Kup's Chicago - Irv Kupcinet [102]
But again, the “miracles” didn’t just happen. It is the generosity of thousands of persons that has made the contributions pile up.
First in line, as always, are the professional entertainers. No matter how late the hour, a galaxy of stars is always on hand to assure the presence of a large enough TV audience to make each telethon a success.
In the 1953 Cerebral Palsy telethon here, the line-up of stars included Bob Hope, Dean Martin, Jerry Lewis, Tony Martin, Dorothy Shay, Frankie Laine, Tony Bennett, Jack E. Leonard, Marilyn Maxwell, Rudy Vallee, Bill Stern, Gabby Hayes, the entire Chicago troupes of Pal Joey and Leonard Sillman’s New Faces, Burr Tillstrom, Fran Allison, Don McNeill, and many others.
Hope, who had moved his TV show from Hollywood to Chicago so that he could participate, not only helped open the show, but returned twenty-nine hours later to help close it!
Total pledges as a result: More than $400,000.
In 1961, to assist in Police Superintendent Orlando W. Wilson’s revamping of the Chicago Police Department, WBBM-TV’s Clark George asked us to help stage a telethon to provide insurance and retirement benefits for the families of officers killed in the line of duty. These entertainers were only a few of those who answered my call – Phil Ford and Mimi Hines, Patrice Munsel, Mahalia Jackson, Annie Farge, Howard Duff, Pat O’Brien, the Kim Sisters, Richard Boone, Andy Williams, Count Basic, Red Nichols and His Five Pennies, Don Cherry, Julie London, Rowan and Martin, and Bob Scobey.
In other cities, there has frequently been great disparity between the amount pledged during a telethon and the funds which were ultimately collected. Probably no one connected with telethons will forget the 1952 fiasco in which Bob Hope and Bing Crosby headed a network-wide, all-star cast appearing on behalf of the American Olympic Committee. Though a million dollars was pledged by viewers, less than 30 per cent of that sum was actually realized. Some $600,000 that was publicly promised was never paid! Such experiences (and this, unfortunately, is not an isolated case) tend to place all telethons in disrepute.
But this seldom has been the pattern in Chicago. From the beginning, our Cerebral Palsy telethons, which were the largest produced locally, realized a return of better than 85 per cent on on-the-air pledges. Considering the vast area covered and the fact that from $185,000 to $550,000 in pledges was involved in each telethon, this is a record which, to my knowledge, still cannot be challenged by any other metropolis.
A large share of credit for this belongs to our “taxicab pickup” system. Through co-operation of the Balaban & Katz Theater Corporation, various neighborhood movie houses are designated as district headquarters. Chicago taxi firms, in turn, assign cabs to operate from these key theaters. When a pledge is phoned in for more than a given amount, usually twenty-five dollars, word is relayed to the appropriate district headquarters, and – before the donor can forget or lose his enthusiasm of the moment – a cabby is at his door to pick up his contribution.
We also have made it a practice to verify all large contributions before announcing them publicly. Unfortunately there are phonies and pranksters in this world who invariably attempt to intrude on the serious purpose of the telethon. In Chicago, we try to keep the number of those who succeed to a minimum.
Then, too, all of us who normally participate in Chicago telethons have counseled restraint in their use. It is my view that telethons, which can raise startling sums of money overnight, should be reserved exclusively for causes that have maximum immediacy and emotional appeal. Even the best of systems will be effective only if the cause is genuinely crucial. This we knew, and this we feared, when we joined