Ed McMahon

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Ed McMahon
McMahon in November 2005
Born	Edward Leo Peter McMahon, Jr. March 6, 1923(1923-03-06) Detroit, Michigan, U.S.
Died	June 23, 2009 (aged 86) Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Occupation	Comedian, game show host, announcer and spokesman
Years active	1957–2009
Spouse(s)	Pam Hurn (February 22, 1992 – June 23, 2009) (his death) Victoria Valentine (March 6, 1976 – 1989) (divorced) 1 child Alyce Ferrill (July 5, 1949 – 1976) (divorced) 4 children

Edward Leo Peter "Ed" McMahon, Jr. (March 6, 1923 – June 23, 2009) was a decorated war veteran, an American comedian, game show host, announcer, and television personality. Most famous for his work on television as Johnny Carson's announcer and sidekick on The Tonight Show from 1962-1992, he was also host of the original version of the talent show Star Search from 1983-95, co-host with Dick Clark of TV's Bloopers and Practical Jokes from 1982-86, and became well-known as the presenter of the now-defunct American Family Publishers sweepstakes (not, as is commonly believed, its main rival Publishers Clearing House).^[1][2]

McMahon annually co-hosted the The Jerry Lewis Labor Day Telethon. He performed in numerous television commercials, most notably for Budweiser. In the 1970s and 1980s, he anchored the team of NBC personalities conducting the network's coverage of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.

McMahon appeared in several films, including The Incident (1967), Fun With Dick and Jane (1977), Full Moon High (1981), and Butterfly (1982), as well as briefly in the film version of Bewitched (2005). According to Entertainment Weekly he is considered one of the "greatest sidekicks".^[3]

Contents 1 Early years 1.1 Military service 2 Entertainment career 2.1 The Tonight Show 2.2 Star Search 2.3 Other roles 3 Personal life 3.1 Children 3.2 Financial problems 3.3 Health problems 3.4 Death 4 Books 5 References 6 External links

[edit] Early years

McMahon was born in Detroit to Eleanor (née Russell) and Edward Leon McMahon, a fund-raiser and entertainer.^[4] He was raised in Lowell, Massachusetts. He attended Boston College as a freshman in 1940-41 and later finished at Catholic University of America, majoring in speech and drama after his first military service 1942-45. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1949. He was a member of Phi Kappa Theta fraternity. McMahon began his career as a bingo caller in Maine when he was fifteen.

Prior to this, he worked as a carnival barker for three years in Mexico, Maine. He put himself through college as a pitchman for vegetable slicers on the Atlantic City boardwalk. His first broadcasting job was at WLLH-AM in his native Lowell and he began his television career in Philadelphia at WCAU-TV.

[edit] Military service

During World War II, McMahon was a fighter pilot in the United States Marine Corps serving as a flight instructor and test pilot. He was a decorated pilot (six Air Medals) and was discharged in 1946, remaining in the reserves.^[5]

After college, McMahon returned to active duty. He met his first girlfriend, Jenifer P. Smith, on his first tour. He claims that she was the one to motivate him to become a better person. He was sent to Korea in February 1952. He flew unarmed OE-1 Bird Dogs on 85 tactical air control and artillery spotting missions. He remained in the Marine Corps Reserve, retiring with the rank of Colonel in 1966 and was then commissioned as a Brigadier General in the California Air National Guard.

Several of his ancestors, including the Marquis d'Equilly, also had long and distinguished military careers. Patrice MacMahon, duc de Magenta was a Marshal of armies in France, serving under Napoleon III, and later President. McMahon once asserted to Johnny Carson that mayonnaise was originally named MacMahonnaise in honor of this ancestor, referring to him as the Comte de MacMahon.^[6] In his autobiography, McMahon said that it was his father who told him of this relationship and he went on to suggest that he was not certain of the truth of the story.^[7]

[edit] Entertainment career

[edit] The Tonight Show

McMahon and Johnny Carson first worked together as announcer and host on the daytime game show Who Do You Trust? (1957-1962). McMahon and Carson left the show to join The Tonight Show in 1962. He describes what happened when the pair first met, the whole meeting being "... about as exciting as watching a traffic light change".^[8]

For more than 30 years, McMahon introduced the Tonight Show with a drawn-out "Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeere's Johnny!" His booming voice and constant laughter alongside the "King of Late Night" earned McMahon the nickname the "Human Laugh Track" and "Toymaker to the King".

As part of the introductory patter to The Tonight Show, McMahon would state his name out loud, pronouncing it as Ed "Mc MAH yon", but neither long-time cohort Johnny Carson nor anyone else who interviewed him ever seemed to pick up on that subtlety, usually referring to him as Ed "Mc MAN".

The extroverted 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.

[edit] Star Search

He was also host of the successful weekly syndicated series Star 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 the revival of the CBS show, hosted by his successor, Arsenio Hall.

[edit] Other roles

McMahon was the long-running co-host of the annual Labor Day weekend Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon. His 41st and last appearance was in 2008, making him second only to Lewis himself in number of appearances.^[9]

McMahon and Dick Clark hosted the television series (and later special broadcasts of) TV Bloopers and Practical Jokes on NBC from 1982-98, when Clark decided to move the production of the series to ABC.

In 2004, he became the announcer and co-host of Alf's Hit Talk Show on TV Land. He has authored two memoirs, Here's Johnny!: My Memories of Johnny Carson, The Tonight Show, and 46 Years of Friendship as well as For Laughing Out Loud.

Over the years, he emceed the game shows Missing Links, Snap Judgment, Concentration, and Whodunnit!.

McMahon hosted Lifestyles Live, a weekend talk program aired on the USA Radio Network. 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 of Neighborhood Watch public service announcements parodying the surprise appearances to contest winners that he was supposedly known for. (In fact, it is not clear whether the company McMahon fronted, American Family Publishers, regularly performed such unannounced visits, as opposed to Publishers Clearing House and its oft-promoted "prize patrol".)

Towards the end of the decade, McMahon took on other endorsement roles, playing a rapper for a FreeCreditReport.com commercial^[10] and in a Cash for Gold commercial alongside MC Hammer. McMahon was also the spokesman for Pride Mobility, a leading power wheelchair and scooter manufacturer.

[edit] Personal life

[edit] Children

McMahon had three daughters and three sons:

• Claudia McMahon
• Katherine McMahon
• Linda McMahon
• Jeffrey McMahon
• Michael Edward McMahon (April 12, 1951^[11] - July 28, 1995, cancer)
• Lex McMahon (stepson; adopted after McMahon married Pam Hurn)

[edit] Financial problems

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-dollar Beverly Hills home.^[12] McMahon was also sued by Citibank for $180,000. McMahon appeared on Larry 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 so much money because of his celebrity status. Pamela McMahon also commented that they do not have "millions" of dollars.^[13]

On July 30, 2008, McMahon's financial status suffered another blow. According to Reuters, 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, hired Solovay to represent Linda Schmerge, his daughter from another relationship, in a "matrimonial matter," said Solovay's lawyer, Michael Shanker.^[14]

On August 14, 2008, real estate mogul Donald Trump announced that he would purchase McMahon's home from Countrywide Financial and lease it to McMahon, so the home would not be foreclosed.^[15] McMahon agreed instead to a deal with a private buyer for his hilltop home, said Howard Bragman, McMahon's former spokesman. Bragman declined to name the buyer or the selling price, but he said it is not Trump. "For Mr. Trump, this acquisition was not business-related, but, as he has stated, was meant to help out an American icon," said Michael Cohen, special counsel to Trump. "If another buyer should emerge who will create the benefit Mr. Trump sought for Ed McMahon, then he is clearly pleased." In early September, after the second buyer's offer fell through, Trump renewed his offer to purchase the home.^[16]

[edit] Health problems

On April 20, 2002, McMahon sued his insurance company for more than $20 million, alleging that he was sickened by toxic 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 the Los Angeles County Superior Court suit. The McMahons also blame the mold for the death of the family dog, Muffin. Their suit, the latest of many in recent years over toxic mold, was filed against American Equity Insurance Co., a pair of insurance adjusters and several environmental cleanup contractors. It seeks monetary damages for alleged breach of contract, negligence and intentional infliction of emotional distress. A spokeswoman for the insurance company declined to comment. On March 21, 2003, the long battle ended with McMahon reaping $7 million from what was later discovered to be several companies who were negligent for allowing mold into his home. Their dog's death was confirmed to be caused by mold.

McMahon was injured in 2007 in a fall and, in March 2008, it was announced he was recovering from a broken neck and two subsequent surgeries. He later sued Cedars-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 in 2007 and later botching two neck surgeries.

On February 27, 2009 it was reported that McMahon had been in an undisclosed Los Angeles hospital (later confirmed as Ronald 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.^[17]

[edit] Death

McMahon died at age 86 on June 23, 2009, shortly after midnight at the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles, California. 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.^[18] McMahon had said that he still suffered from the injury to his neck in March 2007.^[19]

Current Tonight host Conan O'Brien paid tribute to McMahon on his show later that night, saying "It is impossible, I think, for anyone to imagine 'The Tonight Show With Johnny Carson' without Ed McMahon. Ed's laugh was really the soundtrack to that show." O'Brien added that McMahon, with Carson, created "the most iconic two-shot in broadcasting history. There will never be anything like that again".^[20] McMahon was interred at the Forest Lawn - Hollywood Hills Cemetery in Los Angeles.

[edit] Books

• Ed McMahon's Barside Companion (World Publishing Company, Copyright 1969 by Parthenon Productions, Inc.), Library of Congress #70-94527
• For Laughing Out Loud: My Life and Good Times (Warner Books, 1998), co-written with David Fisher
• Here's Johnny! My Memories of Johnny Carson, The Tonight Show, and 46 Years of Friendship (Berkley Publishing Group – Penguin Group (USA, Inc.), 2005)
• When Television Was Young (2007)

[edit] References

[edit] External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Ed McMahon

• Ed McMahon at the Internet Movie Database
• Online video commemorating his achievements
• Ed McMahon hospitalized in serious condition
• Interview with Ed McMahon
• Ed McMahon's Lifestyles Live radio show
• Ed McMahon Quad Cities Open 1975-1979
• 2009 Profile of Ed McMahon
• RIP Ed McMahon
• Obituary by the Associated Press
• Lasting Tribute online obituary (UK)
• Ed McMahon, America's Top Second Banana, Dies at 86

Preceded by Hugh Downs 1957–1962

The Tonight Show announcer 1962–1992

Succeeded by Edd Hall 1992–2004

v • d • e The Tonight Show The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson • The Tonight Show with Jay Leno • The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien Hosts Steve Allen • Jack Paar • Johnny Carson • Jay Leno • Conan O'Brien Announcers/Sidekicks Gene Rayburn • Hugh Downs • Ed McMahon • Edd Hall • John Melendez • Andy Richter Music Skitch Henderson • José Melis • Milton DeLugg • Doc Severinsen • Branford Marsalis • Kevin Eubanks • Max Weinberg Taping Locations Hudson Theatre • NBC Studios New York • NBC Studios Burbank • Universal Studios Hollywood

Persondata
NAME	McMahon, Ed
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	McMahon, Edward Leo Peter "Ed", Jr.
SHORT DESCRIPTION	Tonight Show announcer, game show host, actor, spokesman
DATE OF BIRTH	March 6, 1923
PLACE OF BIRTH	Detroit, Michigan
DATE OF DEATH	June 23, 2009
PLACE OF DEATH	Los Angeles, California