Perspectives in Health Magazine
The Magazine of the Pan American Health Organization
Volume 7, Number 3, 2002

Kreutzberger’s personal story, written with a ghostwriter’s help, is that of a bullied child with an artistic bent who went on to achieve stardom through hard work, a love of his medium and a determination not to miss any opportunities that presented themselves.

Born in Talca, Chile, in 1940, he was the first child of a German-Jewish immigrant couple who had fled Nazi Germany only two years earlier. His father, a tailor, was a concentration-camp survivor and his mother an aspiring opera singer whom the Nazis never allowed to perform. Kreutzberger believes her own frustrated ambitions led her to encourage her son’s talent. She had him study "every musical instrument under the sun," and when he failed to master a single one, she persuaded him to sing instead. At 10, little Mario performed Chilean folk songs at school until his older schoolmates shamed him with taunts, and he vowed to himself never to sing again.

The entertainer’s best talent and greatest appeal is his ability to relate to ordinary men and women. ‘I know I strike a familiar chord with people that allows them to feel like my very close personal friends.’

When Kreutzberger was 16, his first drama teacher taught him how to tell jokes, dance, act and sing, and "never to improvise." He dropped out of high school and at 19 traveled to New York City for training to help him run the family garment business. But when he saw his first television in a hotel room there, it was "love at first sight." He returned to Chile, found a way to get on TV and launched a 40-year career that would more than answer his father’s early concern: "How do you think he’s going to support a family by being a circus clown?"

Timed to coincide with Sábado Gigante’s 40th anniversary, Kreutzberger’s book describes his pioneering work on Chilean TV, his launching of the Chilean telethon, his move to Miami in 1986 and the quite serious ups and downs that accompanied his rise to international stardom. Mauricio Montaldo, his ghostwriter, writes in the book’s introduction that Kreutzberger "wanted to share his experiences because he was convinced that six months after he was gone, no one would remember him." True to his style, Kreutzberger is donating part of the book’s royalties to Padres Contra El Cancer, a California-based group that helps children with cancer.

Kreutzberger is clearly proudest of the more serious uses to which he has put his fame and fortune. In his book, he describes how his television career in Chile led him to establish the telethon for handicapped children.

"Despite such a long string of successes, something was still making me uneasy, and in 1977 that uneasiness made me feel a strong need to give something back to the community," he writes. Taking inspiration from comedian Jerry Lewis’s annual muscular dystrophy telethon, Kreutzberger gathered the stars and held the first show, "Let’s Make the Miracle Happen." The premier broadcast raised $2.5 million and so gratified Kreutzberger’s urge to "give back" that he soon committed himself to making it an annual event.

For Kreutzberger, the telethon has been a personal victory. Each year more funds are collected than the year before. His face brightens when he speaks about it in person, and he writes eloquently about it in his book:

Twenty-two years later, the Telethon, which has no political orientation and is based on solidarity and emotion, has produced a cultural transformation that has brought dignity and respect to the handicapped and their rights.…There is a lot to be done. We will have to grow and incorporate new rehabilitation and communication technologies. The world will change, we’ll more or less become technocrats, we’ll have less space, more or less material possessions; but a child’s smile will always be the same and hope will always survive as a value that can’t be bought or sold on any stock market.

Today one of Kreutzberger’s biggest challenges is to keep up with the International Organization of Telethon Institutions, or ORITEL, a foundation that unites 13 countries in the yearly telethon. The idea, he explains, is to raise funds to train doctors via the Internet and allow them to exchange information on ways to treat children with nerve, muscle and skeletal disabilities. In 2001, Kreutzberger signed a memorandum of understanding with the Inter-American Development Bank to expand the work being done on disabilities by Latin American and Caribbean institutions.

Kreutzberger believes in what he terms "the communicator’s responsibility," that is, to use his talent for relating to people to promote positive messages, including love, tolerance, the value of family, a sense of community, Hispanic cultural pride, personal perseverance and honest hard work.

He also believes that ordinary people can and should help each other, and that unity brings results. He returns to the topic of the telethon, saying that if every person gave a dollar, those who gave it wouldn’t miss it. On the other hand, that money could be turned into "smiles, hopes, a lot of things."

"At times, this cold, impersonal world of money can be turned into something very positive," says Don Francisco. "But for this you need the help of others. This is power."

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