November 27, 2025 • 16 mins
On a special Thanksgiving Day edition, the legendary Marlo Thomas revisits the remarkable story of how – and why -- her father, entertainer Danny Thomas, launched St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tenn. And we take a Vintage Variety look back at how St. Jude's origins played out in our pages.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:09):
Welcome to Daily Variety, your daily dose of news and
analysis for entertainment industry insiders. It's November twenty seventh, twenty
twenty five. I'm your host, Cynthia Lyttleton. I am co
editor in chief of Variety alongside Ramin Setuda. I'm in
la He's in New York, and Variety has reporters around
the world covering the business of entertainment. Today is Thanksgiving Day,
(00:31):
and so this is a special episode of Daily Variety.
We have a conversation with Marlo Thomas about one of
the greatest philanthropic efforts that ever came from the entertainment industry,
Saint Jude Children's Research Hospital. It's based in Memphis, and
it was the brainchild of one Danny Thomas, Marlow's father.
Danny Thomas was basically Tim Allen and Chuck Lorie combined.
(00:53):
In his heyday in the fifties, sixties, and seventies, he
was the star of a hit domestic comedy, The Danny
Thomas Show, that ran for more than ten years on
ABC and later on CBS. Danny Thomas partnered with producer
Sheldon Leonard to build a TV series empire that included
the Andy Griffiths Show, Gomer Pyle MC, The Dick Van
(01:14):
Dyke Show, and the fabulous and influential drama series I Spy.
But for all of Danny Thomas's professional success, his greatest
legacy is Saint Jude. Hands down. Marlow Thomas explains why
in this conversation. Marlowe, of course, has enjoyed her own
long career as a TV star, producer, author and activist.
(01:34):
Two words that girl. This is the first time in
more than four months of hosting this podcast that an
interview brought me to tears. Marlowe and her siblings Tony
and Terry are devoted to the institution that her father
spent most of his life building. It's absolutely touching. Our
conversation is heavy at times and also inspiring. And after
(01:55):
all that, we take a vintage Variety trip back in
time to look at how the Saint Jude story played
out in the pages of Variety. Our own coverage, day
by day, year by year, proves that Saint Jude was
not a cause for Danny Thomas. It was a mission.
Marlo Thomas, what a treat. Thank you so much for
(02:17):
joining me. I'm thrilled to be here. Cynthia Well as
I just told you at length, I am a big
fan of Saint Jude. I'm a supporter of Saint Jude,
and I just love the Origin store. This came purely
out of the entertainment industry and your father's desire to
do good and help the children of the world. Marlowe,
tell us where Saint Jude is right now, what are
(02:37):
some of your fundraising priorities as you look ahead to
twenty twenty six.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
Well, right now, we're in our Thanks and Giving campaign,
which is its twenty second year, and it's a time
of yew. We ask people to give thanks for the
healthy kids in your life and give to those who
are not. I mean, we have several wonderful partners like
best buy and Williams Sonoma and Kay Jewelers, and so
many wonderful companies that will ask their consumer, would you
(03:04):
like to leave a little something for the children of
Saint Jude and you can just add it on to
your to your bill. Every dollar counts. My dad used
to say he'd rather get one dollar from a million
people than a million dollars from one person, because that
means that everybody's involved in being part of the community.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
Especially for the own families that didn't have the background
to pay for expensive medical care. I know people at
Saint Jude are always in fundraising mode and this is
the time of year, so it's a great time of year.
My sister and brother and I created this twenty two
years ago. We've raised a billion dollars so far on
this program, which we're very excited about, and we've brought
(03:40):
it up to one hundred million dollar a year program now,
and you know, it's very much needed. As you said,
nobody pays at Saint Jude. Nobody pays for anything. They
don't pay for treatment or travel or housing or food.
We pay for all of that and it's our honor
and privilege to do that because when my dad was
growing up in Toledo, Ohio, as part of an immigrant neighborhood,
(04:02):
his parents were from Lebanon. He's a first generation American,
and little kids in his neighborhood died of things like
appendicitis and influenza. Those are illnesses that should be curable,
but because their parents couldn't afford a doctor, they didn't
see a doctor and so they didn't make it. And
that really imprinted on my dad, and that's why he
(04:24):
thought if he ever was successful, he was going to
build a hospital for children of all religions and all races,
and that nobody would have to pay and they'd all
get the same, first class care. And that's something that
my family and all of us had said. Jud have
taken very seriously. The focus on healthcare was so prescient.
This country is still debating to this day in terms
(04:47):
of the best way to make healthcare a human right.
You must have been a teenager. What do you remember
about that period when your dad just made the decision
I'm going to go for it.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
Well, I'll tell you the truth, Cynthia. It was a
great sacrifice on our family's part. My dad was on
the road all the time for Saint Jude. He didn't
make it to my college graduation because he was in
New Orleans at a big fundraiser. I'll never forget that.
And my sisdroom brother also have those kind of memories
of Saint Jude came first, and so our family was
(05:19):
very much involved in the giving to Saint Jude Children's
Research Hospital. So it was a very strong family feature tradition,
kind of like Christmas and Thanksgiving and the opening of
Saint Jude was a very big deal in nineteen sixty two.
We all just fell in love with the place. We
fell in love with the children. We fell in love
(05:40):
with their strength, their bravery, and their parents. You know,
one of the first time that I went to Saint
Jude after my father died, I was sitting in the
car crying for a little while. I was afraid to
go in. And then I went in and there was
this party going on, and there were all these little
kids running around in paper hats, and there was ice
cream and cake and balloons, all the stuff. And I
(06:01):
said to the nurse, whose birthday is it? And she said, oh,
it's not a birthday party. It's an off chemo party.
And I was so touched by that that these little
children were all celebrating one child's turn for the better.
And the moms and the dads and the grandparents were
standing nearby with tears in their eyes. If this little
(06:21):
kid could make it, maybe their precious child would too.
And I really felt what my dad must have felt
all those years in knowing what he was really doing
with this institution.
Speaker 1 (06:33):
And Marlow tell listeners, why your father chose Memphis as
the location for Saint.
Speaker 2 (06:38):
Jude well, a lot of people wanted him to put
it in Boston or Saint Louis, where there are really
fine medical communities, medical universities to be able to recruit from.
But my dad had read an article in a paper
about a black child eight years old who was hit
by a car. The kid was on his bike and
(07:00):
the man who hit him was a white man, and
he stopped and tried to get the kid. It was Mississippi,
and he took the little boy to a couple of
emergency rooms and nobody would take him because he was black,
and he died. And my father read that and he said, Okay,
I'm putting the hospital in the South. There's enough hospitals
for kids in the East and the Northeast and so forth.
(07:22):
I'm just going to put it in the South where
every child will have a chance. So he chose Memphis
for all kinds of reasons, but he wanted to put
it in the South.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
And all of this, Marlowe is done from private donations.
How has Saint Jude been able to keep it going
and growing at the rate that you have? Not only
is it treatment, but Saint Jude is funding a lot
of research and incredible breakthrough research on children's.
Speaker 2 (07:48):
And what's exciting to me is we're in a big
expansion right now. We're in a twelve billion dollar expansion
and buildings are going up, one by one by one, madly,
and because those buildings hold the researchers and the scientists
and the doctors who come from all over the world
to do their best work to create trials and treatments
(08:09):
that will help the children of America and the children
around the world. And I don't know if you know this,
but every child that Saint Jude has both a doctor
and a scientist on their team. So if that child's
fever spikes in the middle of the night, there's a
scientist to call and say, what's happening, Why is this happening.
That's why we have such a wonderful cure rate and
(08:30):
survival rate, because there are great minds saving this one child.
And I find that so exciting, so strong, so moving
that as long as I have breath, I'm going to
be on the road to raise money for Saint Jude
Children's Research Hospital. You know, our protocols are everywhere, and
we're collaborating a great daml which is a deadly blood
(08:54):
cancer leukemia. We've had great success with all acute lymp
oblastic leukemia. It was four percent when my father opened
the hospital. It's a ninety four percent survival rate today.
And I've held a dying child in my arms. I
never thought I'd be able to bear such a thing.
I was in the parking lot and a father of
(09:14):
a child came over to me and said, would you
come say goodbye to Douglas? And Douglas had been in
a commercial with me, so I knew him, and I said, yeah, sure.
And I thought to myself, Am I saying goodbye because
they're going home? Am I saying goodbye because he's not
going to make it? You know what kind of goodbye
is this going to be? But I just followed the
father to the room and there he was seven years old, dying.
(09:37):
So I held Douglas in my arms and I talked
to him. I told him how proud I was of him,
what a brave fighter he was, and I said, you're
going to go to heaven. When you go to heaven,
would give my daddy a hug for me, and talking
on and on to him about his courage, and I said, Douglas,
if you can hear me squeeze my hand, and of
(09:57):
course he didn't squeeze my hand, so I thought, well,
he's gone already, and then a little tiny tap from
his finger to my finger. He that's as much strength
as he had. He couldn't squeeze my hand, but he
certainly wanted to communicate with me, and he touched my
finger with his little finger. And it makes me cry
(10:19):
still today. But we did communicate it that last moment,
and he did pass away. And I'm surprised that I
could do that. You know, people always come up and
say thank you for saving my child, and I said,
I didn't do anything. I'm just a wheelbarrow. I just
bring money.
Speaker 1 (10:34):
Because I gather myself. I can tell you listeners that
this is a cause for the children of the world.
I know how committed you and your siblings are to
what your father built. Your father is in fact buried
on the grounds of Saint Hues if I'm not mistaken.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
Both of my parents are, my mom and dad are.
And you know, when you say legacy, I have to
tell you that my brother and sister have children, and
their children and the grandchildren are all involved with saying Jude.
They have their school sports donates money from their sporting events.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
St Jude has been so savvy about recruiting influencers, et
sports stars, just people that resonate with gen Z and
j Alfa and beyond. You and Drew Barrymore are hosting
what sounds like a great event.
Speaker 2 (11:20):
It'll be fun. But this Serry Maura is a wonderful
young woman actress and talk show hosts. But she's got
a great heart and she's one of our ambassadors. She
makes television spots for Saint Jude and she and I
are going to be hosting this media event for influencers
and other people that are in the media like you, Cynthia,
(11:43):
and I'm looking forward to We've never done it together before,
but she's such a darling and she's very committed human being.
Speaker 1 (11:50):
Marlo, once again, thank you so much for joining me.
Speaker 2 (11:53):
Thank you, Cynthia.
Speaker 1 (12:00):
Saint Jude stands tall as an example of the philanthropic
ambition that was a hallmark of industry heavyweights in the
fifties and sixties. It was even competitive among the biggest stars.
Danny Thomas was really successful as a performer and as
a producer. As Marlow Thomas explained, her father was driven
by his deep faith and the work ethic of a
(12:21):
first generation immigrant family. And he also got a lot
of help from his Hollywood pals. Danny Thomas was rat
pack adjacent in his career. Frank and Sammy and Dean
and Shirley hitched in and to help raise bucks for
Saint Jude. The very first mention of Saint Jude in
Brighty's pages came in a short item date Line Chicago
(12:42):
from the December fifth, nineteen fifty one edition. It notes
that Thomas went out of his way to stage the
premiere of his Warner Brothers movie I'll See You in
My Dreams as a fundraiser for Saint Jude. It's a
rom com co starring Doris Day. The event was held
December twenty seventh, nineteen fifty one, at the Chicago Theater.
It was chaired and blessed by none other than the
(13:03):
Archbishop of Chicago, Samuel Cardinal Stretch. Here's the full two
sentence item.
Speaker 3 (13:08):
Danny Thomas in for five days to lay plans for
memorial hospital for Saint Jude. Police League tied him with
this new pick, I'll See You in My Dreams, skedded
for the Chicago Theater December twenty seventh receipts to the hospital.
Speaker 1 (13:22):
I'm going to speculate that the reference to Saint Jude
being a police hospital was a mistake on the part
of our reporter, because that item ran in the New
York based edition of Variety. The very next day, a
report by a different reporter in the Hollywood based Daily
Variety had a little more detail on the plan for
the premiere and no mention of it being a police hospital.
(13:45):
And now here's a representative example of a story about
one of the hundreds of Chicken dinner fundraisers that Danny
Thomas held for years to raise the money to break
ground on Saint Jude. Before his success in movies and TV,
Thomas had two word for years as a nightclub comic.
He knew the highways and byways, and he worked them.
(14:05):
Variety pitched in by writing about his Saint Jude campaign
a lot. This item ran in the June twenty eighth,
nineteen fifty seven edition of Daily Variety.
Speaker 3 (14:14):
Stars in Memphis for benefit show. Arthur Godfrey, Jane Russell,
Susan Hayward, Lucastello, and Ferland Husky have arrived in Memphis
to entertain at Danny Thomas's Saint Jude Hospital benefit show tonight.
Jane Russell volunteered to do the show when Betty Hutton
bowed out because of other commitments. Thomas will mc the show,
which is being held in the Russwood Baseball Park. Admitting
(14:37):
to the event is by donation only, performing or donating
their services to help Thomas build a two million dollar
hospital here for needy children.
Speaker 1 (14:46):
Now we'll let Danny Thomas himself have the last word
on why he birthed Saint Jude.
Speaker 4 (14:52):
They said it couldn't be done. They said that it
was a task which would break my heart. They said
it was impossible. At this very moment, in the city
of Memphis, Tennessee, there is being constructed a hospital in
the form of a star.
Speaker 5 (15:11):
There it is in concrete, glass and steel, to offer
help to all the children of the world, regardless of race, creed,
or economic status.
Speaker 6 (15:21):
You and I have vowed that we will do everything
in our power, spiritually, physically, mentally, and financially to bring
about the defeat of these catastrophic diseases.
Speaker 1 (15:43):
Happy Thanksgiving listeners, we hope you've been inspired by this
true tale of what one showbiz legend was able to
accomplish in the name of the patron Saint of lost causes,
Danny Thomas for the win. Thanks for listening.
Speaker 7 (15:56):
Please leave us a review at the podcast platform of
your choice, and please drop us a line at podcasts
at Variety dot com.
Speaker 1 (16:03):
We love to hear from listeners.
Speaker 7 (16:05):
We'll be back Monday with another episode of Daily Variety.
Welcome to Daily Variety, your daily dose of news and
analysis for entertainment industry insiders. It's November twenty seventh, twenty
twenty five. I'm your host, Cynthia Lyttleton. I am co
editor in chief of Variety alongside Ramin Setuda. I'm in
la He's in New York, and Variety has reporters around
the world covering the business of entertainment. Today is Thanksgiving Day,
(00:31):
and so this is a special episode of Daily Variety.
We have a conversation with Marlo Thomas about one of
the greatest philanthropic efforts that ever came from the entertainment industry,
Saint Jude Children's Research Hospital. It's based in Memphis, and
it was the brainchild of one Danny Thomas, Marlow's father.
Danny Thomas was basically Tim Allen and Chuck Lorie combined.
(00:53):
In his heyday in the fifties, sixties, and seventies, he
was the star of a hit domestic comedy, The Danny
Thomas Show, that ran for more than ten years on
ABC and later on CBS. Danny Thomas partnered with producer
Sheldon Leonard to build a TV series empire that included
the Andy Griffiths Show, Gomer Pyle MC, The Dick Van
(01:14):
Dyke Show, and the fabulous and influential drama series I Spy.
But for all of Danny Thomas's professional success, his greatest
legacy is Saint Jude. Hands down. Marlow Thomas explains why
in this conversation. Marlowe, of course, has enjoyed her own
long career as a TV star, producer, author and activist.
(01:34):
Two words that girl. This is the first time in
more than four months of hosting this podcast that an
interview brought me to tears. Marlowe and her siblings Tony
and Terry are devoted to the institution that her father
spent most of his life building. It's absolutely touching. Our
conversation is heavy at times and also inspiring. And after
(01:55):
all that, we take a vintage Variety trip back in
time to look at how the Saint Jude story played
out in the pages of Variety. Our own coverage, day
by day, year by year, proves that Saint Jude was
not a cause for Danny Thomas. It was a mission.
Marlo Thomas, what a treat. Thank you so much for
(02:17):
joining me. I'm thrilled to be here. Cynthia Well as
I just told you at length, I am a big
fan of Saint Jude. I'm a supporter of Saint Jude,
and I just love the Origin store. This came purely
out of the entertainment industry and your father's desire to
do good and help the children of the world. Marlowe,
tell us where Saint Jude is right now, what are
(02:37):
some of your fundraising priorities as you look ahead to
twenty twenty six.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
Well, right now, we're in our Thanks and Giving campaign,
which is its twenty second year, and it's a time
of yew. We ask people to give thanks for the
healthy kids in your life and give to those who
are not. I mean, we have several wonderful partners like
best buy and Williams Sonoma and Kay Jewelers, and so
many wonderful companies that will ask their consumer, would you
(03:04):
like to leave a little something for the children of
Saint Jude and you can just add it on to
your to your bill. Every dollar counts. My dad used
to say he'd rather get one dollar from a million
people than a million dollars from one person, because that
means that everybody's involved in being part of the community.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
Especially for the own families that didn't have the background
to pay for expensive medical care. I know people at
Saint Jude are always in fundraising mode and this is
the time of year, so it's a great time of year.
My sister and brother and I created this twenty two
years ago. We've raised a billion dollars so far on
this program, which we're very excited about, and we've brought
(03:40):
it up to one hundred million dollar a year program now,
and you know, it's very much needed. As you said,
nobody pays at Saint Jude. Nobody pays for anything. They
don't pay for treatment or travel or housing or food.
We pay for all of that and it's our honor
and privilege to do that because when my dad was
growing up in Toledo, Ohio, as part of an immigrant neighborhood,
(04:02):
his parents were from Lebanon. He's a first generation American,
and little kids in his neighborhood died of things like
appendicitis and influenza. Those are illnesses that should be curable,
but because their parents couldn't afford a doctor, they didn't
see a doctor and so they didn't make it. And
that really imprinted on my dad, and that's why he
(04:24):
thought if he ever was successful, he was going to
build a hospital for children of all religions and all races,
and that nobody would have to pay and they'd all
get the same, first class care. And that's something that
my family and all of us had said. Jud have
taken very seriously. The focus on healthcare was so prescient.
This country is still debating to this day in terms
(04:47):
of the best way to make healthcare a human right.
You must have been a teenager. What do you remember
about that period when your dad just made the decision
I'm going to go for it.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
Well, I'll tell you the truth, Cynthia. It was a
great sacrifice on our family's part. My dad was on
the road all the time for Saint Jude. He didn't
make it to my college graduation because he was in
New Orleans at a big fundraiser. I'll never forget that.
And my sisdroom brother also have those kind of memories
of Saint Jude came first, and so our family was
(05:19):
very much involved in the giving to Saint Jude Children's
Research Hospital. So it was a very strong family feature tradition,
kind of like Christmas and Thanksgiving and the opening of
Saint Jude was a very big deal in nineteen sixty two.
We all just fell in love with the place. We
fell in love with the children. We fell in love
(05:40):
with their strength, their bravery, and their parents. You know,
one of the first time that I went to Saint
Jude after my father died, I was sitting in the
car crying for a little while. I was afraid to
go in. And then I went in and there was
this party going on, and there were all these little
kids running around in paper hats, and there was ice
cream and cake and balloons, all the stuff. And I
(06:01):
said to the nurse, whose birthday is it? And she said, oh,
it's not a birthday party. It's an off chemo party.
And I was so touched by that that these little
children were all celebrating one child's turn for the better.
And the moms and the dads and the grandparents were
standing nearby with tears in their eyes. If this little
(06:21):
kid could make it, maybe their precious child would too.
And I really felt what my dad must have felt
all those years in knowing what he was really doing
with this institution.
Speaker 1 (06:33):
And Marlow tell listeners, why your father chose Memphis as
the location for Saint.
Speaker 2 (06:38):
Jude well, a lot of people wanted him to put
it in Boston or Saint Louis, where there are really
fine medical communities, medical universities to be able to recruit from.
But my dad had read an article in a paper
about a black child eight years old who was hit
by a car. The kid was on his bike and
(07:00):
the man who hit him was a white man, and
he stopped and tried to get the kid. It was Mississippi,
and he took the little boy to a couple of
emergency rooms and nobody would take him because he was black,
and he died. And my father read that and he said, Okay,
I'm putting the hospital in the South. There's enough hospitals
for kids in the East and the Northeast and so forth.
(07:22):
I'm just going to put it in the South where
every child will have a chance. So he chose Memphis
for all kinds of reasons, but he wanted to put
it in the South.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
And all of this, Marlowe is done from private donations.
How has Saint Jude been able to keep it going
and growing at the rate that you have? Not only
is it treatment, but Saint Jude is funding a lot
of research and incredible breakthrough research on children's.
Speaker 2 (07:48):
And what's exciting to me is we're in a big
expansion right now. We're in a twelve billion dollar expansion
and buildings are going up, one by one by one, madly,
and because those buildings hold the researchers and the scientists
and the doctors who come from all over the world
to do their best work to create trials and treatments
(08:09):
that will help the children of America and the children
around the world. And I don't know if you know this,
but every child that Saint Jude has both a doctor
and a scientist on their team. So if that child's
fever spikes in the middle of the night, there's a
scientist to call and say, what's happening, Why is this happening.
That's why we have such a wonderful cure rate and
(08:30):
survival rate, because there are great minds saving this one child.
And I find that so exciting, so strong, so moving
that as long as I have breath, I'm going to
be on the road to raise money for Saint Jude
Children's Research Hospital. You know, our protocols are everywhere, and
we're collaborating a great daml which is a deadly blood
(08:54):
cancer leukemia. We've had great success with all acute lymp
oblastic leukemia. It was four percent when my father opened
the hospital. It's a ninety four percent survival rate today.
And I've held a dying child in my arms. I
never thought I'd be able to bear such a thing.
I was in the parking lot and a father of
(09:14):
a child came over to me and said, would you
come say goodbye to Douglas? And Douglas had been in
a commercial with me, so I knew him, and I said, yeah, sure.
And I thought to myself, Am I saying goodbye because
they're going home? Am I saying goodbye because he's not
going to make it? You know what kind of goodbye
is this going to be? But I just followed the
father to the room and there he was seven years old, dying.
(09:37):
So I held Douglas in my arms and I talked
to him. I told him how proud I was of him,
what a brave fighter he was, and I said, you're
going to go to heaven. When you go to heaven,
would give my daddy a hug for me, and talking
on and on to him about his courage, and I said, Douglas,
if you can hear me squeeze my hand, and of
(09:57):
course he didn't squeeze my hand, so I thought, well,
he's gone already, and then a little tiny tap from
his finger to my finger. He that's as much strength
as he had. He couldn't squeeze my hand, but he
certainly wanted to communicate with me, and he touched my
finger with his little finger. And it makes me cry
(10:19):
still today. But we did communicate it that last moment,
and he did pass away. And I'm surprised that I
could do that. You know, people always come up and
say thank you for saving my child, and I said,
I didn't do anything. I'm just a wheelbarrow. I just
bring money.
Speaker 1 (10:34):
Because I gather myself. I can tell you listeners that
this is a cause for the children of the world.
I know how committed you and your siblings are to
what your father built. Your father is in fact buried
on the grounds of Saint Hues if I'm not mistaken.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
Both of my parents are, my mom and dad are.
And you know, when you say legacy, I have to
tell you that my brother and sister have children, and
their children and the grandchildren are all involved with saying Jude.
They have their school sports donates money from their sporting events.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
St Jude has been so savvy about recruiting influencers, et
sports stars, just people that resonate with gen Z and
j Alfa and beyond. You and Drew Barrymore are hosting
what sounds like a great event.
Speaker 2 (11:20):
It'll be fun. But this Serry Maura is a wonderful
young woman actress and talk show hosts. But she's got
a great heart and she's one of our ambassadors. She
makes television spots for Saint Jude and she and I
are going to be hosting this media event for influencers
and other people that are in the media like you, Cynthia,
(11:43):
and I'm looking forward to We've never done it together before,
but she's such a darling and she's very committed human being.
Speaker 1 (11:50):
Marlo, once again, thank you so much for joining me.
Speaker 2 (11:53):
Thank you, Cynthia.
Speaker 1 (12:00):
Saint Jude stands tall as an example of the philanthropic
ambition that was a hallmark of industry heavyweights in the
fifties and sixties. It was even competitive among the biggest stars.
Danny Thomas was really successful as a performer and as
a producer. As Marlow Thomas explained, her father was driven
by his deep faith and the work ethic of a
(12:21):
first generation immigrant family. And he also got a lot
of help from his Hollywood pals. Danny Thomas was rat
pack adjacent in his career. Frank and Sammy and Dean
and Shirley hitched in and to help raise bucks for
Saint Jude. The very first mention of Saint Jude in
Brighty's pages came in a short item date Line Chicago
(12:42):
from the December fifth, nineteen fifty one edition. It notes
that Thomas went out of his way to stage the
premiere of his Warner Brothers movie I'll See You in
My Dreams as a fundraiser for Saint Jude. It's a
rom com co starring Doris Day. The event was held
December twenty seventh, nineteen fifty one, at the Chicago Theater.
It was chaired and blessed by none other than the
(13:03):
Archbishop of Chicago, Samuel Cardinal Stretch. Here's the full two
sentence item.
Speaker 3 (13:08):
Danny Thomas in for five days to lay plans for
memorial hospital for Saint Jude. Police League tied him with
this new pick, I'll See You in My Dreams, skedded
for the Chicago Theater December twenty seventh receipts to the hospital.
Speaker 1 (13:22):
I'm going to speculate that the reference to Saint Jude
being a police hospital was a mistake on the part
of our reporter, because that item ran in the New
York based edition of Variety. The very next day, a
report by a different reporter in the Hollywood based Daily
Variety had a little more detail on the plan for
the premiere and no mention of it being a police hospital.
(13:45):
And now here's a representative example of a story about
one of the hundreds of Chicken dinner fundraisers that Danny
Thomas held for years to raise the money to break
ground on Saint Jude. Before his success in movies and TV,
Thomas had two word for years as a nightclub comic.
He knew the highways and byways, and he worked them.
(14:05):
Variety pitched in by writing about his Saint Jude campaign
a lot. This item ran in the June twenty eighth,
nineteen fifty seven edition of Daily Variety.
Speaker 3 (14:14):
Stars in Memphis for benefit show. Arthur Godfrey, Jane Russell,
Susan Hayward, Lucastello, and Ferland Husky have arrived in Memphis
to entertain at Danny Thomas's Saint Jude Hospital benefit show tonight.
Jane Russell volunteered to do the show when Betty Hutton
bowed out because of other commitments. Thomas will mc the show,
which is being held in the Russwood Baseball Park. Admitting
(14:37):
to the event is by donation only, performing or donating
their services to help Thomas build a two million dollar
hospital here for needy children.
Speaker 1 (14:46):
Now we'll let Danny Thomas himself have the last word
on why he birthed Saint Jude.
Speaker 4 (14:52):
They said it couldn't be done. They said that it
was a task which would break my heart. They said
it was impossible. At this very moment, in the city
of Memphis, Tennessee, there is being constructed a hospital in
the form of a star.
Speaker 5 (15:11):
There it is in concrete, glass and steel, to offer
help to all the children of the world, regardless of race, creed,
or economic status.
Speaker 6 (15:21):
You and I have vowed that we will do everything
in our power, spiritually, physically, mentally, and financially to bring
about the defeat of these catastrophic diseases.
Speaker 1 (15:43):
Happy Thanksgiving listeners, we hope you've been inspired by this
true tale of what one showbiz legend was able to
accomplish in the name of the patron Saint of lost causes,
Danny Thomas for the win. Thanks for listening.
Speaker 7 (15:56):
Please leave us a review at the podcast platform of
your choice, and please drop us a line at podcasts
at Variety dot com.
Speaker 1 (16:03):
We love to hear from listeners.
Speaker 7 (16:05):
We'll be back Monday with another episode of Daily Variety.
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