#MDA Labor Day Telethon

[originalharmonysalad]

The funniest Jerry Lewis interview ever, by Jiminy Glick (Martin Short) during an MDA Labor Day Telethon

[rosen01]

“To pity distress is but human; to relieve it is Godlike.” ―Horace Mann

[frauenfiguren]

32/2023: Laura Hershey, 11. August 1962

Sie war eines von Jerry's Kids und wurde eines von Jerry's Orphans.

Als Kleinkind wurde Laura Hershey, erstes von zwei Kindern einer Familie in Littleton, Colorado, mit Spinaler Muskelatrophie diagnostiziert, einem durch Gendefekte ausgelösten fortschreitenden Muskelschwund. Sie nutzte daher schon bald Rollstühle, ihre Eltern, insbesondere ihre Mutter förderte jedoch ihre schulische Bildung, trotz des erschwerten Zugangs zu Schulen für Menschen mit Behinderung.…

[coolthingsguyslike]

[jerrylewis-thekid]

1977. The year in which Jerry was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for his humanitarian commitment. The year after 1976, when Jerry went to great lengths to invite Dean to the Telethon, Dean made an appointment with him and didn't show up. Stuff that would drive anyone crazy. The year the level of Percodan in his body reached levels impossible for a normal human being. But he, despite that damned drug, despite the atrocious pain in his back that he continued to live with every day, was more beautiful than ever.

[make-a-little-mischief]

Ringing in the new year right - SANS PANTS

Taken from this photo

***DISCLAIMER*** Hi friends, if you'd like to repost these photos please credit my bog. Thanks and a happy LEGGY New Year to y'all 🦵🏻🎊🥂😘

[phillyradiogeek]

Summer 2023, as least culturally speaking, has just about come to a close. And for me, Summer isn't over until I hear this.

I hope you had a fantastic Summer! Have a great Autumn!

[travsd]

Recalling the Jerry Lewis MDA Labor Day Telethon

Happy Labor Day, for those who celebrate. Does anyone? Labor Day is one of our most peculiar non-holiday holidays. Ostensibly it’s the official day to celebrate the workers, but everyone knows the real day to celebrate the workers is May Day. That’s the day that capture one’s imagination. The September date was chosen precisely to disassociate a celebration of workers from organized labor. Thus…

[ptseti]

The Dynamos (Teresa Crisp, Lisa Monroe, Kenyette Saunders and Zenobia White) from McDonald's put on a Double Dutch demonstration during the 1983 MDA Labor Day Telethon!

BLACK EXCELLENCE

[muppetydyke]

Muppet Mainstage, June 28th, 2025

“Got My Mind Set on You” was written by Rudy Clark in 1962. In 2001, Kermit (Steve Whitmire) and the snowths for the MDA Labor Day Telethon.

[thislovintime]

“Monkees were great — I am the Muscular Dystrophy community chairperson for Muscatine. Kathy Blakeney, MDA program coordinator for this area, and I had the pleasure of going backstage during the Monkees 20th Anniversary Tour at Burlington’s Steamboat Days on June 20. We were planning a celebrity auction for the 1986 Jerry Lewis Labor Day Telethon and we were hoping to get a Steamboat Days T-shirt autographed by everyone in the show to auction off. I was told that the Monkees were totally uncooperative and I was wasting my time, but during the first performance I managed to get a note to Peter Tork explaining our intentions. Peter gave my note to tour manager Jim Dotson and as a result we were taken backstage and not only did we get the T-shirt signed, but also quilt squares for a celebrity autograph quilt we will raffle off and photos of everyone signing the items. There was a lot of talk about how uncooperative the Monkees were and I would like to set things straight. Had it not been for Peter Tork we would never have been able to get backstage or get our autographs. Everyone was extremely helpful and very friendly. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank Jim Dotson, Gary Puckett, Herman’s Hermits, the Grassroots, David Jones and Micky Dolenz (who stopped to sign the items and say hello even though they were not feeling well), and especially Peter Tork who made it all possible. I know the autographed shirt will help us raise a lot of money and my backstage pass is a wonderful souvenir of the show. Thanks guys! Sincerely, Cindy Bryant” - Quad City Times, July 5, 1986

[ariel-seagull-wings]

Jerry Orbach and the cast of Chicago as they perform "Billy Flynn" during the 1976 MDA Labor Day Telethon!

@thealmightyemprex

[fredandginger64]

Jerry singing 'Make The World A Better Place' on the 1986 MDA Telethon. What memories Jerry created for so many people. This telethon was always on, it wasn't Labor Day without Jerry. My hero always. And he still makes the world a better place, always!

Happy Labor Day!

[planetofsnarfs]

Charo is taking ownership of a dance that took over the world nearly 30 years ago.

In the mid 1990s, the "Macarena" dance was so inescapable that Gen Xers and many millennials can still do it to this day. There was nary a school dance, cruise ship or club that didn’t include the Los del Río hit and a cavalcade of dancers repeatedly shaking their bodies, extending their arms, then turning their palms up, then placing their hands on their shoulders, cradling their head in their hands momentarily, and moving them to their gyrating hips. Heyyyy, Macarena, Ay!

On Wednesday, July 2, the 74-year-old Spanish actress Charo shared an Instagram video of herself performing the famed routine. “Hola amigos. I want to share with you a little history that I hope you like,” she penned. “Once upon a time when my cuchi-cuchi was only a kichi-kichi I introduce to America a cute song and dance like aerobic exercise by the name Macarena…" In her native Spanish language, she then encouraged her followers to “dance, dance, dance” if they’re feeling down.

In 1996, during Jerry Lewis’s MDA Labor Day Telethon, the Tiger by the Tail star even taught the dance to the host, saying, “I try to teach you Macarena, because it’s the No. 1 dance in the world, and I’m the one that started the whole thing.”

[jerrylewis-thekid]

About this special moment on the 15th annual Jerry Lewis Labor Day Telethon for Muscular Dystrophy in 1980 at the Sahara ♡ . “I’ll tell you one thing that I could never ever forget. Mary Passalacqua was a victim of neuromuscular disease, and I went to the hospital to see her in San Francisco, hoping that she would be better. And she was, she was skeleton-like. She was dying so badly. And we funded a thing called plasmapheresis, which flushes the bad blood out and puts new blood in, and she had been given the last rights when I arrived there. When I arrived there she was the epitome of what hero worship is, because she saw me and she, she practically came alive. And then I left, I said good-bye, never though I’d see her again, and then I get a letter from her two months later. Thanks so much for visiting me: it made the difference. I’m doing well. I’m fine. And P.S. my dream is to one day dance with you. I read the letter on television in front of eighty million people. And then I pointed to the curtain and there she came. She walked out and she and I danced dead center of that stage. There wasn’t a dry eye in the house. She’s alive and well because of our funding the plasmapheresis syndrome. And that’s probably one of the most unforgettable things, because I was trembling so, trying to dance and be cool. It was so important to her and to everyone else that was a victim. It was a special moment for people in trouble.” — Jerry Lewis

It's clear he's struggling not to cry. He fulfilled this woman's wish. He wasn't a monster, monsters are the flock of idiots who judge him without really knowing him.

Thanks for living Jerry. May you be blessed wherever you are.

[make-a-little-mischief]

I was going through telethon footage for a project and had to capture this moment of THE HAT because it's one of those "so dang adorable it makes you laugh" Jerry visuals and I'm sharing it with you all in case there is at least one other person out there who might get the same affectionate giggle out of seeing it as I did.

He. Is. So. CUTE. It hurts.

I love this man.

And dammit if his head didn't love hats.