On January 20th, 2017, as the presidential inauguration ceremony took place in Washington D.C., a truly modern telethon was LiveStreamed on Facebook from New York City. This is, after all, the digital age!
Celebrities, authors, playwrights, lawyers, doctors et al came together in an incredible show of solidarity and an expression of social conscience.
Elle Kyle
Producer / Writer
Love-A-Thon, a three-hour event, was sponsored by UpWorthy, and raised money to support three very important organizations: Planned Parenthood, the ACLU, and Earthjustice. It was hosted by Judah Friedlander, a well known, admired stand-up comedian and self-proclaimed World Champion. He greeted us all warmly with “Judah” accompanied by a fist bump and a nod.
Love-A-Thon, a three-hour event, was sponsored by UpWorthy, and raised money to support three very important organizations: Planned Parenthood, the ACLU, and Earthjustice. It was hosted by Judah Friedlander, a well known, admired stand-up comedian and self-proclaimed World Champion. He greeted us all warmly with “Judah” accompanied by a fist bump and a nod.
Love-A-Thon also included an impressive lineup of guests from each of the organizations. Among them, were Dale Ho, director of the ACLU’s Voter Rights Project; Lisa Garcia, the Vice President of Litigation for Healthy Communities at Earthjustice; and Dr. Leslie Kantor, the Vice President of Education at Planned Parenthood.
The American Movie Company was proud to be part of this effort and donated the full WebCasting equipment and several crew members volunteered their time to this worthy cause. Bill Milling was on set as production coordinator. Jason Gillet and Phil Fleischer operated the TriCaster. Arié Ohayon served as DP with Lou Blackmon and Loni Gest as camera operators. RJ Yenesel was the production’s sound mixer, and Parm Girn and Carmen Ventura, AMC’s producers, ran the production office.
World Event
While beginning as a simple act of altruism, The Love-A-Thon quickly gained momentum rapidly growing into a “World Event” with pledges from all around the globe bringing in tens of thousands of dollars to the ACLU and Planned Parenthood
Co-ordinating guest availability and continually re-arranging schedules was challenging. But everyone cooperated happily and, in the end, it all ran smoothly. It was a wonderful experience! We all gave our time and effort for the good of the country.
Exhilarating!
Judah’s brilliant ad-libbed monologue and jokes made us all laugh. It was infectious, not a sour puss in the crowd! More importantly, Love-A-Thon was a great success.
During the three-hour show over $165,000 were raised from viewers! The total has since exceeded $300,000 as additional contributions have continued to pour in.
Our AMC team and staff were delighted to see so many altruistic people come together and give their time, talent, and resources to such a good cause. We were all thrilled that Love-A-Thon was such a success. We continue to be optimistic and will remain committed to do our part in serving our fellow Americans.
The Times They Are A-Changin’!
