HooplaEd 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).
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 sidekick's
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.
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.
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]
Entertainment career
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.
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.
Other roles
McMahon at the premiere of Air America, 1990McMahon 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.
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. McMahon had said that he still suffered from the injury to his neck in March 2007.
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". McMahon was interred at the Forest Lawn - Hollywood Hills Cemetery in Los Angeles.
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