Pat McMahon was born John Patrick Michael McMahon in Leavenworth, Kansas. Entertaining was in his blood. His parents were vaudeville performers known as “McMahon and Adelaide”. When Pat was 5 weeks old his parents took him on the road as they played the vaudeville circuits around the world.
When he was 12 years old, he attended an all boys boarding school in Iowa. In College, he majored in drama and Broadcasting. He says that he had looked at many forms of entertaining but it seemed that the most steady money was in broadcasting. He landed his first job in broadcasting at KSTT in Davenport, Iowa as a disk jockey.

In 1960, Pat moved to Arizona where he began working at KPHO TV.

He was program director at KRIZ radio. This was the early 60’s and the Beatles were changing the world. Pat was really impressed with the Beatles and this influence would show up later when he recorded his own records. He also worked at KOY and KTAR radio stations.

While working at KPHO, he got the longest running job of his life when a hip kid’s show called “It’s Wallace” (later to be called “Wallace & Ladmo) hired him to be the 3rd man. The characters he created on Wallace & Ladmo are burned into the memories of many Arizonans who grew up watching that program. They aired nearly 10,000 episodes before the show finally ended in 1989.

One of the most notable characters that he created was that of “Hub Kapp” the Beatle wigged lead singer for “Hub Kapp and the Wheels”. With band leader Mike Condello, they recorded several singles that made it on to local record charts and landed them a recording contract with Capitol Records. They appeared on the Steve Allen Show 6 times, plus many other west coast progams includinf the Joey Bishop Show.
Pat’s vaudeville roots have served him well. He has been successful in many fields of entertainment. He lists Jackie Gleason and Sid Caeser as two of his biggest influences. Pat is one of the best known entertainers in Arizona and is still doing daily TV and radio as well as running his own creative firm “The Idea factory”. He’s still keeping one of the busiest schedules in the business.