Rare Jerry Lewis Labor Day Marathon Video
On September 5, 2016
- TV History
Rare Jerry Lewis Labor Day Marathon Video…
I’ve started this 2 hour video with Jerry and Frank Sinatra rehearsing, via satellite, for a pretaped insert a day before the show.
This is raw footage from a 1989 special planned by “A Current Affair”…remember that? Jerry is in top form and there are stars everywhere, plus interesting backstage footage that shows Lewis in ways we never see him. Happy Labor Day! Enjoy and share. -Bobby Ellerbee
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tYrjtEvmLA0
Cinéma des Singes Hurlant Dame Entreprises présenter a nonfiction found-footage-not-for-profit-film starring Jerry Lewis.
I had the opportunity to work as a tape AD around 1986. Jerry Kupcinet (Irv’s son for the Chicagoans) was the director. In the middle of the night the A-2’s started getting bored. They took all of the used 9 volt batteries and connected them in series. Managed to get about a 2′ arc. Love live television.
This was GREAT!!! TY For sharing!
Absolutely fascinating to watch. I loved to see him as him, and his interactions with everyone. Knowing everyone’s names, and not so high and mighty that he would take time to talk with people. I can’t imagine all he had going on, but could take time to hold a grandson. Thanks for posting this!
I floor directed Indiananapolis WRTV-6’s local inserts for a few years in the early 80s. It was a drag getting up real freakin’ early and working on Labor Day, but it was balanced by the local entertainers like Bob & Tom you got to work with, and you’d work to pump up the audiences when they’d cut to us live. The sad thing was working with the kids. We’d go out mid-summer to a camp they went to for swimming and horse back riding. It was heart breaking to see all those kid’s bodies deformed and twisted by a disease they seem no closer to curing than when they started.
Didn’t ‘Current Affair’ gift us with Bill O’Reilly?
Iv’e seen this footage a million times and still love it. As many times as he has done the telethon and done tv, film and clubs you can tell he still gets a bit nervous just prior to walking on stage. He’s fabulous……
Jerry did his news pre-show interviews live from our studio at KLAS-TV. These were interviews where he was in our studio and fed to the stations where the reporters would be doing the interviews. This was before Satellite, so it all had to be coordinated through ATT Telco division. I directed and coordinated those a couple years. Jerry was very easy to work with, as long as everyone on the crew was professional and totally ready when he arrived. He hated IFB and insisted we have a speaker in the studio close enough he could hear it easily, which presented many problems for feedback, but we found work arounds for the problems this presented.
I met the great man in of all places, Adelaide, Australia, my home town. I think it was in 1998 approx. I was the long lens camera, mid shot on him for his entire show. It was his one man performance, I was about 20 mins late, as I’d hurt my back the day before and took painkillers to get me through and over slept, a first for me. He wanted to see me personally when I arrived, I explained and he could see I was scared to death and remorseful. He completely understood, and gracefully explained why I should never be late again, I’ve never been late since. It showed me what a truly amazing talent and human being this man is. What a true gentleman.
This brings back a few memories! When I was still in high school, I did graphics for the local portions of the ’94 and ’95 MDA Labor Day telethons. I still have the Amiga 2000 we used for a CG (it ran Broadcast Titler 2) and the disks with the files; I should get a monitor for that thing and see if it still runs 🙂