Background and career
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 and Johnny Carson began their association in their first TV series, the ABC game show Who Do You Trust?, appearing from 1958 to 1962. McMahon then made his famous thirty-year mark as Carson's sidekick and announcer on NBC's The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson from 1962 to 1992. McMahon also hosted the original Star Search from 1983 to 1995, co-hosted TV's Bloopers & Practical Jokes with Dick Clark from 1982 to 1998, presented sweepstakes for American Family Publishers, annually co-hosted the Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon from 1973 to 2008 and anchored the team of NBC personalities conducting the network's coverage of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade during the 1970s and 80s. McMahon appeared in several films, including The Incident, Fun with Dick and Jane, Full Moon High and Butterfly. He had a brief screen time in the film version of the TV sitcom Bewitched and also performed in numerous television commercials. According to the staff of Entertainment Weekly, McMahon tops the list of the "50 greatest sidekicks ever".
Ed McMahon was born on March 6, 1923, in Detroit, Michigan, to Edward Leo Peter McMahon Sr. (a fundraiser and an entertainer), and Eleanor (née Russell) McMahon. He was raised in Lowell, Massachusetts, often visiting his paternal Aunt Mary (Brennan) at her home on Chelmsford Street. McMahon went to Lowell High School at the same time as Jack Kerouac, occasionally sharing a beer with him. McMahon worked for three years as a carnival barker in Mexico, Maine, before serving as a fifteen-year-old bingo caller in the state. He put himself through college as a pitchman for vegetable slicers on the Atlantic City boardwalk. He landed his first broadcasting job at WLLH-AM in Lowell, and his television career launched in Philadelphia at WCAU-TV.
McMahon hoped to become a United States Marine Corps fighter pilot. Prior to the US entry into World War II, both the Army and Navy required pilot candidates to attend at least two years of college. McMahon studied at Boston College from 1940 to 1941. On The Howard Stern Show in 2001, he stated that after Pearl 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 in Pensacola, where he also earned his carrier landing qualifications and was designated as a Naval Aviator. He was a Marine Corps flight instructor in F4U Corsair fighters for two years, finally being ordered to the Pacific Fleet in 1945. However, the orders were canceled after the atomic bomb attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. As an officer in the Marine Corps Reserve, McMahon was recalled to active duty during the Korean War. He flew an OE-1 (the original Marine designation for the unarmed single-engine Cessna 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 six Air Medals. After the war, he remained in the Marine Corps Reserve, retiring in 1966 as a Colonel. In 1982, McMahon received a state commission as a Brigadier General in the California Air National Guard, an honorary award to recognize his support for the National Guard and Reserves.
After World War II, McMahon studied at The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., under the GI Bill and graduated in 1949. He majored in speech and drama while studying under Gilbert Hartke and was a member of the Phi 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 with Helen Hayes and Sidney Poitier. While working as Carson's sidekick during The 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. During the university's centennial celebration in 1987, McMahon and Bob Newhart performed. 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." 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.
McMahon and Carson first worked together as announcer and host on the ABC daytime game show Who Do You Trust? running from 1957 to 1962. He described the pair's first meeting as being "about as exciting as watching a traffic light change".
McMahon rejoined Carson for The 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 "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 , but neither long-time cohort Carson nor anyone else who interviewed him ever seemed to pick up on that subtlety, usually pronouncing his name . 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 of Tonight, 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. His famous opening line "Heeere's Johnny!" was used in the 1980 horror film The Shining by the character Jack Torrance (played by Jack Nicholson) as he goes after his wife and child with an axe. McMahon did in-program commercials for many sponsors of The Tonight Show, most notably Budweiser beer and Alpo dog food, and also did commercials for them that ran on other programs. From 1970 to 1980, he appeared in American Family Publishers commercials.
