I don’t usually post on the weekends but this is no ordinary weekend. It’s Labor Day weekend. And that means it was once the weekend of the MDA Telethon hosted by Jerry Lewis, which began Sunday early evening and continued through Monday afternoon. I never missed a telethon from age seven through age eighteen–my college years somehow broke the habit, even though it was the weekend before the fall session resumed. What was the reason I fell off the Jerry bandwagon? I think by the time I was a late teen I’d begun to see through Jerry’s act–the enormous self-love, the viciousness behind the supposedly ‘rough kidding’ inflicted on close associates (check out his treatment of conductor Lew Brown), the hypocrisy of his public generosity and what had come between him and his family, which was tabloid fodder by the mid-80s. Still, my love/hate relationship with Jerry continues to this day; his craziness, his wildly over-the-top physical and vocal humor of the early Jerry and the massive self-regard and personal awfulness all combine to make him a truly fascinating monster. Above I’ve posted the opening of the 1985 telethon and another video that speaks for itself. Below is a little CBS news segment about the telethon’s history. Happy Labor Day. We’ll never forget you, Jerry….even though a lot of folks would like to.