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Posted: June 23 2009,1:06 pm

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Carson sidekick Ed McMahon dead at age 86

David Wiegand, Chronicle Staff Writer

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Ed McMahon, who died Tuesday morning in a Los Angeles hospital, was a carnival barker, game-show host and TV pitchman for Budweiser beer and American Family Publisher's Sweepstakes, but he will always be best remembered as Johnny Carson's sidekick for 30 years on NBC.

McMahon, 86, died from a series of health problems at the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center with his wife, Pam, and other family members at his side, according to his longtime publicist, Howard Bragman.

Although McMahon left the "Tonight' show with Carson in 1992, the fact that he managed to remain in the public eye owed to the savvy career moves and versatility that took him from selling vegetable slicers on the Atlantic City, NJ, boardwalk to his first job with Carson as the announcer on the game show "Who Do You Trust?" in 1957. Five years later, when Carson was tapped to take over the "Tonight" show from Jack Paar, McMahon took his seat on the couch next to Carson's desk.

Even today, four years after Carson's death and 15 since the "Tonight" show went off the air, few Americans would fail to identify the phrase "Heeeeeeeere's Johnny!" with McMahon, whose post-monologue chats with Carson made him one of TV's greatest second bananas.

Whether Carson was doing Aunt Blabby or Carnac the Magnificent, McMahon was there to feed him well-worn straight lines - "How. Cold. Was. It?" - that were funny largely because the audience knew them so well and saw them coming a mile away.

The secret to the success of Carson and McMahon as a team had to do with their different personalities. Where Carson was generally cool and unflappable (except when he turned prickly or lost it when one of his skits imploded, such as the infamous Ed Ames tomahawk bit), McMahon was gregarious, almost goofy in his demeanor.

"It's like a pitcher who has a favorite catcher," McMahon said in a 1998 interview. "The pitcher gets a little help from the catcher, but the pitcher's got to throw the ball. Well, Johnny Carson had to throw the ball, but I could give him a little help."

Edward Leo Peter McMahon Jr. was born in Detroit on March 6, 1923, and grew up in Lowell, MA. As a teenager, he worked as a bingo announcer, already certain, he said in a 1998 interview, that he wanted to be a radio announcer when he grew up.

In 1941, as the nation went to war, McMahon joined the Marine Corps where he trained as a pilot and flew a number of combat missions. After the war, he first attended Boston College and then Catholic University in Washington, DC., where he received a bachelor of arts degree.

In 1950, he broke into television playing a clown on a variety series called "Big Top," but rejoined the Marines to serve as a fight pilot during the Korean Conflict. Although he appeared in a low-budget horror movie in 1955, he found his calling when he began working with Carson on the game show.

Even before Carson left NBC, McMahon was able to parlay his success to other jobs. he hosted "Star Search" from 1983-97 and, with Dick Clark, co-hoisted "Bloopers & Practical Jokes" from 1984-86. He also spent more than 30 years as the announcer on Jerry Lewis' annual Muscular Dystrophy Association Labor Day telethon.

McMahon became a spokesman for the American Family Publishers sweepstakes and appeared in commercials surprising winners at their doorsteps with oversized checks. In 1997, he and fellow spokesman Clark were named as defendants in lawsuits charging American Family with false and deceptive advertising. The cases were eventually settled out of court.

In recent years, McMahon faced a series of legal and health problems, including a 1997 fall that resulted in a broken neck and a 2002 lawsuit against his insurance company alleging he and his wife had been made ill by toxic mold in their house. In June 2008, he faced foreclosure on his multi-million dollar Beverly Hills home, but was eventually able to find a buyer for it.

McMahon also battled alcoholism for years and even admitting being drunk on occasion on the "Tonight" show. His marriages to Alyce Ferrell and Victoria Valentine ended in divorce. In 1992, he married Pamela Hurn, who survives him along with his children Claudia, Katherine, Linda, Jeffrey and Lex.

McMahon wrote his autobiography in 1998, "For Laughing Out Loud: My Life and Good Times," recounting the early years of the "Tonight" show.

"You can't imagine hooking up with a guy like Carson," he told the Associated Press in 1998. "There's the old phrase, hook your wagon to a star. I hitched my wagon to a great star."

Bragman said funeral arrangements are incomplete.

They Are Together Again......

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