The Jerry Lewis MDA Labor Day Telethon individual stations, airing on ABC on Sunday, September 1, 2013, and running two hours. The final edition aired on ABC on August 31, 2014, again as a two-hour special, beginning at 9PM ET/PT. It was announced on May 1, 2015 that the MDA would be discontinuing the annual event for good. Jerry Lewis began hosting telethons to benefit the Muscular Dystrophy Associations of America (MDAA) in 1952 after a plea from a staff member who worked with Lewis and Dean Martin on "The Colgate Comedy Hour". Lewis had previously taken part in what has been described as the very first
Gerald A. Lewis Gerald A. Lewis Gerald Alvin "Jerry" Lewis (born March 31, 1934) is an American attorney who was the 26th comptroller of the State of Florida, serving from January 7, 1975 to January 3, 1995. Born in 1934 in Birmingham, Alabama to Bernard and Molly Lewis, Gerald Lewis was educated in Birmingham schools before attending Harvard College and graduating with an A.B. degree in 1955. He then spent the next two years on active duty as a paratrooper with the United States Army, attaining the rank of captain. Lewis moved to Florida in 1960. Prior to moving, he returned to Harvard