Muscular Dystrophy Assn

The Muscular Dystrophy Assn.'s 12th annual Gift of Hope gala will take place today at the Hyatt Regency Irvine. This year's honoree is Sebastian Paul Musco of Gemini Industries Inc., who has donated time and money to children in Orange County with special needs. The evening's festivities will include a silent and live auction, dinner and entertainment. Tickets are $125 per person. Information: (714) 550-0161.

Lewis' contribution Re "Jerry Lewis ousted by MDA," Aug. 5 The Times mentions the strides made in muscular dystrophy research almost parenthetically to Jerry Lewis and the telethon. To be sure, the Muscular Dystrophy Assn. is more than a telethon and more than Jerry Lewis, but the great advances in treatment were due in no small measure to Lewis' efforts. The article quotes Lewis as saying, "Get the cure for muscular dystrophy, then I'm fine. " The fact is, his efforts and that of the MDA may well have led to just that.

More than 800 walkers are expected for the Pop 'n Doc South Bay Stride on Sunday at Torrance Beach. The event. which benefits the Muscular Dystrophy Assn., will feature 5- and 10-K walks and a chili cook-off. Walkers will check in at 9 a.m. at Miramar Park, next to the beach, and the walks begin at 10 a.m. Walkers are asked to collect or donate a minimum of $50.

For the first time in 45 years, Jerry Lewis will not be pleading for donations in front of a camera Labor Day weekend after he was abruptly dismissed as the host of the Muscular Dystrophy Assn.'s telethon, an event that drew attention to the childhood disease and in its heyday was an annual television highlight. The group said the 85-year-old legendary comedian would not appear on this year's telethon, and would no longer serve as its national chairman, a position he held for nearly 60 years.

The event: Members of the Orange County business community were "jailed" at a benefit for the Orange County Chapter of the Muscular Dystrophy Assn. About 50 people participated in the daylong "Lock Up" last week at Antonello Ristorante in Santa Ana.

Psycho Ward, a laundry warehouse manager for Los Angeles County, will mount his Harley on Sunday and zoom up the Golden State Freeway to Lake Piru. He will be accompanied on the trip by 15,000 bikers, including comedian Jay Leno, actor James Caan, "Entertainment Tonight" host Mary Hart, KLOS disc jockeys Mark and Brian and cast members from "Married with Children" and "Northern Exposure." They are all riding for love and money.

Oliver Shokouh, a Harley-Davidson dealer from Glendale, blames Hollywood movies and black leather for the stereotype of bikers as rowdy outlaws. "The actual fact is bike riders are just like everybody else," Shokouh said. "They look different because they wear leathers and boots, just like skiers look different" in their sports outfits.

Jerry Lewis raised a record $45,759,368 Monday through his annual muscular dystrophy telethon despite scattered protests from victims of the disease and a White House appointee. "The American people are listening," Lewis said as the tote board registered the new record, nearly $688,000 over last year's record. "They heard me." Lewis' voice broke with emotion as he praised his staff, saying: "They share my passion." The Muscular Dystrophy Assn.

The good, the bad and the Uglys hit the road again Sunday for the nation's biggest motorcycling party--the Love Ride. More than 21,000 bikers, most of them astride powerful Harley-Davidsons and some from as far away as Canada, rumbled into Glendale early Sunday for the 11th annual Glendale-to-Castaic charity ride to benefit the Los Angeles chapter of the Muscular Dystrophy Assn.

When he turned 12, Neal Harvey started taking care of his father. He would wake up at 5, get his father out of bed, help him dress and then fix his breakfast. Neal, now 16, is still handling that daily routine. But that wasn't enough. The 6-foot-5 10th-grader at Los Alamitos High School wanted to do something more. So Neal nominated his father, Bernard Harvey, who suffers from muscular dystrophy and has been confined to a wheelchair since 1985, for one of the Muscular Dystrophy Assn.'

On a recent afternoon, comedy legend Jerry Lewis cracked open a diet soda and dimmed the lights inside a casino ballroom to drink in the spectacle of Charlie Chaplin impersonating Hitler. A scene from Chaplin's 1940 Nazi satire "The Great Dictator" flickered across a bank of monitors, part of a video montage Lewis was editing together for his signature cause, the Muscular Dystrophy Assn. Telethon . The 211/2 -hour annual event has raised $2.45 billion for "Jerry's kids" to date; its 45th edition kicks off on some 170 television stations Sunday evening.

Anna Karen Morrow, 94, an actress who had a regular role on the 1960s prime-time soap opera "Peyton Place" and also appeared on Broadway, in films and on other television shows, died Wednesday at a retirement home in Woodland Hills. The actress, a longtime resident of Encino, died from complications of old age, her daughter Lissa Morrow Christian said. As Anna Karen, her film credits included "The Price of Fear," which starred Merle Oberon, and "The Wrong Man" alongside Henry Fonda.

Jerry Lewis is known as one of show business' silliest and most outrageous clowns. But when he was honored Sunday night during the Oscars for his humanitarian work, he played it straight. "This touches my heart and the very depths of my soul, not only because of who this award is from, but who it will benefit," Lewis said in accepting the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award. "My humility is staggering."

Jerry Lewis raised a record $65 million for the Muscular Dystrophy Assn. in his annual Labor Day telethon, a benefit that also made a pitch for those inconvenienced by Hurricane Gustav. This year's 22-hour telethon added a special plea for MDA-registered families forced to leave their homes because of the hurricane, which made landfall Monday in Louisiana. The storm affected nearly 5,000 MDA families needing services in their new location, the organization said. The 2008 haul for the 43rd annual fundraising blitz was $1.2 million more than last year's total.

Robert Ross, 86, the president and chief executive of the Muscular Dystrophy Assn. who recruited Jerry Lewis for the organization's annual Labor Day telethon, died Monday of pneumonia at a Tucson hospital.

The food supplement creatine, used by many athletes to increase their strength, can also increase the strength of patients with muscular dystrophy and other wasting diseases, researchers report in a study to be released today. The new finding comes on the heels of an animal study suggesting that creatine is twice as effective in controlling symptoms of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, more commonly known as Lou Gehrig's disease, as the only drug now marketed for treating it.

The Lakers' Magic Johnson will be honored by the Muscular Dystrophy Assn. at its Sports Star Dinner and Auction March 11 at the Registry Hotel.

Robert Ross, 86, the president and chief executive of the Muscular Dystrophy Assn. who recruited Jerry Lewis for the organization's annual Labor Day telethon, died Monday of pneumonia at a Tucson hospital.

For those who prefer a black Harley to a black tie event, Saturday offers a rare chance to view more than 150 classic motorcycles and automobiles while benefiting the Muscular Dystrophy Assn. The occasion is a daylong paean to glittering dream machines at the Vintage Museum of Transportation and Wildlife in Oxnard to be held in conjunction with Sunday's 15th annual Love Ride, a charitable fund-raiser that attracts 20,000 motorcyclists for a 50-mile ride from Glendale to Castaic.

For 25 years, Karen Brown has been the heart and soul of an annual charity that started as a friendly backyard gathering and has now raised more than $3 million to fight muscular dystrophy. Now Brown is now being sidelined from her hard-fought battle by another debilitating and sometimes fatal disease: scleroderma. The bubbly 48-year-old former grocery store owner with the toothy smile and the big, jet-black hairdo has been so quickly and severely stricken that she must use a wheelchair.