Telethon

Eternal Telethon: Infinity + 24 Where: Machine Project, 1200 D N. Alvarado St., L.A. When: Saturday, Nov. 20, 12 p.m. to Sunday, Nov. 21, 12 p.m. Price: donation Information: (213) 483-8761; http://www.eternaltelethon.com

Big-name actors such as Jack Lemmon, Ed Asner and Mary Steenburgen will headline a telethon later this month to benefit the Ventura satellite campus of Cal State Northridge. But local entertainers will also have a chance to get in on the act. Local television station KADY will hold an audition at 9 a.m. Saturday for musicians, comedians and other performers--amateur or professional--who want to appear on the telethon. The telethon will be broadcast live Oct.

The annual muscular dystrophy telethon is supposed to be a "Labor Day Love-In"--a sentimental and entertaining fund-raiser that collected more than $45 million last year for research and treatment of 40 neuromuscular diseases, according to its longtime unpaid host, comedian Jerry Lewis. But behind the scenes, the love-in is beginning to look more like a war.

After 10 years of doing the show in Los Angeles, Jerry Lewis says he's happy about hosting his annual telethon fundraiser for muscular dystrophy in Las Vegas again. "There's something about Los Angeles that subjugates it," Lewis, 80, told reporters on the set at the South Coast hotel-casino south of the Las Vegas Strip. "I always feel like I'm claustrophobic there." The Labor Day telethon, which has raised $1.35 billion for the Muscular Dystrophy Assn.

Special thanks to Robert A. Jones ("Jerry's Kids: It's a Pity but It Works," On California, Sept. 4) for his trenchant comments concerning the recent actions by muscular dystrophy activists over the Labor Day weekend. I would have preferred that Jerry Lewis had refrained from "begging for survival" in the opening moments of the Muscular Dystrophy Assn. telethon and instead have composed a rebuttal to newspapers once the telethon was completed. However, I can understand that he probably felt that not saying anything would be misconstrued as dodging the issue.

Father Paul O'Conner, a missionary who flew a single-engine airplane through the African bush, has died in Las Vegas where he had gone to appear on the Jerry Lewis Labor Day Telethon. He was 63. The Roman Catholic priest who lived in Detroit died Friday of respiratory complications from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig's disease. Lewis' telethon benefits victims of ALS and other neuromuscular diseases. Lewis said he was "shocked and saddened" to learn of the priest's death.

For alternative rock band Urban Sprawl, the chance to headline Saturday's telethon to raise money for the city's 92nd annual Fourth of July parade is welcome exposure. "It allows us to be seen in the Huntington Beach area without having to go out and [perform] in a club," said Euqubud Mot, the band's drummer and a Huntington Beach resident. Mot's band is among local entertainment booked for the 10-hour telethon to air on the city's cable station HBTV-3.