I remember watching quite a bit of the Labor Day telethon when I was a kid.

LAS VEGAS (AP) — After 45 years, Jerry Lewis is retiring as host of the Muscular Dystrophy Association’s Labor Day telethon.

The 85-year-old comedian and Las Vegas resident issued a statement Monday through the Tucson, Ariz.-based Muscular Dystrophy Association calling it time for a "new telethon era."

He says he’ll make his final appearance on the six-hour primetime telethon Sept. 4 by performing his song "You’ll Never Walk Alone."

Lewis says he’ll continue as the association’s national chairman, a role he’s held since the early 1950s.

The first one was in 1966, and Lewis has really hung in there, long after I even forgot that it was still an annual event. Good on you, Jerry Lewis.

Filed under: Culture

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