Rudy Panucci On Pop Culture

Sunday Evening Video: Labor Day Traditions

I don’t like to repeat the videos I post here in Sunday Evening Video very often, but this year I had so many requests to post what I did last year, that I decided to make this a tradition, for at least another year.

If you are of a certain age, Labor Day seems synonymous with The Jerry Lewis Labor Day MDA Telethon, which the famed comedian hosted for almost sixty years.

The telethon is gone, as is Jerry, but MDA (the Muscular Dystrophy Association) maintains a YouTube page where they still post highlights from the vaults.

Above you see a playlist with 104 videos of musical legends like Frank Sinatra, Aretha Franklin, Smokey Robinson, B.B. King, Diana Ross, Ray Charles, Elton John, Paul McCartney, Tony Bennett, Little Richard, Johnny Cash, Toni Basil and many others. Best of all, you can watch these clips without sitting through four hours of corporate spokespeople droning on in a monotone about how much they care about the kids. I mean, no offense to the guy from 7 11, but I’m pretty sure they play those parts on an endless loop in hell. Above you see the good stuff, the cream of the crop.

Seriously, there are some gems in there like Duran Duran, MC Hammer and Charo. There’s lots of Charo. Lots of MC Hammer, too, now that I think about it.

Enjoy!

1 Comment

  1. Thomas Wheeler

    I sort of miss the telethon. The musical acts were great, and I enjoyed watching the total number of donations climb throughout the show (even though I suspect a fair bit of it was bogus). Just once I tried to stay up through the whole thing. Nodded off at one point and was awakened by a soprano opera singer.

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