, whose telethon presentations there benefit the Muscular Dystrophy Association of Canada, an organisation unrelated to the American MDA, but used Jerry's US telethon for fund raising. The telethon also helped launch a new station -- in Winnipeg, Manitoba, CKND-TV's first program on August 31, 1975 was Jerry's telethon.[citation needed] Today, no Canadian station airs the telethon, though it is available on cable and satellite from WGN, as well as from border US stations. It's unclear if the Canadian MDA still uses the telethon for fund-raising, though the corporate donation segments still occasionally mention their Canadian donors.
[edit] How Frances and Katrina Affected the Telethon
In 2005, it raised $54,921,586, despite the reduced base due to heavy donations to Hurricane Katrina relief. That year, Jerry and his guests also urged viewers to give to The Salvation Army and the American Red Cross, with MDA donating $1 million to The Salvation Army.
The year before, the 2004 telethon raised only $59,398,915, less than what the 2003 telethon raised ($60.5 million) due to the southeast affected by Hurricane Frances.
In 2006, the final tally was $61,013,855 when 5 stations knocked from last year's telecast came back. It was the first time since 2003 that the telethon raised more money than the previous year. Prior to 2004, the last time the final tote was below the previous year was in 1982, when Jerry sat out most of the telethon, due to his heart attack earlier.
[edit] Trivia
- Famed game show announcer Johnny Olson was the telethon's announcer for the first five years, 1966 to 1970.
- Elgin Watches was the sponsor of the telethon's toteboard in the late-1960s and early-1970s, at least during the telethon's New York years. [1] From the mid-1970s to the early-1980s, Helbros was the toteboard sponsor.
- The telethon's toteboard theme song is the first several notes of Jackie DeShannon's What The World Needs Now Is Love, played by the orchestra. It was used through the 1989 edition, when it was retired after the telethon's 1990 move to Los Angeles. The telethon brought the song back in the late-1990s, after a hiatus of several years. It is unknown when it was first used on the telethon.
- Today, of the charter affiliates of the Love Network, WHEC-TV and the present-day WGRZ and WLNE still carry the telethon.
- What is now WLVI-TV (the former WKBG) has since dropped the event, which has since moved to WCVB-TV.
- Today's WNYW (the former WNEW) dropped the telethon after 1986, which moved to WWOR-TV in 1987. Ironically, both WNYW and WWOR are now under the common ownership of the Fox Television Stations Group.
