The Massachusetts Roots of Johnny Carson’s Sidekick Ed McMahon

Television pitchman and Johnny Carson sidekick Ed McMahon wasn't born in Massachusetts, but he grew up here.

McMahon's broadcast career began in the Bay State after working as a carnival barker in Mexico, Maine.

Edward Leo Peter McMahon, Jr. was born to Edward Leo Peter McMahon, Sr. and Eleanor Russell McMahon on March 6, 1923, in Detroit, Michigan. According to a Film Reference biography, McMahon's father was an entertainer and fundraiser.

The family moved to Lowell, Massachusetts when McMahon was a kid.

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After a stint as a carnival barker in Maine, McMahon called bingo games in the Pine Tree State when he was just 15 years old. He later sold vegetable slicers on the Atlantic City, New Jersey boardwalk to earn money for college.

Before breaking into television, McMahon was a radio broadcaster with WLLH in Lowell, the same station where the late WBSM personality Captain Jack Peterson worked in the 1970s.

Ed McMahon's first television job was with WCAU-TV in Philadelphia.

McMahon was inducted posthumously into the Broadcast Pioneers Hall of Fame on November 19, 2010.

McMahon attended Boston College from 1940 to 1941 and became a U.S. Naval Aviator, dispatched to the Pacific Theater in 1945.

McMahon was Johnny Carson's sidekick on The Tonight Show for almost 30 years. He hosted game shows such as Star Search and TV's Bloopers and Practical Jokes, and was a pitchman for Budweiser and American Family Publishers, among many other television and film projects.

The thrice-married McMahon had five children with his first two wives. He died on June 23, 2009 in Los Angeles, California.