Booze, Broads, Blunders, & Bankruptcy

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Life as Johnny Carson's bleary eyed side kick was pretty sweet for Ed McMahon. He parleyed being the butt of Carson's jokes into a 200 million dollar empire, and into pop icon status. In addition to playing Carson's wing man, the Mr. Spock to his Capt. Kirk so to speak, McMahon also went on to host Star Search - that little enterprise helped to bring the world Britney Spears among others - and a successful career as a highly paid pitchman. Life after Carson has proved a little more challenging for Fun Time Eddie.

People may have been a little surprised to have heard that Big Ed's palatial Hollywood home was foreclosed on, a month or so ago. The 7000 square foot mansion was home to McMahon, and his younger wife Pamela. However Eddie is $640 000 behind on the $4.8 mortgage. That's not the only major debt McMahon has racked up: he owes American Express $747 000. He also owes another unnamed company $51 000 on a $135 000 bad check. At the time he only had $729.34 in his bank account.

So how does Mr Ed explain all this fiscal misfortune? Did he invest his fortune with Anne Hathaway's ex Raefello Folliere? Friends ascribe his current state to a convergence of bad breaks and character flaws. In other words a cluster fuck.

For instance there were a couple of expensive divorces. Then there is his expensive current marriage to Pamela. They met back in 1991, after his second divorce. Never one to learn from experience, Ed married the woman, and began bankrolling her flaky business schemes. There was a high end clothing line that she wanted to promote. After that didn't work out she moved on to the diet pill business, and eventually tried to start a radio show. None of these projects ever became paying propositions. Then again friends describe Ed as a sucker for get rich quick schemes. In this case they proved to be get poor quick schemes.

Women are by no means McMahon's only character flaw. There is also his well known fondness for booze. Now some folk swim in it, and others drown, as the saying goes. Let's say that Ed ain't much of a swimmer. In fact alcohol seemed to further impair his already questionable judgment. Ed - who drinks 8 martini's before breakfast - sank a bundle into his own vodka company. I'm not sure that a man who could drink paint stripper offers much of an endorsement for the high end vodka trade. They only needed to call the line "Hobo's Choice" to seal the kiss of death. Of course when that went under, Ed moved on to real estate speculation. That's a business that can be shady at best, so they must've seen Ed coming. Meanwhile Ed was probably seeing double. McMahon did have one surefire way of raising funds though, loans mortgaged against his assets.

So the castle built on shitting shifting sand was getting pretty shaky when the real coup de grace occurred about 18 months ago. Ed fell down and broke his neck. So he couldn't work. That left him incapacitated, and unable to raise funds through his usual methods - like infomercials for shady seniors insurances firms. Also, as if the cosmos were aligning against him, the ass fell out of the real estate market. That left the former late night side kick up shit creek and without a paddle. As said earlier, he ain't much of a swimmer either.

So that led to the foreclosure on his 7000 sq ft multi million dollar Beverly Hills pad. It probably spells the end of his current marriage too, although I'm sure that Pamela really loves the silly old booze bag for who he is. In case it needs pointing out, that's sarcasm. If Pamela is even half as predatory as your average Hollywood denizen, then she already contacted the divorce lawyers, and is maneuvering to get what can still be had out of the personal and financial mess that was Ed McMahon. Well that's how a $200 million fortune went down the toilet. I can't help thinking that it's such a waste. That money could have been put to much better use; like blowing it on hookers and horse races! Don't count Ed out just yet though. Maybe that Reader's Digest Publisher's Clearing House will finally pay off! I just hope that he's learned his lesson.

Post Script: In fairness to Mr McMahon, he was a master sales man, and in that Bill Cosby caliber of TV pitchmen. However, like so many people who are good at making money, he wasn't so good at managing it. It was that sales ability that allowed him to recovery from his frequent fiscal mismanagement. Until the day when the old tricks didn't work anymore. To err is human, and his is a misfortune that can happen to any of us.