This weekend sees Telethon returning to our screens. Here, we round up some of our favourite moments from Telethons past...
The many telethons in the 70s and 80s offered up countless moments of spontaneous joy and mindless good fun.
Here are five memorable moments to savour:
The whistling stomachs
Five intrepid gentlemen painted their bellies to represent puckered lips, and flexed their muscles in and out in tune with the music. Giggling at the act was infectious. Certainly a variation on 'rumbling stomachs'.
Stripped for cash
The ladies of Auckland's notorious K Rd played their part in the fundraising one year, by passing round the hat during their pole dancing routine. And the 'King of K Rd', entrepreneur Rainton Hastie, offered all the takings from the night's "peep show" for charity. It did indeed seem that, for telethon, "anything goes".
Marriage made in Heaven
Or in Godzone, anyway. The nation was proud as punch that two visiting celebrities, on paper as different as chalk and cheese, found love while appearing together on the 1988 Telethon. Presenter Leeza Gibbons of Entertainment Tonight and actor Christopher Quinten of Coronation St got together on Telethon in Christchurch, and went on to tie the knot a year later and have a daughter, Jordan. Sadly, long-term love wasn't on the cards for the odd couple of the LA celebrity gossip diva and the down-to-earth soap star from Manchester - they split up after only a couple of years.
The country's largest jazzercise class
Hundreds filled venues such as Auckland's Mt Smart and Christchurch's QE II stadium to work off those calories to music in mass choreographed exercise - all for telethon.
Gang welfare
Perennial host Peter Sinclair could hardly contain his mirth when a fellow panellist read out a pledge for $20 from the Black Power, who challenged the crosstown Headhunters to match it. "From one bunch of hooligans to another", chimed in Sinclair with his trademark smirk. They were indeed simpler times then.
- NZ HERALD STAFF
