Protesters Crash Barriers at Jerry Lewis Benefit Telethon

Protesters in wheelchairs blocked celebrities’ limousines and crashed through barricades at a Hollywood television studio Monday where entertainer Jerry Lewis was conducting his annual Labor Day telethon for muscular dystrophy.

But police and guards kept two dozen demonstrators from entering the CBS Television City stage where the 21 1/2-hour extravaganza was being beamed to 190 television stations across the country.

The show ended without incident as a proud Lewis displayed a tote board indicating that a record $47.8 million was pledged, up $700,000 from last year.

Demonstrations against the telethon have become commonplace in recent years, with handicapped-rights activists complaining that Lewis’ appeals are based on pity and that too little of the donated money actually goes to medical research.

But Monday’s Hollywood protest was noisier than usual because the telethon was moved this year from Las Vegas to Los Angeles to save on production costs.

Sign-carrying protesters accused Muscular Dystrophy Assn. executives of paying themselves $300,000-a-year salaries while ignoring the needs of patients, dubbed “Jerry’s Kids.”

Guards grappled with protester Bill Bolt’s wheelchair as he tried to enter the studio and shouted that association officials only spend $1 out of every $6 donated on medical research.

Bolt, a polio victim from Culver City, also charged that Lewis and other telethon officials took over handicapped parking spaces at the Beverly Boulevard studio to erect celebrity tents and trailers.

“We want them to stop this charity racket,” he yelled. “We’re sick of it--we don’t want any more schmaltzy, pity-on-parade stuff on television.”

Arriving celebrities were directed to a studio back entrance as telethon officials scrambled to deny the protesters’ charges.

Association spokesman Chris Rosa promised that 84 cents of every dollar raised by the show will go to patient programs and research. Salaries of association executives “are certainly not exorbitant,” he added.

Rosa, himself a muscular dystrophy patient from New York who heads a program for disabled college students, said the telethon did nothing wrong by commandeering blue-marked studio parking spots.

“There are more than adequate handicapped parking places here at CBS,” he said.