"The Three Amigos" (left to right): Luis Lidsky, Les Norton and Glen Jackson.

In the 1986 film comedy,"The Three Amigos," Steve Martin, Chevy Chase and Martin Short play a trio of sombrero-wearing Western stars of the silent screen era who are summoned to save a Mexican village from a gang of bandits.

The pranks, pratfalls and panic that follow aren't unlike what a modern-day trio of Texans have exhibited as co-hosts of the Laredo broadcast of the Jerry Lewis MDA Labor Day Telethon on KGNS-TV for nearly 20 years.

Les Norton, Glen Jackson and Luis Lidsky dubbed themselves "Los Tres Amigos" long before the film was made and, as group founder Norton notes with a laugh, "We keep waiting for our residuals check from the movie. After all, we had the name first. If the check ever shows up, it'll go to MDA."

Norton and his brother, Robert, own and operate three retail clothing stores in Laredo; Jackson runs an insurance agency his grandfather started more than a century ago; and Lidsky is CEO of International Stores, a retail chain along the Texas-Mexico border, and runs a national distributorship for Bausch and Lomb sunglasses, including the Rayban line.

Les and Joyce Norton's first child was born with spinal meningitis, and doctors gave him only a 50-50 chance of survival. When he survived, the Nortons decided they wanted to get involved in something that helped ease the suffering of children.

Glen and Lois Jackson also had a tragic situation involving newborns. They had twin daughters in 1975, but one of them died after just a day because of underdeveloped lungs, and the other died just before her second birthday of hydrocephalus. They, too, wanted to help youngsters.

Before he knew it, Norton became a co-host of the Laredo portion of the Labor Day Telethon. After handling the duties solo the first year, he realized the job was overwhelming and recruited his two best friends, Jackson and Lidsky.

When the MDA Telethon rolls around, these three upstanding businessmen are suddenly transformed into (drum roll please) "Los Tres Amigos" -- and their energy and wackiness know no end. They pull out all stops to crack each other up when the camera is on, tease and challenge buddies in town to make donations, and even dash out into the street to stop traffic and sell hats and T-shirts to the folks driving by on Labor Day morning. The three share the stage with KGNS news anchor Richard Noriega.

"Laredo has a population of only 150,000," Norton says, "and it's considered one of the poorest areas of the country by many. But we raise more than $135,000 from the Telethon -- one of the highest pledge amounts per capita in the whole country. We want to top $1 for each person in Laredo."

Adds Jackson, "If we see any of the volunteers yawning, we know we're not doing our job, so we will do something outrageous to liven things up." And that, he admits, might even include one of the middle-age trio pulling some silly, teen-age prank on one of his co-hosts -- who is on camera at the time.

Joyce Norton, Lois Jackson, Jenny Lidsky and the offspring of "Los Tres Amigos" are on hand every year, answering phones, tallying donations and doing anything else that needs attention.

"We couldn't do it without the support of our families, our friends and the great volunteers," Norton says. Some of the most faithful helpers have jointly been dubbed "The Fourth Amigo."

Norton, Jackson and Lidsky were asked to each share a story about their work together. Norton's involved a meeting they had with Sammy Davis Jr. after one of his performances in Las Vegas. When the Texans and their wives got ready to leave, they all shook Davis' hand. Everyone but Jackson, that is. He gave the diminutive Davis a hearty parting "abrazo" -- also known as a big hug. As they walked through the casino, Norton noticed that people were staring at Jackson.

"Glen is tall and Sammy was short," Norton says. "When Glen hugged him, Sammy's stage makeup came off on Glen's expensive new white jacket. There was a nice silhouette of Sammy on Glen's chest. Glen still gripes about that."

Jackson's recollection involves a dinner that he, Norton and their wives had in one of Los Angeles' swankest restaurants. Dining with them was the daughter of some friends of the Nortons and her new fiancé. Phil Donahue was sitting a few tables away, as was Larry King. Then, in walked actress Shelley Winters and a group of friends who were celebrating her birthday.

Jackson bet the girl's fiancé $50 that he would get a kiss from Winters. The loser would write a check to the winner's favorite charity, they agreed. On the way out, Jackson stopped to wish Winters a happy birthday, and gave her a quick kiss. She was thrilled at the attention and ended up giving him two more kisses to boot!

"That young fellow took it like a champ," says Jackson with a laugh. "He got out his checkbook and wrote a $150 check to MDA."

Lidsky's favorite tale is about the obnoxious, profane drunk who called about 11 p.m. during one Telethon to complain about the crawl across the bottom of the TV screen honoring donors. At 3 a.m. Lidsky called the guy back, pretended to be the producer of the national Telethon, and said all the stations in America had been ordered to stop using the crawl. Lidsky then enlisted the man to watch the Laredo station and note the time it complied with the order. Lidsky relished the thought of the guy sitting there for a few hours waiting for the crawl to end -- which, of course, it never did.

In addition to their Telethon efforts, which include an off-camera, all-night gin game that raises about $300 for MDA, "Los Tres Amigos" host an annual Humanitarian Award Dinner and Roast to honor prominent Laredo business and civic leaders. The dinner raises thousands of additional dollars for MDA. Last year, Denise Richardson, popular New York City TV personality, longtime co-host of the Big Apple's Telethon broadcast and an MDA vice president, was the guest speaker at the Laredo event.

"She spent the whole day visiting schools and talking to the kids," Jackson says. "And when she spoke at the dinner, it brought tears to everyone's eyes."