By Pam Walatka

The truth is out: Johnny Carson really was the gentleman he appeared to be. That’s Ed McMahon’s story and he’s sticking to it.

“Here’s Johnny!” (Rutledge Hill Press, 2005), by Carson’s announcer Ed McMahon, tells what it was like to be part of one of TV’s most successful shows ever, “The Tonight Show.”

I shook hands with Johnny Carson once, right after a taping. He had on thicker makeup than I had ever seen, he was decades older than he appeared on TV, and he had no interest whatsoever in me. He was built for huge audiences, not for one-on-one encounters.

Maybe it doesn’t matter what Carson was like off-camera; he was fantastic, perhaps better than anybody else, at being on TV. At least 90 percent of the book is about what happened on-camera. If you count by intensity instead of hours, maybe 90 percent of Carson’s life, and McMahon’s, happened on-camera.

Although McMahon gives us a glimpse of Carson behind the scenes, this is more a book about McMahon’s contribution to the show. Anyone who is in a supportive position to a star (in any industry) could get some good advice from “Here’s Johnny!”

McMahon was the perfect second banana; he did his job for 46 years without leaving for less demeaning work. “… my role was to make him look good while not looking too good myself. My job as straight man, as sidekick, as second banana, was to get Johnny to the punch line while seeming to do nothing at all.”

Even though the book is more about McMahon than Carson, one’s attention slides automatically from the second banana to the first. “Everyone thought Johnny was so cool, and he was - on the surface. But Johnny the perfectionist was tense underneath,” McMahon writes. He quotes Carson as saying to him, “People think I’m always so relaxed, but the truth is I’m always nervous. Making it look easy is a hell of a strain.” Carson spent hours perfecting those monologues that he seemed to be tossing off spontaneously. McMahon says: “… his supreme mastery of interviewing was probably unappreciated by most of his audience. … Johnny … was genuinely curious, listened carefully to every word said to him, and then moved in precisely the right direction.”

McMahon attributes Carson’s gentlemanly attributes to his Nebraska roots. Quoting Carson: “I come from the Midwest … and Midwestern values have always been important to me - openness, honesty, and a sense of warmth.”

Not great, this book is readable, with a few good chuckles.

“Here’s Johnny!” is available at Main Street Cafe & Books, 134 Main St., Los Altos.