Ed McMahon | |
|---|---|
 McMahon in a 1960s publicity photo | |
| Born | Edward Leo Peter McMahon Jr. (1923-03-06)March 6, 1923 Detroit, Michigan, U.S. |
| Died | June 23, 2009(2009-06-23) (aged 86) Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
| Education | Catholic University of America (BA) |
| Occupations |
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| Years active | 1957–2009 |
| Notable work | The Tonight Show,Star Search,TV's Bloopers & Practical Jokes |
| Spouses | |
| Children | 5 |
| Military career | |
| Allegiance |  United States |
| Service |  United States Marine CorpsUSMC Reserve |
| Years of service | 1941–1966 |
| Rank | Colonel |
| Battles / wars | World War II,Korean War,Vietnam War |
| Signature | |
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Edward Leo Peter McMahon Jr. (March 6, 1923 – June 23, 2009) was an American announcer, game show host, comedian, actor, singer, and combat aviator. McMahon andJohnny Carson began their association in their first TV series, theABC game showWho Do You Trust?, running from 1957 to 1962. McMahon then made his famous thirty-year mark as Carson's sidekick and announcer onNBC'sThe Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson from 1962 to 1992.
McMahon also hosted the originalStar Search from 1983 to 1995, co-hostedTV's Bloopers & Practical Jokes withDick Clark from 1982 to 1998, presented sweepstakes forAmerican Family Publishers,[1][2] annually co-hosted theJerry Lewis MDA Telethon from 1973 to 2008 and anchored the team of NBC personalities conducting the network's coverage of theMacy's Thanksgiving Day Parade during the 1970s and 80s.
McMahon appeared in several films, includingThe Incident,Fun with Dick and Jane,Full Moon High andButterfly. He had a brief screen time in thefilm version of the TV sitcomBewitched and also performed in numerous television commercials. According to the staff ofEntertainment Weekly, McMahon tops the list of the "50 greatest sidekicks ever".[3]
Ed McMahon was born on March 6, 1923, inDetroit, Michigan, to Edward Leo Peter McMahon Sr. (a fundraiser and an entertainer), and Eleanor (Russell) McMahon.[4] He was raised inLowell, Massachusetts, often visiting his paternal Aunt Mary (Brennan) at her home on Chelmsford Street. McMahon worked for three years as acarnival barker inMexico, Maine, before serving as a fifteen-year-old bingo caller in the state. He put himself through college as apitchman for vegetable slicers on theAtlantic City boardwalk. He landed his first broadcasting job atWLLH-AM in Lowell, and his television career launched inPhiladelphia atWCAU-TV.[5]
McMahon hoped to become aUnited States Marine Corps fighter pilot. Prior to the US entry intoWorld War II, both theArmy andNavy required pilot candidates to attend at least two years of college. McMahon studied atBoston College from 1940 to 1941. OnThe Howard Stern Show in 2001, he stated that afterPearl Harbor was attacked, the college requirement remained in effect and he still had to finish his two years of college before applying for Marine Corps flight training.
After completing the college requirement, McMahon began his primary flight training in Dallas. This was followed by fighter training inPensacola, where he also earned his carrier landing qualifications and was designated as aNaval Aviator. He was a Marine Corps flight instructor inF4U Corsair fighters for two years, finally being ordered to the Pacific Fleet in 1945. However,the orders were canceled after the atomic bomb attacks onHiroshima andNagasaki.
As an officer in theMarine Corps Reserve, McMahon was recalled to active duty during theKorean War. He flew an OE-1 (the original Marine designation for the unarmed single-engineCessna O-1 Bird Dog) spotter plane, serving as an artillery spotter for Marine artillery batteries and a forward air controller for Navy and Marine fighter bombers. He flew a total of 85 combat missions, earning sixAir Medals. After the war, he remained in the Marine Corps Reserve, retiring in 1966 as aColonel. In 1982, McMahon received a state commission as aBrigadier General in theCalifornia Air National Guard, an honorary award to recognize his support for the National Guard and Reserves.[6][7]
After World War II, McMahon studied atThe Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., under theGI Bill and graduated in 1949. He majored in speech and drama while studying underGilbert Hartke and was a member of thePhi Kappa Theta fraternity. After graduation, McMahon led the effort to raise funds for a theater to be named for Hartke and attended its dedication in 1970 withHelen Hayes andSidney Poitier.[8] While working as Carson's sidekick duringThe Tonight Show, McMahon served as the president of the national alumni association from 1967 to 1971 and would often return to campus, especially for homecoming.[8] During the university's centennial celebration in 1987, McMahon andBob Newhart performed.[8] He received an honorary Doctor of Communication Arts in 1988.
"I owe so much to CU," McMahon once said. "That's where my career got its start."[8] Today, the Ed McMahon Endowed Scholarship helps outstanding students and provides scholarship assistance to juniors and seniors who are pursuing a bachelor's degree in either the Department of Drama or the Department of Media Studies within the School of Arts and Sciences.[8]
McMahon and Carson first worked together as announcer and host on the ABC daytime game showWho Do You Trust? running from 1957 to 1962. He describes the pair's first meeting as being "about as exciting as watching a traffic light change".[9]
McMahon rejoined Carson forThe Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson on October 1, 1962, on NBC. For almost 30 years, McMahon introduced the show with a drawn-out "Heeeeeeeeeeere's Johnny!" His booming voice and constant laughter alongside the "King of Late Night" earned McMahon the nickname the "HumanLaugh Track" and "Toymaker to the King". As part of the introductory patter toThe Tonight Show, McMahon would state his name out loud, pronouncing it as/mɪkˈmeɪ.ən/, but neither long-time cohort Carson nor anyone else who interviewed him ever seemed topick up on that subtlety, usually pronouncing his name/mɪkˈmæn/.[citation needed]
Aside from his co-hosting duties, it also fell upon McMahon during the early years of Carson's tenure (when the show ran 105 minutes) to host the first fifteen minutes ofTonight, which did not air nationally. McMahon also served as guest host on at least one occasion, substituting for Carson during a week of programs that aired between July 29 and August 2, 1963, and again for two nights in October 1963. The gregarious McMahon served as a counter to the notoriously shy Carson. Nonetheless, McMahon once told an interviewer that after his many decades as an emcee, he would still get "butterflies" in his stomach every time he would walk onto a stage and would use that nervousness as a source of energy.[10]
His famous opening line "Heeere's Johnny!" was used in the 1980 horror filmThe Shining by the characterJack Torrance (played byJack Nicholson) as he goes after his wife and child with an axe. McMahon did in-program commercials for many sponsors ofThe Tonight Show, most notablyBudweiser beer andAlpo dog food, and also did commercials for them that ran on other programs.
McMahon was also host of the successful weeklysyndicated seriesStar Search, which began in 1983 and helped launch the careers of numerous actors, singers, choreographers and comedians. He stayed with the show until it ended in 1995 and in 2003, he made a cameo appearance on theCBSrevival of the series, hosted by his successorArsenio Hall.
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His long association with brewerAnheuser-Busch earned him the nickname "Mr. Budweiser" and he used that relationship to bring them aboard as one of the largest corporate donors to theMuscular Dystrophy Association. Beginning in 1973, McMahon served as co-host of the long-running live annualLabor Day weekend event of theJerry Lewis MDA Telethon. His 41st and final appearance on that show was in 2008, making him second only toJerry Lewis himself in number.[11] McMahon andDick Clark hosted the television series (and later special broadcasts of)TV's Bloopers and Practical Jokes onNBC from 1982 to 1993.
In 1967, McMahon had a role in the filmThe Incident and appeared as Santa Claus onThe Mitzi Gaynor Christmas Show. From 1965 to 1969, McMahon served as "communicator" (host) of the Saturday afternoon segment ofMonitor, the weekend news, features and entertainment magazine on theNBC Radio Network. The 1955 movieDementia, which has music without dialogue, was released asDaughter of Horror in 1970. The newer version, which had a voice over by McMahon, still has music without dialogue, but with an added narration read by him. McMahon had a supporting role in the originalFun with Dick and Jane in 1977.
He then played himself in "Remote Control Man", a season one episode ofSteven Spielberg'sAmazing Stories. In 2004, McMahon became the announcer and co-host ofAlf's Hit Talk Show onTV Land. He authored two memoirs,Here's Johnny!: My Memories of Johnny Carson, The Tonight Show, and 46 Years of Friendship as well asFor Laughing Out Loud. Over the years, heemceed the game showsMissing Links,Snap Judgment,Concentration, andWhodunnit!.
McMahon also hostedLifestyles Live, a weekend talk program aired on theUSA Radio Network. Additionally, he also appeared in the feature documentary film,Pitch People, the first motion picture to take an in-depth look at the history and evolution of pitching products to the public. In the early 2000s, McMahon made a series ofNeighborhood Watchpublic service announcements parodying the surprise appearances to contest winners that he was supposedly known for.[citation needed]
McMahon was originally hired to appear inHappy Gilmore and do the infamous fight scene withAdam Sandler, but according to Sandler, McMahon changed his mind after finding out about the movie's crude humor and so McMahon was replaced byBob Barker.
Towards the end of the decade, McMahon took on other endorsement roles, playing a rapper for aFreeCreditReport.com commercial[12] and in aCash4Gold commercial alongsideMC Hammer. McMahon was also the spokesman for Pride Mobility, a leading power wheelchair and scooter manufacturer. His final film appearance was in the independent John Hughes themed rom-comJelly as Mr. Closure alongside actressNatasha Lyonne. Mostly in the 1980s through the 1990s, McMahon was the spokesperson forColonial Penn Life Insurance Company.[11]
McMahon married Alyce Ferrell on July 5, 1945, while he was serving as a flight instructor in the Marines.[13] The couple had four children: Claudia (b. 1946), Michael Edward (1951–1995), Linda, and Jeffrey.[14] They separated in 1972 and divorced in 1974.[15] McMahon married Victoria Valentine on March 6, 1976.[16] They adopted their daughter Katherine Mary in 1985. The couple divorced in 1989. McMahon paid $50,000 per month in spousal and child support.[17] On February 22, 1992, three months before hisTonight Show run came to a close, in a ceremony held near Las Vegas,[17] McMahon married 37-year-old Pamela "Pam" Hurn, who had a son named Alex. McMahon's daughter Katherine served as best person at the wedding.[citation needed] McMahon was a longtime summer resident ofAvalon, New Jersey.[18]
In June 2008, it was announced that McMahon was $644,000 behind on payments on $4.8 million in mortgage loans and was fighting to avoid foreclosure on his multimillion-dollarBeverly Hills home.[19] McMahon was also sued by Citibank for $180,000. McMahon appeared onLarry King Live on June 5, 2008, with his wife to talk about this situation. In the interview, McMahon's wife Pam said that people assumed that the McMahons had a lot of money because of his celebrity status. Pamela McMahon also commented that they do not have "millions" of dollars.[20] On July 30, 2008, McMahon's financial status suffered another blow. McMahon failed to pay divorce attorney Norman Solovay $275,168, according to a lawsuit filed in the Manhattan federal court. McMahon and his wife, Pamela, had hired Solovay to represent Linda Schmerge, his daughter from his first marriage, in a "matrimonial matter", said Solovay's lawyer, Michael Shanker.[21]
On August 14, 2008, real estate mogulDonald Trump announced that he would purchase McMahon's home fromCountrywide Financial and lease it to McMahon, so the home would not be foreclosed.[22] McMahon agreed instead to a deal with a private buyer for his hilltop home, saidHoward Bragman, McMahon's former spokesman.[23] Bragman declined to name the buyer or the selling price, but he said it was not Trump. In early September, after the second buyer's offer fell through, Trump renewed his offer to purchase the home.[24] Trump never followed through with either of his public offers to purchase the residence, per McMahon's daughter Claudia McMahon.[25]
On April 20, 2002, McMahon sued his insurance company for more than $20 million, alleging that he was sickened bytoxic mold that spread through his Beverly Hills house after contractors failed to properly clean up water damage from a broken pipe. McMahon and his wife, Pamela, became ill from the mold, as did members of their household staff, according to theLos Angeles County Superior Court suit. The McMahons blamed the mold for the death of the family dog, Muffin. Their suit, one ofmany in recent years over toxic mold, was filed against American Equity Insurance Co., a pair of insurance adjusters, and several environmental cleanup contractors. It sought monetary damages for alleged breach of contract, negligence, and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
On March 21, 2003, the long legal battle ended with McMahon being awarded $7.2 million from several companies who were negligent for allowing toxic mold into his home, sickening him and his wife and killing their dog.[26] In March 2007, McMahon was injured in a fall and, in March 2008, it was announced he was recovering from a broken neck and two subsequent surgeries. He later suedCedars-Sinai Medical Center and two doctors claiming fraud, battery,elder abuse, and emotional distress, and accused them of discharging him with a broken neck after his fall and botching two later neck surgeries.
On February 27, 2009, it was reported that McMahon had been in an undisclosed Los Angeles hospital (later confirmed asRonald Reagan UCLA Medical Center) for almost a month. He was listed in serious condition and was in the intensive care unit. His publicist told reporters that he was admitted for pneumonia at the time, but could not confirm nor deny reports that McMahon had been diagnosed with bone cancer.[27]
McMahon died on June 23, 2009, shortly after midnight atRonald Reagan UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles,California. He was 86 years old. His nurse, Julie Koehne, stated he went peacefully. No formal cause of death was given, but McMahon's publicist attributed his death to the many health problems he had suffered over his final months.[28] McMahon had said that he still suffered from his neck injury the past two years.[29] His funeral was held atForest Lawn Memorial Park in Hollywood Hills.[30]
The night of McMahon's death,Conan O'Brien paid him tribute onThe Tonight Show:
It is impossible, I think, for anyone to imagineThe Tonight Show with Johnny Carson without Ed McMahon. Ed's laugh was really the soundtrack to that show. He created the most iconic two-shot in broadcasting history. There will never be anything like that again.[31]
He received a star on theHollywood Walk of Fame for Television on March 20, 1986.[32]
TheBroadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia posthumously inducted McMahon into their Hall of Fame in 2010.[5]
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link),Publishers Clearing House official blog, by Dave Sayer, March 15, 2009. (viaarchive.org)
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| Preceded by | The Tonight Show announcer 1962–1992 | Succeeded by |
