Lewis telethon tops its mark

Entertainer Jerry Lewis sets a goal for his annual Labor Day Telethon to benefit the Muscular Dystrophy Assn. of $1 more than the previous year. He met that mark, plus almost $3 million.

“We did it. We did it. I got my buck more. And more. We can go shopping,” a jubilant Lewis, 81, said in Las Vegas as the tote board topped $63.7 million.

The telecast has raised $1.46 billion to fight the disease since it began in 1966 on a single television station in New York City. This year’s telecast was broadcast by 190 stations in the United States and Canada and carried worldwide on the Internet.