1948 Broadcast That Launched Jimmy Fund

On a May evening in 1948, Ralph Edwards’ “Truth or Consequences” show brought its radio listeners into a room at Boston Children’s Hospital, where a 12-year-old lymphoma patient waited. For privacy he was called simply “Jimmy.” The boy loved the Boston Braves, and the radio audience could hear his shock and joy as the players came one by one into his room. The show concluded with Jimmy singing “Take Me Out to the Ballgame,” his voice high, off pitch, totally alive. Jimmy touched a nation, and soon more than $200,000 poured into the hospital to research a cure for children’s cancer — this at a time when pediatric cancers were overwhelmingly fatal.

Thus began the Jimmy Fund (jimmyfund.org), New England’s most famous charity, and the official cause of the Boston Red Sox, one of numerous regional institutions to fight for all the Jimmys who have come after. Today the Jimmy Fund raises more than $45 million each year — and the research those funds have spawned has saved countless thousands of young lives.

Who Jimmy was remained a mystery for a long time; the public assumed that he had died too young. But with the fund’s 50th anniversary approaching, Jimmy came forward in March 1998. His name was Einar Gustafson, a truck driver from New Sweden, Maine, father of three, grand-father of six. A quiet man, he was a celebrity once again, and until his sudden death in January 2001 at age 65, a symbol not of death cheated, he said, but of life. — Mel Allen

Recognizing the 60th anniversary year of the founding of New England’s most famous charity, you can hear the original radio broadcast from 1948 that launched the Jimmy Fund.

Mel Allen

Now editor at large, Mel Allen's first byline in Yankee appeared in 1977 and he joined the staff in 1979 as a senior editor. Eventually he became executive editor and led the staff as editor from 2006 to 2025. During his career he has edited and written for every section of the magazine, including home, food, and travel, while his pursuit of long-form storytelling has always been vital to his mission as well. He has raced a sled dog team, crawled into the dens of black bears, fished with the legendary Ted Williams, profiled astronaut Alan Shephard, and stood beneath a battleship before it was launched. He also once helped author Stephen King round up his pigs for market, but that story is for another day. Mel is author of Here in New England: Unforgettable Stories of People, Places, and Memories That Connect Us All (Earth Sky + Water LLC, 2025).

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