When I was growing up, my family really didn\u2019t have any \u201ctraditions,\u201d at least not what I\u2019d call traditions today. But since we\u2019ve just celebrated Labor Day weekend, I remembered something that we did every year on that weekend \u2014 we watched the Jerry Lewis Muscular Dystrophy Association Labor Day Telethon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I guess a lot of people tuned in every year to watch the weekend-long telethon hosted by Jerry Lewis, who served as the M.C. for all kinds of entertainment \u2014 sometimes very professional and other times not so much. And there was the constant “encouragement” for all the viewers to donate to the Muscular Dystrophy Association.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Every year, the show dominated by Jerry Lewis, delivered a mix of show business schmaltz and true-life, touching stories of people who had muscular dystrophy. Whether you liked it or not, it was live television. I remember as the hours rolled on, Lewis got alternately cranky and teary, pleading with everyone to make the donations on the tote board increase. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I don\u2019t remember watching this telethon after I left home, but I looked it up and apparently Jerry Lewis last hosted the Muscular Dystrophy telethon in 2010 \u2014 Jerry Lewis died in 2017.
The first MDA Labor Day Telethon was broadcast on only one station \u2014 WNEW-TV in New York. According to the MDA, the telethon raised nearly $2 billion over the years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I read an article a few years ago that indicated that before the telethon ended, people who had muscular dystrophy \u2014 a group of diseases that cause muscles to progressively weaken \u2014 and those people\u2019s advocates objected to lewis treating those with the disease as pathetic victims.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\u2019m not sure if the Muscular Dystrophy Association still holds a telethon \u2014 obviously it was a good cause, but I suspect it\u2019s one of those \u201cthings of the past,\u201d although I have to admit it was a one-of-a-kind experience.
\u2014 30 \u2014<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
When I was growing up, my family really didn\u2019t have any \u201ctraditions,\u201d at least not what I\u2019d call traditions today. But since we\u2019ve just celebrated Labor Day weekend, I remembered something that we did every year on that weekend \u2014 … Continue reading