Variety, the Children's Charity is a charitable organization founded in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1927.
Variety, the Children's Charity is a charitable organization founded in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1927.
On October 10, 1927, a group of eleven men involved in show business set up a social club which they named the "Variety Club". On Christmas Eve 1928, a small baby was left on the steps of the Sheridan Square Film Theatre, owned by John H. Harris, with a note reading:
Please take care of my baby. Her name is Catherine, named after my grandmother. I can no longer take care of her. I have eight others. My husband is out of work. She was born on Thanksgiving Day. I have always heard of the goodness of showbusiness people and pray to God that you will look after her. Signed, a heartbroken mother.
Since efforts to trace the mother failed, the members of the Variety Club named the child Catherine Variety Sheridan after the location in which she was found, and undertook to fund the child's living expenses and education. Later the club decided to raise funds for other disadvantaged children. [1]
The discovery of the baby inspired the Paramount Pictures film Variety Girl (1947). In May 1947, a group of members of the Variety Club of New England toured Sidney Farber's lab at Children's Hospital Boston, where Farber studied childhood leukemia. Farber, and the group's leader, Bill Koster, ended up founding the Children's Cancer Research Fund in order to raise money and sponsor research into forms of cancer affecting children.
The two men also founded The Jimmy Fund, [2] which raises money for the Dana–Farber Cancer Institute.
Given its origins in the world of show business, Variety often uses carnival and circus terminology. For instance, a local or national chapter of the charity is known as a "tent", and the main board of trustees and others of a particular tent are called the Crew. That is a reference to those who erected the old circus tents or, nowadays, provide the various technical experts to make a film or stage a live production. The chairman of the board is called the Chief Barker, after the man who drummed up customers at the fairground.[ citation needed ]
In some localities, Variety holds fundraising telethons for the organisation.
Variety was started in the UK in 1949 with a dinner at the Savoy Hotel attended by film moguls, agents and celebrities, all eager to freely donate their time and talent to help raise funds for children. The Club's annual get-together provided a popular meeting place for England's entertainment industry.
The Variety Club Showbiz Awards was one of the most eagerly anticipated events in the showbiz calendar. A list of celebrities, industry stalwarts and kingpins, as well as personalities from the fields of film, TV, comedy, theatre, Sports, pop and classical music. [4] Made by hand, in sterling silver, these awards have been presented to some of the biggest showbiz celebrities. [5]
Previous award winners include [6] Audrey Hepburn, Leslie Caron, Laurence Olivier, Alan Bates, [7] Alec Guinness, The Beatles, Maggie Smith, Anthony Hopkins, Phil Collins, Elaine Paige, Keira Knightley, Peter O'Toole, Jeremy Irons, Jude Law, Sean Connery, James McAvoy, Kenneth Brannagh, Ricky Gervais, Muhammad Ali, [8] Michael Caine, Stephen Fry, John Hurt, Alan Carr, Michael Parkinson, Helen Mirren, Ben Kingsley, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Bonnie Tyler, [9] Tom Jones, Kylie Minogue, Culture Club, Lisa Stansfield, Spandau Ballet, Judi Dench, Daniel Radcliffe, Katherine Jenkins, Sophie Ellis-Bextor, and Ewan McGregor. [10] [11]
Categories: [12]
In Australia (and previously in New Zealand) a popular fund-raising method is the 'Variety Bash' - a motoring event travelling through remote outback areas in old cars often 'themed' and crewed by entrants dressed as appropriate to the car's theme. The Bash is not a race or a rally but a drive through the outback with your 'mates'. The concept was originally an idea of Australian businessman and philanthropist Dick Smith who with businessman John Singleton organized the first Bash from Bourke, outback New South Wales to Burketown, far north Queensland in 1985. Since that time, events have been held annually through Variety Australia, raising millions of dollars annually.
To date the organization has grown to include 41 chapters (or "tents" as they are termed by the organization) in 15 countries worldwide, including:
Mario Luis Kreutzberger Blumenfeld, better known by his stage name as Don Francisco, is a Chilean television host, and a popular personality on the Univision network reaching Spanish-speaking viewers in the United States. He is best known for hosting the former variety shows Sábado Gigante, Don Francisco Presenta and Don Francisco Te Invita.
Comic Relief is a British charity, founded in 1985 by the comedy scriptwriter Richard Curtis and comedian Sir Lenny Henry in response to the famine in Ethiopia. The concept of Comic Relief was to get British comedians to make the public laugh, while raising money to help people around the world and in the United Kingdom. A new CEO, Samir Patel, was announced in January 2021.
A telethon is a televised fundraising event that lasts many hours or even days, the purpose of which is to raise money for a charitable, political or other cause.
BBC Children in Need is the BBC's UK charity. As of September 2023 and since 1980, it has raised over £1 billion for disadvantaged children and young people in the UK.
Patrick Joseph McGuinness is an English comedian, actor, writer, and television presenter. He rose to fame with the help of fellow comedian Peter Kay, who invited him to appear on the television comedy series That Peter Kay Thing (2000), and the sitcoms Phoenix Nights (2000–2001) and Max and Paddy's Road to Nowhere (2004). McGuinness went on to present various televisions shows, including Take Me Out (2010–2019), 71 Degrees North (2011), Paddy's TV Guide (2013), Top Gear (2019–2022), I Can See Your Voice (2021–2022), and Question of Sport (2021–2023).
Danny La Rue, was an Irish-English singer and entertainer, best known for his on-stage drag persona. He performed in drag and also as himself in theatrical productions, television shows and film.
Sidney Farber was an American pediatric pathologist. He is regarded as the father of modern chemotherapy for his work using folic acid antagonists to combat leukemia, which led to the development of other chemotherapeutic agents against other malignancies. Farber was also active in cancer research advocacy and fundraising, most notably through his establishment of the Jimmy Fund, a foundation dedicated to pediatric research in childhood cancers. The Dana–Farber Cancer Institute is named after him.
The WHAS Crusade for Children is an annual telethon broadcast by WHAS-TV and WHAS (AM) Radio in Louisville, Kentucky. The telethon benefits a wide range of children's charities throughout Kentucky and southern Indiana.
The Jimmy Fund, established in Boston in 1948, is made up of community-based fundraising events and other programs that benefit Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Since 1948, millions of people have given money to the Jimmy Fund to help save lives and reduce the burden of cancer for patients and families worldwide.
The Channel Seven Perth Telethon, regionally known simply as Telethon, is an annual telethon established in 1968 by philanthropist Sir James Cruthers and Brian Treasure, and produced by TVW, a Seven Network-owned television station in Perth, Western Australia. It raises money for over 100 beneficiaries each year including the Perth Children's Hospital, the Telethon Clinical Research Centre and the Telethon Kids Institute. Channel Seven's Perth Telethon is the highest donating telethon per capita in the world, and since the first Telethon in 1968 has raised over A$600 million in total.
Einar Gustafson gained fame as a 12-year-old cancer patient when he became nationally known as "Jimmy". The name started a fund-raising program in 1948 known as The Jimmy Fund for the Dana–Farber Cancer Institute. The Jimmy Fund was adopted as the official charity of the Boston Red Sox in 1953.
The Entertainment Industry Foundation (EIF), based in Los Angeles, United States, is a 501(c)(3) non-profit charitable organization of the entertainment industry. EIF funds more than 300 charitable organizations annually, both in the Los Angeles area and throughout the entire United States. To date, EIF has pledged more than $1 billion for its philanthropic initiatives.
Ethan Jordan Bortnick is an American pianist, singer, songwriter, record producer, musician and actor. He has been featured on The Tonight Show, Oprah Winfrey Network, Good Morning America, Disney Channel, Nickelodeon, and his award-winning concert specials on PBS. Ethan has had over 4 national television concert specials. On October 3, 2010, Bortnick was listed in the Guinness World Records for "The World's Youngest Solo Musician to Headline His Own Concert Tour".
The Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation is an American not-for-profit cancer research organization focused on "discovering the talent to discover the cure". The organization states that its goals are to: "identify the best and brightest early career scientists in cancer research, accelerate the translation of scientific discoveries into new diagnostic tools and treatments, and to enable risk-taking on bold new ideas".
PMPC Star Awards for Television is an annual award-giving body recognizing the outstanding programming produced by the several TV networks in the Philippines.
Text Santa was a charity initiative set up in 2011 by ITV to support UK-based charities during the Christmas period. The appeal to the public is to donate money mainly via text donation and profits from merchandise. The telethons have been hosted by popular ITV presenters including Phillip Schofield, Christine Bleakley, and Ant & Dec. The 2015 appeal show was the last after ITV decided to axe the show to make way for an all-year appeal.
Judith Sarah Jarman Craymer is an English creator and producer of musical theatre who has also worked in the film, television and music industries. She is the founder of Littlestar Services Ltd. Craymer worked on Mamma Mia!, which has been seen by more than 65 million people worldwide. Ten years after the film adaptation grossed more than $600 million around the world, Craymer produced an all-new original movie musical based on the songs of ABBA, Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again. Since opening in July 2018 the film has become the most successful live musical movie sequel of all time grossing just less than $400 million. Craymer was nominated for the "Carl Foreman award for special achievement by a British director, writer or producer in their first feature film" at the 62nd British Academy Film Awards for the film version of Mamma Mia! She has been dubbed "the greatest showbiz impresario" of the first decade of the 21st century and has consequently been entered in Debrett's.
Clementine Moodie is an English journalist, columnist and assistant editor at The Sun [showbiz].
Stand Up to Cancer (SU2C) is the UK version of Stand Up to Cancer, a US charitable television telethon, broadcast between 2012 and 2018 on the Channel 4 network in the United Kingdom, and again from 2020. The most recent edition of the telethon was on 15 October 2021, a programme which was hosted by Davina McCall, Alan Carr, Maya Jama and Adam Hills. By February 2015, the 2014 broadcast had raised £15,585,444 in pledges, in aid of cancer research.
The Pan-Mass Challenge (PMC) is a fundraising bike-a-thon started in 1980 by Billy Starr to benefit the Dana–Farber Cancer Institute via the Jimmy Fund. It raises more money than any other single athletic fundraiser in the country.
He worked with Storey and Anderson again on Life Class (1974) while other Gray plays included Otherwise Engaged, for which he won a Variety Club award, its sequel, Simply Disconnected, and Melon. There was another Variety Club award for his part in a revival of Osborne's A Patriot For Me (1983), which he played at Chichester, in the West End and in Los Angeles.
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
