Friends in High Places

2036889

2036760

There’s no place like home.

And while no one in their right mind would ever cast Jerry Lewis as Dorothy in “The Wizard of Oz,” Dorothy’s heartfelt phrase applies.

That’s because, for the second straight year, local resident Lewis’ yellow brick road is Las Vegas Boulevard South — leading not to the Emerald City but to the South Point.

That’s where, Sunday and Monday, Lewis will host his 42nd consecutive MDA Labor Day Telethon, joining co-host Ed McMahon (marking his 40th year as Lewis’ telethon sidekick) and a host of celebrities to raise money for research and treatment of muscular dystrophy and other neuromuscular diseases.

In keeping with tradition, Lewis plans a suitably spectacular entrance to kick off the telethon.

Last year, he conducted the Las Vegas Philharmonic — on the Strip, which was closed to traffic for the occasion.

“Last year was a serious attempt to say, ‘We’re back in Vegas,’ ” says telethon producer Lee Miller.

This year’s entrance is less down-to-earth, as Lewis parachutes with the Flying Elvi to land at the South Point, Miller says.

(The sequence, featuring a stunt double, was taped last week. “But I defy you to tell it’s a stunt double,” Miller says.)

Last year’s telethon demonstrated “there’s an ambience — there’s an excitement” to staging the benefit in Las Vegas, according to Miller.

“I don’t know if it’s the audience, if it’s the venue, or maybe it’s Jerry,” Miller says, “but the show does seem to belong here.”

In part, it’s because “it’s Jerry’s hometown,” Miller says. “He wanted to come back here for a number of years. He loves it here. For him, it’s where he wants to do it.”

Among the Las Vegas headliners featured on the telethon, one stands out in Miller’s view: Caesars Palace headliner Celine Dion.

At press time, organizers weren’t sure whether Dion would appear at the South Point — or via remote from the Colosseum at Caesars.

“We’re prepared to do either one,” Miller says. “It’s worth the effort and the money to go to her” if necessary. “She’s been a great friend to Jerry and the telethon.”

Through the years, Lewis has welcomed an all-star lineup to the telethon, from Ol’ Blue Eyes, Frank Sinatra (who appeared with fellow Rat Packer, and former Lewis partner, Dean Martin), to Ol’ Ewe Eyes — alias Lamb Chop, puppet pal of the late Shari Lewis.

This year, Ol’ Ewe Eyes is back on the telethon — accompanied by Mallory Lewis-Tarcher, Shari Lewis’ daughter, who brought Lamb Chop out of retirement two years after her mother’s 1998 death from uterine cancer.

“Someone asked Lamb Chop a question” recently, recalls Lewis-Tarcher, who was compelled to reply, “I don’t know — her memory’s not what it used to be.”

Lamb Chop remembers enough, however, to be “so excited to be performing with my daddy, Jerry Lewis,” she says. “Isn’t he my daddy?”

Not exactly — although Lewis-Tarcher and Lamb Chop will be doing comedy material written especially for Jerry Lewis during their telethon stint.

They’re scheduled to go on at 3 a.m. Monday — perfect for kids on the East Coast (where it will be 6 a.m.), but tough “for a children’s performer to be awake,” Lewis-Tarcher says. “That’s a definite challenge.”

But it’s also prime time for locals eager to watch the telethon in person.

Although sponsors will fill most of the telethon’s live audience, locals are invited to the South Point, where they will be admitted to watch for an hour or two when seats open up.

Late night is your best bet to join the in-studio audience, MDA officials advise.

Or you can catch the telethon on television — at its new Las Vegas broadcast home.

After 37 years on KLAS-TV, Channel 8, the telethon moves to KTNV-TV, Channel 13.

The switch came about because Channel 8, Las Vegas’ CBS affiliate, “had a commitment to air U.S. Open tennis,” explains Bob Mackle, the Muscular Dystrophy Association’s vice president of public information. “They would have had to pre-empt a big chunk of the telethon.”

Enter Channel 13, which “is going to run the entire show,” Mackle says — and will extend the local portion of the telecast two hours beyond the national show’s 21 1/2-hour running time. (The national broadcast is scheduled to end at 3:30 p.m.; Channel 13’s coverage continues until 5 p.m.)

To help promote the Las Vegas station switch, Lewis taped promotional spots with Channel 13’s telethon anchors — something Lewis generally “doesn’t do … period,” Mackle notes.

Joining Tricia Kean and Bryan Scofield as local telethon anchors will be KTNV’s morning anchor team of Rikki Cheese and Ron Futrell, according to Jim Koonce, Channel 13’s promotion and marketing manager. In addition, anchor Casey Smith will serve as “a roving reporter,” Koonce says.

Local cut-ins will originate from the Las Vegas Hilton, as they have in previous years.

“We basically asked them to help us, because we haven’t done this before,” Koonce says, noting that “the talent is all new — but the people behind the scenes have done it before.”