Ron Popeil, iconic American inventor, pitchman and infomercial pioneer, died yesterday at 86.
A Popeil representative said he died suddenly and peacefully at Cedars Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, according to published reports.
The Showtime Rotisserie & BBQ, among Popeil’s best known infomercial-to-retail hits, sold more than eight million units in the U.S., helping Ronco’s housewares sales exceed $1 billion in profits, according to published reports. Popeil is reported to have sold more than $1 million worth of his Showtime Rotisseries during a one-hour live airing on QVC television, selling approximately 150 units each minute to viewers.
The originator of “A Seen On TV” marketing, Popeil was known for his sales format, pitch style and catchphrases such as “Set it and Forget it”; “But wait, there’s more”; “Now how much would you pay?”; and “Less Shipping and Handling”. Popeil’s first successful infomercial product — the Ronco Chop-O-Matic introduced in the 1950s — was the catalyst for a string of infomercial hits, many of them housewares products, generating billions of dollars in gross sales, according to his official biography.
Popeil’s hit TV products included Mr. Microphone (Karaoke machine), the Popeil Pocket Fisherman, the Veg-o-Matic, the Buttoneer, the Smokeless Ashtray, Popeil’s Electric Food Dehydrator, the Inside-the-Egg Scrambler, GLH-9 (Great Looking Hair Formula #9) Hair in a Can Spray, Rhinestone stud setter, the Cap Snaffler, the Popeil Automatic Pasta Maker, the Ronco Electric Food Dehydrator, the Ronco 6 Star Plus Knives.
After retiring, Popeil continued to invent products, including an indoor turkey fryer appliance Popeil initially operated as a Chicago-based distributor of his father’s kitchen products and later formed his own company, Ronco, in 1964. Popeil was also a pioneer in the recording business. Ronco Records was one of the first in the recording industry to build compilations of well-known artists’ works and to package them for direct-to-consumer sales on television, according to his official biography.
