Attention Ed McMahon has left the Building

[Dangerousdave26]

Another Icon has left today at 86.

Johnny Carson and Ed were part of my childhood

I enjoyed them on the Tonight Show :applause:

May they both be at Peace they have deserved Rest. :medals:

http://www.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/TV/06/23/obit.mcmahon/index.html

[Rami]

Absolutely. I hope he and Johnny are at it once again.

[Navy Chief]

I can just picture the "Tonight Show" in heaven, and those two cutting up again!

I have a "best of" dvd boxed set of the Tonight Show with Johnny. That was truly comedy at its finest.

Jay Leno and Letterman could never ever come close to the genius of Johnny Carson and Ed MacMahon. They were comedians in the true sense.

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and I think one of the greatest routine they did was this:

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I would watch Johnny C. just for his monologue!!!

Navy Chief

[Panther_99FS]

Ah yes....Who can forget the sound of Ed McMahon's laugh :mixedsmi:

The "Tonight Show" is still going on in the 'upstairs room'....:engel016:

[Lionheart]

Sad to hear he has left us. A great guy.

For those that didnt know, he flew Corsairs in the Pacific in WWII with many victorys'. I was at a huge confederate airforce airshow one year (huge airshow with fake bombing runs and a redo of Pearl Harbour). I was hanging around a Corsair at one point, and an older pilot was climbing out of it, and buttoning down the canopy and he talked with me and my brother. He flew in McMahons squadron and said they both had many kills. He said that if you did get behind a Zero and you got some shots into it, you had to dodge it quick as it quickly ignited and flew apart with alot of debris and fire. (They were skinned in Magnesium).

Something that not many people talk about on his history.



Bill

[Panther_99FS]

http://www.militarymuseum.org/McMahon.html :medals:

[tigisfat]

It's understood that everything and everyone must end. I'm not upset in his passing for that reason. What tears me is that he had a lousy last few years. Everyone likes Ed Mcmahon, and it pained me to see a proud man in bankruptcy and so on.

[Lionheart]

http://www.militarymuseum.org/McMahon.html :medals:

Panther,

Thanks for clarifying that.

So he didnt shoot down fighters in WWII. arrghh..

Teaches me to be careful of listening to stories.


Bill

[Toastmaker]

They were a great team. Really good quality entertainment.

[FAC257]

One of the first rights of passage I remember growing up was finally being allowed to stay up and watch Johnny Carson. Johnny and Ed were pretty much my first exposure to "adult" humor on TV.

In these pats Ed will probably be part of a lot of local folks conversations and prayers this evening. In some ways he helped put part of this area on the map.

Some probably remember Ed's participation in a show from back in the early 70's called "Ed McMahon and the Superstars". This is the one where athletes from different sports would get together and have sort of a celebrity Olympics.

The entire show at that time was filmed here locally in an area at the time that was almost 100% swamp land. There's always been an underlying feeling that the show was filmed here partly to help sell swamp land in Florida. Which worked very well. The folks who bought lots and later found out there were Bald Eagles living there were especially pleased. :)

A lot of the old timers have stories of the celebrities hanging out at local homes to eat dinner and goofing around with the locals.

One of my first employees when I took over the "pie" was Ed's lawn guy. His famous story was telling about the time Ed finally asked him in for a cold beer. He thought the fridge would be full of Bud, but instead all Ed had was Miller. He thought that was odd.

In the pic below is the spot where it all happened. The circular pizza looking community is one of the most recognizable Florida terrain features in the FS series. It appeared really well done in FS9 with FreeFlow Fla installed and is represented pretty well also in FSX.

The idea behind the design was that in each pie there would be a different golf course for each day of the week. Every lot in the community was to be either water front with access to the Gulf or on a golf course.

The airport in the lower right corner was originally called Rotonda International Airport and is where all the celebrities and potential land buyers would fly into. I saw a picture years ago of the airport about the time of the show's filming and there were small jets and aircraft lined up almost the entire length of the runway.

In FSX it's called by it's new name Coral Creek FA54.

I was the caretaker of this airport for the better part of 10 years. But during that time it was all but abandoned and only used by a few corp execs or folks using it illegally for various reasons. My duties were to just maintain it to minimal FAA specs and to wrap a huge chain I had around the props of any aircraft I caught there that were unauthorized. To an airport airplane lover it was a sad sight to see.

In the pic:
The arrrow pointing to the circled home was Ed's house. He owned that home up until not too many years ago.

The lowest arrow on the right points to the building that was the 2 lane bowling alley used in the show. It's now the community center.

The next arrow up points to where all the track and field events were held in the show. The race track is clearly visible.

The upper most arrow pointing to the little square water feature was where all the rowing and water sport events were held in the show.

Slightly off topic but just south off the bottom of this pic is an island with a resteraunt on it called Cabbage Key. It's only accessable by boat or seaplane. This was the spot made famous by Jimmy Buffet and the Cheesburger in Paradise song. Supposedly it was one of the spots he used to love to fly into with his seaplane to grab a bite to eat.

Just a small Ed trivia story. So long sir, and thanks for a lot of laughs over the years. :ernae:

[Navy Chief]

Great story, FAC257!

Is the Rotonda International Airport (now Coral Creek?) still operational?

NC

[David_L6]

R.I.P. Ed.

[FAC257]

That's a good question.

I think it's officially a private airstrip but yet there is a jet charter service operating out of it called Elite and I think at least one other charter service I ran into on the internet one day.

Just to the west of the airport is an ultra exclusive island type community, and I think alot of the important folks get to fly in and out. The airport was and possibly still is used by fairly wealthy folks who fly in for the world famous Boca Grande Tarpon Fishing Tourneys.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NmKllKcDlAU

FAC

[Quicksand]

RIP, Ed. May you and Johnnie have a fond reunion.:engel016:

[Navy Chief]

In honor of Ed......a screenshot over Rotonda.

NC

[tigisfat]

Panther,

Thanks for clarifying that.

So he didnt shoot down fighters in WWII. arrghh..

Teaches me to be careful of listening to stories.


Bill

There have been many heroes who've had stories made up about them. The Tuskeegee Airmen, for example, have no idea who started telling folks they never lost a bomber. While they did have an impressive record, they are embarassed by this because to never lose a bomber would have been impossible.

I commend Mr. Mcmahon's service, and I'm glad he worked so hard just to get the chance to go fight for his country.