OG Talk Show Host David Letterman & Paul Shaffer Reunite To Raffle Off Iconic ‘Late Show’ Marquee.
“What’s 20 feet long, 8 feet high, belongs in the Smithsonian — but could end up in your garage?
The answer: The Late Show With David Letterman marquee. The familiar blue-and-yellow sign hung outside the Ed Sullivan Theater at Broadway and 53rd Street for the entire run of Letterman’s CBS late-night show, from 1993 to 2013.
Now, that oversize piece of television history, which has been sitting in storage for a decade, is the grand prize in a sweepstakes benefiting Habitat for Humanity, the Atlanta-based nonprofit that builds and repairs homes for low-income families and individuals. Letterman is a longtime supporter of the organization, having first volunteered with Habitat in New Orleans as part of its response to 2005’s Hurricane Katrina.
For a donation of $10 or more, anyone can enter the sweepstakes at GiveAwayDave.com until Dec. 31. The grand prize also includes a trip to New York City to meet Letterman and his longtime band leader Paul Shaffer. The winner will appear alongside the two TV legends on The Barbara Gaines Show — a YouTube show hosted by Letterman’s former executive producer Barbara Gaines — which fondly looks back on the Late Show years. And, of course, the winner gets to take home the Late Show sign (worth noting: it’s a side panel, not the longer center panel).
Letterman, sporting a Late Show bomber jacket and white beard, reunites with Shaffer, in black-and-gray polo and sunglasses, for a promotional video announcing the contest. Billing themselves as “Giveaway Dave” and “Giveaway Paul,” the two slip right back into the easygoing patter that made them such a comforting mainstay of late-night TV for decades.
“Come and meet Dave,” Letterman says. “That’s all I was told.”” – Hollywoodreporter.com
