While it seems that for the foreseeable future charity fundraisers will occur online, the practice of putting them on television began in 1949 when Milton Berle hosted the first "telethon" (a portmanteau of "television" and "marathon").
Though there were only 4 million TVs in U.S. homes, on Tuesday nights most were tuned to Berle's Texaco Star Theater. His involvement with the telethon began with his friendship with Damon Runyon, a writer whose characters were the basis for the musical Guys and Dolls.
After Runyon died in 1946, the Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation was established. Marathon fundraisers, especially to sell war bonds during World War II, already were established on radio, so it was a natural step for TV to adapt the.
Read more on hollywoodreporter.com
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