Ed McMahon's Money Problems: Should We Really Care About Millionaires in Financial Distress?

For the past couple of months we have been subjected ad nausea to the financial woes of Tonight Show announcer and TV pitchman Ed McMahon, and with all the legitimate concerns of ordinary citizens, who've lost their jobs and/or homes, I have to ask who really gives a damn?

Frankly, I have little sympathy for folks like McMahon, who have been gifted with extraordinary success and, in his case, incredible luck, having been propelled from relative obscurity as a studio announcer to national prominence thanks to the generosity of his colleague Johnny Carson. It was Carson, who'd been offered the Tonight Show, who insisted that his Who Do You Trust announcer move along with him to his long run gig at NBC late-night.

Since that fateful day in 1962, McMahon has become a well-known pitchman and TV Host of Star Search, making millions and millions of dollars in the process. How many of us have shared his good luck and fortune? Obviously very few, but somehow the bulk of us manage to make do, living our lives without the capacity or necessity of going on shows like Larry King Live et al to engender sympathy.

Is his bad luck a legitimate news story? Yes. But the real question is why he has not been lambasted for stupid behavior. Instead, we are told that he was such a generous man, who liked to tip big and had alimony to ex-wives and had to pay for his daughter's legal problems, etc. We are also expected to feel bad that he can't get the price he wanted to sell his multi-million dollar mansion.

When people are going homeless or downsizing to two or three bedroom apartments, it's hard for me to feel sorry for a guy who could have quietly sold his home at a loss, paid his bills and moved to a really nice house in Sherman Oaks. True, it might not have been the sort of downsizing recently announced by Candy Spelling (whose decision presumably had nothing to do with financial trauma), but it wouldn't have been the sort of extreme hardship so many of his fellow Americans have been suffering.

As someone who has been up and down in the entertainment industry and never nearly as far up as Ed McMahon, I have to take a more cynical attitude regarding his plight. Those of us who struggle to pay our bills and sometimes take jobs of lesser quality in order to do so, and without which face the prospect of living on the street, cannot and should not feel pity for such a man. Dismay is a better word. There is no excuse other than extreme stupidity regarding the handling of his finances or enormous vanity fed by delusions of grandeur to keep up a style of living, which his declining income no longer afforded.

I remember hearing about an Academy Award Nominated actress, who once reportedly said "Things were so bad we were down to our last quarter of a million." A quarter of a million dollars! A sum few of us will ever attain in a bank account. So, forgive me if I've offended any of you, but I have no patience for such folks or other rich people who cry about the lessening of their lives when it was poor financial planning and foresight on their part that created the problem, and so it was really their own damned fault in the first place.

Comments

[jnik]

At least no one's blaming his broken neck anymore for his problems. Broken neck or not, an 85-year old man shouldn't HAVE to be working to make ends meet! He should have prepared for a lower standard of living a long time ago!

[TurgidCaterwauling]

At the end of the day, Ed's contributions to my life are negligible. It's not that I wish him ill, it's just that I'd like to see a teacher I had, or a nurse, or someone else who helped or influenced me catch a break. Their lives will go on in relative obscurity and there will be no financial reward. Ed, on the other hand, is splashed all over the papers, Larry King, and Jimmy Kimmel. Someone will come to his rescue because his story is so touching. Maybe he'll get to play himself in the movie of the week.
How about a book deal?

[JBS]

Only to the extent his stupidity impacts MY financial well being.

If he manages to crash the banking system and ends up costing me my life savings, that's news. But if he only manages to bankrupt himself and ends up in a homeless shelter, that's not my problem.

Whatever happened to "personal responsibility"? Does that only apply to working stiffs like me?

[RobinSeattle]

All the McMahon story shows is that you have to plan for the longterm and, even if you are initially well off, you still have to live on some sort of budget. So he did it to himself. I don't feel sorry for him in the least. He has had a lifestyle most of us could only dream about anyway.

[FalconerHK]

"Ed McMahon's Money Problems: Should We Really Care About Millionaires in Financial Distress?"

No. Not at all. There's no sympathy for the wealthy yet financially stupid. Ed is from the generation that chipped and chiseled away at the New Deal from 1980 on, all in the name of short-term greed, only to find that they've pulled the rug out from under themselves as they reach their decline. For them, it's all relative. OMG - I have to sell the Bentley and buy a crummy BMW? Please.

Just wait - there will be a Hollywood fundraiser to keep Ed from having to live within his means. Where was the fundraiser for all the people who lost their pensions, benefits, jobs, life savings, etc. as a result of trickle-down policy? Oh, right - I remember what they said about "regular" people down on their luck, regardless of the cause:

Tell them to GET A JOB!

[Puller58]

Ed managed to cause himself problems like Glenn Ford and Groucho Marx by trying to find love when his age was a handicap. Without Johnny Carson to protect him, he's been reduced to another hasbeen bemoaning his fate.

[Puller58]

As a casual tabloid reader, I've noticed Ed making a fool out of himself in terms of his silly attempts at wedlock. At an age where he should be playing golf or playing cards with celebs of his vintage, he seems unwilling to accept the loss of his money making ability. The late Carson was a feared power in Hollywood, so Ed was protected from the normal forces that would have eased him out of the spotlight years ago. A story like this only serves to reinforce the image of Hollywood as a feckless land of spoiled Norma Desmonds.

[bodo]

Yes, Norma Desmonds certainly comes to mind. It is a fairly common Hollywood phenomenon that stars who rake in millions end up pennyless. Notable exception was Mae West who shrewdly bought real estate and ended up owning a lot of Hollywood including the apartment building she occupied to her death.

[davefoc]

I don't have much sympathy either. Years ago McMahon was pitchman for a Florida land scheme that my parents were taken in by. So I already wasn't a fan.

But I, like the author of this piece, don't have much sympathy for him in his current situation either.

All over the country, there are people who are losing there jobs, losing their businesses, and cutting back and McMahon makes the news because he's not as rich as he might be if he had been a little less of an idiot. Doesn't seem like all that terrible to me.

[InofTouch]

If he was a girl we be blasting him for his behavor

[tompoe]

You're brutal, Michael. Let's change the tone a little. How about asking yourself how much his social security check is each month. Will it be protected from bankruptcy filing? Will he auction belongings to help cushion the blow? Will he avoid the street? Is he worse off than the tens of thousands of retirees nailed to the wall by the Enron crimes, the Savings and Loan crisis, the recent housing crimes/crisis? Personally, I think he'll fare just fine.