"Just set it and forget it", Ron Popeil RIP!

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havasu

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By ANDREW DALTON and TED ANTHONY | Associated Press


LOS ANGELES — Ron Popeil, the quintessential TV pitchman and inventor known to generations of viewers for hawking products including the Veg-O-Matic, the Pocket Fisherman, Mr. Microphone and the Showtime Rotisserie and BBQ, has died, his family said.


Popeil died “suddenly and peacefully” Wednesday at Cedars Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, his family said in a statement. He was 86. No cause of death was given.


Popeil essentially invented the popular image of the American television pitchman, whose novel products solved frustrating problems viewers didn’t know they had. He popularized much of the vernacular of late-night TV ads and infomercials, with lines like “Now how much would you pay?” and “Set it and forget it.”




Popeil, whose father was also an inventor-salesman, built his ability to sell things as a young man in the open-air markets of Chicago, where he moved as a teen in the 1940s after spending his earliest years in New York and Miami.


Building on an invention of his father’s, the Chop-o-Matic, he marketed the slicing-and-chopping machine he called the Veg-O-Matic, sold by the company he founded and named after himself — Ronco.


He would take the product-slinging style previously done at state fairs and Woolworth stores to television starting in the late 1950s, offering viewers a chance to skip stores and buy straight from the source with a simple phone call.


As his influence grew, he crafted an enthusiastic, guy-next-door presence that suffused the 1970s with commercials for such gadgets as the the Popeil Pocket Fisherman, a self-contained fishing apparatus, and Mr. Microphone, a then-groundbreaking wireless mic that was amplified through the nearest AM radio.


“But wait — there’s more,” he’d say in the ads.




Though Ronco Teleproducts went bankrupt in 1984, Popeil started from the bottom again and built himself and his company back up. By the 1990s, as the infomercial gained footing and cable television’s influence spread, he was doing full-length shows that evangelized about such devices as pasta makers, food dehydrators and “GLH” (Great-Looking Hair), which was commonly called “hair in a can.”


He appealed to consumers in part because he was a classic American showman, equal parts P.T. Barnum and Thomas Edison — an inventor and innovator, yes, but a popularizer as well, a man who saw consumers’ needs and then found accessible ways to entice them into making purchases.


In a 1997 Associated Press interview, he said his drive to invent was more than mercantile; it was a bit obsessive. “I have enough money today,” he said at the time. “But I can’t stop. If there’s a need for these things, I can’t help myself.”


He seemed always to have new products at the ready: the Ronco Electric Food Dehydrator, Popeil’s Pasta & Sausage Maker, the Inside the Eggshell Egg Scrambler, the Bagel Cutter, the Hav-A-Maid Mop, the Speed Tufting Kit, The Whip-O-Matic.


When home shopping networks arose, he found a natural home, and he sold Showtime Rotisseries in droves on QVC.


Popeil was constantly parodied in pop culture. He was sent up by Dan Akroyd in the early days of “Saturday Night Live” with his “Bass-O-Matic” sketch.


“Weird Al” Yankovic had a song on his “In 3-D” album titled “Mr. Popeil,” whose lyrics said, “I need a Veg-O-Matic! I need a pocket fisherman! I need a handy appliance that’ll scramble an egg while it’s still inside its shell! … Help me, Mr. Popeil!”


Popeil was happy to take part in the parody himself, understanding and embracing his campy public image. He played or voiced himself on shows including “The X Files,” “The Simpsons” and “King of the Hill.”


Popeil is survived by his wife of 25 years Robin; daughters Kathryn, Lauren Contessa and Valentina; and four grandchildren. A fifth daughter, Shannon, died before him.
 
I remember infomercials from back when I watched television. I bought a wok thirty five years ago and still have it. I also sprung for the banjo minnow. "It makes fish bite when they aren't even hungry". Now I sit back on all the winnings from the numerous national fishing tournaments I won using the banjo minnow.
 
"Makes fish bite when they're not even hungry"
He had a lot of memorable catch phrases.
.......isn't it silly I can't remember any of them. 😁
 
I don't have a lot of catchphrases. 😁 Actually I don't have any. The one tool that I used the most is the SuckerDownNow V2015. It's my own version of the Seamerdown.
I use it on virtually ever see my make. I was using my first version of it before the SD was even invented.
The first version I made, probably well over 25 years ago. I was probably using it before discovering the internet, let alone knowing there was a flooring website like FCI. It was just a 20-inch long piece of plywood that I use for a seam weight. When I did my seams, I put my heavy old Kennedy tool box on top of that plywood.
The plywood had about 16 or 20 deep saw curfs through it. That was to allow moisture to vent up through the plywood instead of just absorbing into it. I had four large screws partially driven into the corners of the plywood. My Kennedy toolbox sat on top of the screws not directly on the wood. This was for the moisture to escape. I sometimes used this crude piece of plywood like the Seamerdown. I say sort of, because I never actually used it to make the seams. The only thing I use it for was doorways. I'd make the seam, and I would use my toolbox on top of the board like I did any other seam. When the seam was finished, I remove the toolbox and put the suction head of my shop vac over the slots in the plywood and it would help cool the seam off a little bit.
I could have been somebody! 😭
 
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I don't have a lot of catchphrases. 😁 Actually I don't have any. The one tool that I used the most is the SuckerDownNow V2015. It's my own version of the Seamerdown.
I use it on virtually ever see my make. I was using my first version of it before the SD was even invented.
The first version I made, probably well over 25 years ago. I was probably using it before discovering the internet, let alone knowing there was a flooring website like FCI. It was just a 20-inch long piece of plywood that I use for a seam weight. When I did my seams, I put my heavy old Kennedy tool box on top of that plywood.
The plywood had about 16 or 20 deep saw curfs through it. That was to allow moisture to vent up through the plywood instead of just absorbing into it. I had four large screws partially driven into the corners of the plywood. My Kennedy toolbox sat on top of the screws not directly on the wood. This was for the moisture to escape. I sometimes used this crude piece of plywood like the Seamerdown. I say sort of, because I never actually used it to make the seams. The only thing I use it for was doorways. I'd make the seam, and I would use my toolbox on top of the board like I did any other seam. When the seam was finished, I remove the toolbox and put the suction head of my shop vac over the slots in the plywood and it would help cool the seam off a little bit.
I could have been somebody! 😭
The guy who invented the actual "Seamer down" was an arrogant jerk. But he is probably a rich jerk now.
 
I second that man. That tool never made it into my arsenal and I have tools for things I don't even do. Just never made much sense to me. Not to mention, the nature of thermal adhesives, they are stronger when they cool slowly, unless somehow carpet seam adhesive is of a different ilk than most thermal products I know of.
 
I second that man. That tool never made it into my arsenal and I have tools for things I don't even do. Just never made much sense to me. Not to mention, the nature of thermal adhesives, they are stronger when they cool slowly, unless somehow carpet seam adhesive is of a different ilk than most thermal products I know of.
After I talked to the A hole that designed it, Daniel Bennett, I decided I would never put a dime in his pocket.
 
I second that man. That tool never made it into my arsenal and I have tools for things I don't even do. Just never made much sense to me. Not to mention, the nature of thermal adhesives, they are stronger when they cool slowly, unless somehow carpet seam adhesive is of a different ilk than most thermal products I know of.
If my vac died, I wouldn't put a seam together untill I got another one. I like it that much. Seams turn out flatter being sucked up than pressed down.
Daniel died a couple years ago. I think prophets.... or profits, 😉went to their church At least in the beginning.
I'm sure Lanny will chime in if he reads this.
 

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