Popeil/Ronco products and the hyped-up announcing... isn't that amazing!

Mike Bruchas said in GB 2:

The Popeil spots and all of today's lesser sophisticated infomercials remind you of the Tulsa State Fair pitchmen that had the little boothes pitching juicers, ginsu knives, massager chairs. We always avoided these in the IPE building, but blue haired grannies seemed drawn to them. If you look at current infomercials today - the ones without former athletes, go for fast talking Brits or Aussies. Is this a charm factor - maybe they are the last of the fast talking pitchmen. They often seem to be selling the same kind of "needed" household stuff we saw pushed at the Fair.

We knew at KTUL it was close to Xmas because besides the Popeil like spots - it was TV MAGIC CARDS time! I cannot remember the guy on those film spots, but he did them forever! Junk for last minute, unthinking shoppers to pick up at Oertle's (or drug store or some discount shlock shop) for their loved ones for the holidays!

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Product Description

For nearly fifty years, the Popeil Brothers' and Ronco's highenergy commercials have been familiar intruders into the living rooms of America-and most homes bear evidence of their seductive visits. Countless VegOMatics, SealAMeals, Kitchen Magicians, Pocket Fishermen, and other gadgets sit tucked away in many a cupboard, giving silent testimony to the power of their broadcast salesmanship. This dynamic, colorful, and amusing volume tells the classic rags to riches story of this fascinating business whose name has become synonymous with the word "gadget." Through a witty, informative text complemented by a wealth of colorful vintage advertisements, stunning product package art, and photography that cooks, business students, graphic and industrial design mavens, and fans of popular culture will love, this book examines the inventiveness and ubiquity of Popeil products through a range of special visual and editorial features. These include: an encapsulated history of the company; annotated celbycel recreations of the most popular commercials; amusing anecdotes about the inventions; transcripts of the alluring, rapidfire sales pitches; humorous quotes; and entertaining facts.

Just like the inventions themselves, this volume is "amazing!"

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1070887 in Books
• Published on: 2002-04-20
• Released on: 2002-04-20
• Format: Illustrated
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 120 pages

About the Author
Timothy Samuelson, curator of architecture and design at the Chicago Historical Society, is an eminent architectural historian who specializes in the work of Louis Sullivan. A former Loeb Fellow at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design, Samuelson has written extensively on architecture, history, and design, and has done extensive consulting and curatorial work for the country's major fine arts institutions. A collector of Popeil and Ronco products for ten years, Samuelson has assembled the country's most comprehensive archive of materials relating to these well-known companies. His interest in the subject has been covered in feature articles in the New York Times, the Chicago Sun Times, the Boston Globe, The New Yorker, Chicago magazine, and other publications. He has also done considerable radio and television interviews on the subject. He lives in Chicago, Illinois.

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Customer Reviews

The story of the O-Matic boys.
An interesting, visually exuberant, book about Ronco and the Popeil family. Essentially the book is a twenty-four page essay by author Samuelson with the remainder of the pages taken up with pictures and captions describing the various products they sold on TV.

Samuelson writes a rather sympathetic history of the Popeil's and the bizarre collection of household wares they pitched to gullible consumers, who can forget the 'inside-the-shell egg scrambler' (1978) or the 'GLH formula number 9 hair system' (1992) most likely everyone who bought them. He also writes that the products had 'unusually high quality product design', looking through the photos of the products this judgement seems way over-the-top. Still, folks bought this stuff by the million thanks to Ron Popeil's excellent marketing hype and fast pitched delivery. This came about because the FCC limited TV commercials to two minutes or less and the Popeil's had honed their pitch for the Veg-O-Matic (1956) to four minutes and could not bear to leave anything out so the only answer was to speak faster.

I was surprised by the design of the book, square in shape with three large circular holes in the cover (they reveal three photos on the first page) and pages of product photos, vintage ads, stills from TV commercials, colored panels and text all mixed up but in a nicely controlled way. There is an index in the back. But, wait! There's more, although this book concentrates on Ronco and the Popeil's you can see a whole load more (dubious) TV advertised products in 'As Seen On TV' by Lou Harry and Sam Stall.

Don't forget, never say battery operated, it's cordless electric. Isn't that amazing!

Read it for what it is.
I see that many reviewers, rather than reviewing the book, are choosing this forum to indict Ron Popeil. Let me preface by saying that I am NOT a blubbering couch potato who buys any gadget that is zestfully presented on an infomercial. In fact, most of them drive me nuts. That being said, I cannot bring myself to say anything disparaging about Ron Popeil. He is who he is, a gifted inventor and a charismatic salesman.

The publisher's review makes reference to gadgets sitting silently in a closet. In fact, nothing could be further from the truth. I still use my Pocket Fisherman I bought in the '60s. My Showtime Rotisserie cooks delicious meals for my family. And although better tools have come along since, even my Veg-O-Matic served a long and useful life. I have Ron's knives and while they are not the pretentious (and expensive) "French Chef" knives my daughter has, they stay sharp and are very utilitarian. I could go on, but suffice to say that EVERY one of Ron's products has worked as advertised and are as robust as advertised. That is not to say that every gadget Ron invented or improved was a great idea (e.g. egg scrambler), but he had the will and nerve to make them and put them out there. This is no small feat, as any inventor or developer will tell you.

But then, this IS about the book, isnt it? The author did perhaps used a little literary license when crediting Ron. But, like BASF, even if he didn't originate all these ideas, he MADE THEM BETTER! I found the book to be a welecome walk down memory lane. It was well laid out and informative. Don't pick this book apart when you read it. Look to it rather for the entertainment value, much as many of us look to Ron's infomercials.

But Wait, There Is More...
This is a fun, coffee table book. But by twisting truth, spinning potential negatives and giving credit where credit really isn't due, the author does a major injustice to the rich history of the pitch person.

Here are a few examples:
1) The book seems to credit Ron Popeil for the inspiration of the Saturday Night Live "Bass-O-Matic" spoof. The spoof wasn't so much a send up of the low-key Popeil commercials as it was a satire of the colorful, high energy pitch people you always find in an obscure corner of a State or County Fair who sometimes exagerate product claims and, by their looks, obviously doesn't drive home to Beverly Hills after a hard day of hawking product. When Danny DeVito was on Saturday Night Live looking like a fool spray painting people's bald heads -- now that skit was inspired by Ron.

2) The book implies that Ron Popeil authored the term, "Set It and Forget It," where in fact "Set It and Forget It Operation" was used in one of the most successful infomercials of 1992, a counter top hot air oven called, the Jet-Stream Oven and pitched by Dave Dornbush. That product went on to sell well over a million units at around $200.

3) Even the book's title, "But Wait There's More" is from other direct response creatives, not the Popeils. The author may openly admit this, but he needs to realize that he colors history with cockeyed crayons when attaching this title, and many other facts, to the Popeil machine. Bogart may never have said, "Play it again Sam" in "Casablanca," but it wasn't taken from someone else when Woody Allen popularized it in his play.

4) The books points out that Ronco used to sell the Dazey Seal-A-Meals as a distributor. It goes on to state, "Similar devices...are still on the market today." Again, a crude attempt at assigning credit to the Popeils for products that have nothing to do with them. Will the author one day make reference that many of the words he used in his writings are still found in dictionaries today?

The Popeil family does have a place in novelty item heaven. Successfully sold products launched earlier by others gives you success, shows you have chutzpah and can make you tons of money. But it doesn't give you solitary, absolute authorship. The moon did exist before a flag was planted on it.