09/06/2026
55 years ago today, September 5, 1971, the Jerry Lewis MDA Labor Day Telethon began its live, coast to coast broadcast. Presented by the Muscular Dystrophy Associations of America, the broadcast ran from Sunday night through all of Labor Day, featuring what ads promoted as "fun-filled hours with stars of stage, screen and television."
By 1971 the telethon was in its sixth year under Lewis, who had become the event's national chairman in 1956 after ending his comedy partnership with Dean Martin. That year's broadcast raised $8,125,387 for the Muscular Dystrophy Association, building on a tradition that began in 1966, when the first telethon, staged at New York's Americana Hotel, raised just over $1 million.
The telethon went on to run every Labor Day through 2010, eventually airing up to 21 and a half hours across roughly 200 stations and raising more than $2.4 billion for MDA over its run, before Lewis stepped down as host that year.
