Ed McMahon Recalled 4 Times He Saw Johnny Carson Cry
As co-host to Johnny Carson on The Tonight Show for 30 years, Ed McMahon recalled seeing the host become emotional on several occasions. In his memoir, Here’s Johnny, McMahon set out to dispel the myth Carson had “ice water” in his veins by sharing four specific instances he saw the host cry.
Johnny Carson shed a few tears while saying goodbye to ‘The Tonight Show’
To start with the most obvious, Carson was visibly emotional while signing off from The Tonight Show during his final two episodes in 1992. According to McMahon, Carson’s eyes “moistened” as he listened to Bette Midler sing “You Made Me Love You” and “One for My Baby and One More for the Road.”
He noted Carson also became emotional during a “moving eulogy” to his son, Rick, during his very last episode. In 1991, Rick, a 39-year-old photographer, was killed in an automobile accident.
“You’ll have to forgive a father’s pride in these pictures,” Carson stated as he showed off some of his late son’s photos, the last of which was a sunset.
Johnny Carson cried over a gift received from ‘Roots’ author, Alex Haley
According to McMahon’s memoir, he once saw Carson cry over a gift he received from Roots author, Alex Haley.
He described it as a “leather-bound volume titled Roots of Johnny Carson — A Tribute to a Great American Entertainer with the inscription, ‘With warm wishes to you and your family from the family of Kunta Kinte’ on the flyleaf.”
After Haley died in 1992, Alex Haley: The Playboy Interviews was published. Notably, it included a rare, in-depth interview with Carson from 1967. The book also features interviews with Martin Luther King Jr., Sammy Davis Jr., and other important American figures.
Johnny Carson cried at Jack Benny’s funeral
When Jack Benny died on Dec. 26, 1974, Carson cried for hours according his wife at the time. Benny was an influence for the beloved Tonight Show host, who also made guest appearances on The Jack Benny Program.
McMahon confirmed the icon’s tears over Benny in his memoir and said one of the few times he saw Carson cry was at Benny’s funeral. According to the New York Times, that “was the largest Hollywood funeral in nearly two decades,” so McMahon likely wasn’t the only Hollywood icon to see Carson cry that day.
Johnny Carson and Ed McMahon were ‘a couple of maudlin mutt mourners’ over Jimmy Stewart’s poem
In Here’s Johnny, McMahon recalled a time he and Carson were both moved to tears by actor, Jimmy Stewart, when he read a poem about his late golden retriever, Beau.
For the curious, the poem is on YouTube. Fair warning: though Stewart read it in 1981 and died in 1997, watching him choke up over missing his deceased companion is still tearjerking.
“There are nights when I think I feel that stare and I reach out my hand to stroke his hair and he’s not there,” Stewart read. “Oh, how I wish that wasn’t so. I’ll always love a dog named Beau.”
Carson’s face was visibly moist as Stewart finished reading. “Both Johnny and I were in tears,” McMahon wrote of the poem. “Just a couple of maudlin mutt mourners.”
