The telethon was held annually on Labor Day weekend beginning
in 1966and raised $2.45 billion for MDA from its inception through
2009.  Jerry Lewis was host along with Ed McMahon. 

The telethon broadcast up to 211⁄2 hours, starting on the Sunday
evening preceding Labor Day and continuing until late Monday
afternoon on the holiday itself.

The MDA stated on August 3, 2011, that Lewis had "completed
his run" as both host and national chairman and that Lewis would
not appear in the 2011 telethon.
(From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

Co-host Ed McMahon and Jerry Lewis

Legendary comedian Jerry Lewis hosted his 45th and final
21-and-a-half hour telethon in 2010. MDA continued the
telethon in shorter forms with different hosts and formats
through 2014 before officially abandoning the Labor Day
tradition.

ROSS SIMPSON

On this day in 1968, U.S. troops in Vietnam destroyed a village
consisting mostly of women and children. The event is known
as the My-Lai massacre.

William Laws Calley Jr. will be 75 in June.

Terry Anderson, an Associated Press newsman, was taken hostage
in Beirut on this day in 1985. He was released on December 4,1991.

Physicist Robert H. Goddard launched the first liquid-fuel rocket on
this day in 1926. Goddard is known as the father of modern rocketry.

Robert Hutchings Goddard
(October 5, 1882 – August 10, 1945)

Jerry Lewis (Joseph Levitch)  (March 16, 1926 – August 20, 2017)

Comedian, actor, and muscular dystrophy telethon host Jerry Lewis 
formed one of history’s greatest comedy teams with Dean Martin. He
received Lifetime Achievement Awards from the Los Angeles Film
Critics Association, The American Comedy Awards, and the Venice
Film Festival.

From left: Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis.

The Jerry Lewis MDA Labor Day Telethon was an annual event held
on the eve of and during the Labor Day holiday to raise money for the
Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA). The show was founded and
hosted by actor and comedian Jerry Lewis, who hosted the broadcast
from its 1966 inception until 2010. We recently lost Jerry on August
20. He was 91 years old.