Word: mda
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...France, they call him Le Roi de Crazy for his comedy roots, but in the U.S. Jerry Lewis is known these days as the King of Telethons. The actor has hosted an epic television outreach for the Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA) since 1955, when his first 16½-hour show raised more than $600,000 in a live broadcast from Carnegie Hall in New York City. That was before Lewis became the official host and was given the ratings-challenged Labor Day slot to host the show, and since then it's become an even greater test of a performer...
...know how much donated money to bank on. Most telethons only collect between 60% and 75% of pledged dollars. During a 1983 Democratic National Committee fundraiser, 800,000 of the 1 million callers rang in just to declare their support for their Republican President Ronald Reagan. Still, Lewis' MDA program remains one of the most enduring hallmarks in telethon history. And in 1998, it joined the computer age when it became the first telethon to be seen worldwide via Internet simulcast. The program's pledged donations have grown from $1 million in 1966 to $65 million during the 2008 broadcast...
While some have called these programs an overly emotional guilt trip, the star power these occasions manage to draw doesn't hurt their cause. Frank Sinatra's performance in the 1976 MDA telethon proved particularly momentous for both the audience and Lewis himself. When Sinatra emerged, he brought Lewis' former comedic partner Dean Martin on the stage with him, bringing a tear to the host's already tired eyes. A lack of stars proved to be the downfall of a 1980 telethon to raise money for burn victims. After comedian Richard Pryor's nearly fatal burning accident that year, noted...
Modern-day telethons have been distilled down to shorter, albeit star-studded, benefit concerts to respond to specific catastrophes - 9/11, Hurricane Katrina, the Indonesian tsunami, Australian bushfires - but none have had as lasting an effect as the MDA telethons, which have raised more than $1 billion to date. And if the pity party gets to be a bit too much, follow Lewis' own words from a 1990 broadcast: "If you find I'm annoying, I'm getting to you, you've got a remote-control clicker...
...know, it's the wrong one. The Motion Picture Academy is giving him the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award - an honor recognizing charity work, and given more frequently to producers than to actors. Lewis's commitment as a spokesman for the Muscular Dystrophy Association, notably in the 19-hour MDA telethon he fronts each Labor Day, has certainly earned him a hearty Hollywood thank-you. But it's a minor token, almost an insult, to one of the wildest, most imaginative comic talents in any medium and, without question, the definitive showbiz ego of the mid-20th century. (See pictures...