David Letterman and Paul Shaffer Reunite to Raffle Off ‘Late Show’ Marquee

What is 20 feet long and 8 feet high, belongs in the Smithsonian, but could end up in your garage?

The answer: The Late Show with David Letterman marquee. The famous 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 enormous piece of television history, which has been on the shelf for ten years, is the grand prize in a lottery that benefits Habitat for humanity, the Atlanta-based nonprofit that builds and repairs homes for low-income families and individuals. Letterman has been a longtime supporter of the organization, first volunteering with Habitat in New Orleans as part of the response to Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

For a donation of $10 or more, anyone can enter the raffle at GiveAwayDave.com until December 31. The grand prize also includes a trip to New York City to meet Letterman and his longtime bandleader Paul Shaffer. The winner will appear alongside the two TV legends The Barbara Gaines Showa YouTube show hosted by Letterman’s former executive producer Barbara Gaines, who looks back fondly on the Late show years. And of course the winner can take the prize home Late show sign (worth noting: it’s a side panel, not the longer center panel).

Letterman, with a Late show bomber jacket and white beard, reunited with Shaffer, in black and gray polo and sunglasses, for a promotional video announcing the match. Calling themselves “Giveaway Dave” and “Giveaway Paul,” the two immediately fall back into the easy banter that made them such a comforting mainstay of late-night TV for decades.

“Come meet Dave,” Letterman says. “That’s all I was told.”