MDA telethon returns to Vegas
After 10 years of doing the show in Los Angeles, Jerry Lewis says he’s happy about hosting his annual telethon fundraiser for muscular dystrophy in Las Vegas again.
“There’s something about Los Angeles that subjugates it,” Lewis, 80, told reporters on the set at the South Coast hotel-casino south of the Las Vegas Strip. “I always feel like I’m claustrophobic there.”
The Labor Day telethon, which has raised $1.35 billion for the Muscular Dystrophy Assn. since 1966, has been held in Las Vegas for 21 of its 40 years. Lewis makes his home there.
The show, scheduled to run from 6 p.m. Sunday to 5 p.m. Monday on KCAL-TV Channel 9, features many performers who have regular shows on the Strip, such as Celine Dion, Lance Burton, Clint Holmes, Rita Rudner and George Wallace.
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