ED - AT 8:53 A.M. ET:  Ed McMahon has died at 86, at UCLA Medical Center.  He was, of course, Johnny Carson's sidekick on The Tonight Show, and was with Carson for the entire 30-year run.

Some of you know that I was a talent coordinator (like an assistant producer) on The Tonight Show.  I knew Ed, and liked him immensely.  He was a warm, gregarious and totally accessible guy, a former Marine pilot, who seemed genuinely grateful for his luck.  When I was with the show it was based in New York.  We would go to Los Angeles every eight weeks for a three-week stand.  I recall my surprise, as we started out on my first trip, that Ed flew with the staff, hung around with us, and stayed in the same hotel.  (Carson always stayed elsewhere.)  There was not a false note about him.

On one of our trips we were staying at the Sheraton-Universal, or the Sheraton Impossible, as we called it.  At about 6 a.m. we were awakened by an earthquake.  Drawers were flying.  The ground was rumbling.  Lights in the San Fernando Valley started going out.   All of us on the staff ran from our rooms; some ran from rooms they shouldn't have been in.  And there, in the lobby was Ed, joking with the other guests, a comforting figure.

He didn't handle money well, which we found out some time ago when he ran into trouble.  But, aside from that, I can't think of too much on the negative side of the ledger.

He was one of the decent guys, in an industry not known for that trait.  He represented the last era of the "old" show business, which we sorely miss.

June 23, 2009