The Peculiar Truth about Colonel Ed McMahon

• Americans of a certain age remember his baritone voice each weeknight for 30 years announcing his most famous phrase: “Heeeeeeere’s Johnny!”

• Others might remember him as a spokesman for the Publishers Clearing House Sweepstakes or Budweiser beer. Some recall that he hosted the talent show Star Search during the 80s and 90s.

• Fewer people know, however, that Ed McMahon was an acclaimed wartime pilot in the United States Marine Corps.

• Born in Detroit in 1923, he traveled all around the US while his father was a charity fundraiser. Ed spent most of his youth in New England during the Great Depression. A local radio station hired him when he was just 17 years old.

• Even in his teens, he was a born pitchman. He spent time in Maine as a carnival barker. He hawked vegetable slicers on the Atlantic City boardwalk. He also sold kitchenware as a door-to-door salesman.

• His dream was to become an aviator, and in his era test pilots were required to finish at least two years of college education. That rule did not change even after the United States entered World War II following the attacks on Pearl Harbor. So McMahon attended Boston College to meet the requirements. He majored in electrical engineering.

• By 1944, however, he received his pilot’s wings through the Marine Corps. He trained in Texas and Florida and eventually became a test pilot like he had envisioned.

• 1945: McMahon was ordered to join the Pacific Fleet, but just before his deployment the atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The war ended not long thereafter, and McMahon was sent back to the States.

• He remained a member of the Marine Corps Reserve, however, and was called to duty during the Korean Conflict.

• He flew 85 artillery reconnaissance missions in unarmed Cessna Bird Dog aircraft. From those flights he received six air medals, and he kept climbing through the military ranks. He eventually rose to the rank of colonel.

• McMahon attended the Catholic University of American in Washington, DC to complete his studies, and he received his degree. He remained on call as a reservist.

• Who Do You Trust? was a television game show similar to The Newlywed Game. It began airing in 1956 with ventriloquist Edgar Bergen as the host. One year later, Johnny Carson took his place. Ed McMahon was the announcer. They were both on the daytime show for five years.

• When Johnny Carson landed the Tonight Show in 1962, Ed McMahon found his calling as his TV sidekick.

• McMahon was still in the Marine Corps Reserve throughout the Vietnam War, although he was never called to duty during that military conflict. He retired from the Marine Corps in 1966.

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• In 2008, three years after Johnny Carson died, Ed McMahon revealed that he had fallen into financial peril with his multimillion dollar Beverly Hills home. McMahon and his wife owed $644,000 in back due mortgage payments. The American economy at that time was in free fall and they could find no buyers for the property. The McMahons were in danger of having the bank foreclose on their house.

• The 85-year-old admitted that he and his wife had been living beyond their means.

• Donald Trump publicly boasted that he would alleviate McMahon’s financial matters despite not personally knowing the man.

• No deal ever materialized. An anonymous benefactor stepped in to save Ed McMahon instead.