Telethon: After 53 years WA’s favourite charity event is still going strong

It is the weekend we look forward to every year and not even a worldwide pandemic has made a dent in the enthusiasm for the world’s highest per capita fundraising event.

What began as an ambitious dream to use the power of television for the public good, Telethon has become a record-breaking charitable tour-de-force.

Basil Zempilas has been the main host of the weekend event for a decade, but his first Telethon was in 1994. He says its remarkable history is what sets it apart.

“This is our charity, our charity appeal,” Zempilas said. “It’s WA-owned.”

“Generations of us have stayed up to watch and it was the appeal — we put our pocket money aside to donate, and hopefully hear our name called out.

“It was our appeal for so many years, we continued to watch it grow and become what we feel like is ours.”

Telethon was born in 1968, when Sir David Brand was premier and WA’s population was a quarter of what it is today. The Americans were sending men to orbit the moon and Rod Laver had won Wimbledon.

Channel 7 executives Sir James Cruthers and Brian Treasure came up with the idea over a game of golf.

The first event was held in TVW7’s original studios in Dianella. No one, especially Sir James and Mr Treasure, could have imagined that the marathon 24 hours of television would raise a staggering $104,829.

First Telethon producer Max Bostock said: “The atmosphere created in the studio, by the crowds and the talents, is something I have never experienced before or since.”

And it grew exponentially from there with international stars such as Elton John, Celine Dion, the Golden Girls, Cliff Richard and Harry Connick Jr joining homegrown talent to entertain the audience both at home and in the studio.

It’s hard to imagine Telethon without its trademark mascot, but Fat Cat didn’t become a household name until 1971.

In 1972, an innovation was added to the fundraising extravaganza and the first Telethon home in Whitfords sold at auction, adding $17,500 to the overall total of $210,792 — more than doubling the first year’s total.

By 1980 the event had broken the $1 million barrier. Just six years later the fundraising total rocketed passed the $3 million mark.

The new millennium brought some big changes for Telethon, including the move in 2004 from the too small Channel 7 studio in Tuart Hill, to the Perth Convention and Exhibition Centre.

Sir James sadly passed away in 2015. But before his death he paid tribute to the event he helped mastermind.

“(Telethon) is the greatest thing to have happened in television in WA,” he said. “It was our belief that it was a good thing for the community, a good thing for research and, more particularly, it was felt it gave people, particularly children, one day of the year when they could think of other people rather than themselves.”

In a year where the world has turned upside down due to the novel coronavirus, many questioned whether Telethon could be held. But there was never a doubt in the organisers’ minds that the show simply had to go on.

Zempilas said this week that despite the difficult year many West Aussies had faced, he had no doubt people would dig deep and “give it their best shake”.

“It gives a message of hope,” he said of the event. “It celebrates a lot of the things we have in WA to be thankful for, and it’s a wonderful opportunity to pause and say we are so lucky to be where we are today.”

Telethon totals over the years:

1968 - $104,829

1969 - $147,000

1970 - $166,000

1971 - $177,587

1972 - $210,792

1973 - $335,503

1974 - $530,710

1975 - $586,700

1976 - $721,624

1977 - $905,020

1978 - $887,376

1979 - $909,327

1980 - $1,071,503

1981 - $1,338,002

1982 - $1,601,387

1983 - $1,711,456

1984 - $2,143,000

1985 - $2,818,837

1986 - $3,604,717

1987 - $3,510,000

1988 - $3,604,717

1989 - $3,253,077

1990 - $3,204,657

1991 - $2,703,957

1992 - $2,710,438

1993 - $2,004,905

1994 - $2,264,770

1995 - $2,107,775

1996 - $2,005,470

1997 - $2,305,747

1998 - $2,465,750

1999 - $2,507,545

2000 - $2,395,947

2001 - $2,587,137

2002 - $2,602,397

2003 - $2,614,456

2004 - $2,867,467

2005 - $3,017,000

2006 - $3,217,000

2007 - $6,527,576

2008 - $7,535,678

2009 - $6,374,775

2010 - $9,237,539

2011 - $13,473,159

2012 - $16,805,622

2013 - $20,701,272

2014 - $25,271,542

2015 - $25,854,524

2016 - $26,290,154

2017 - $35,431,381

2018 - $38,000,554

2019 - $42,596,034