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Infomercial King Had the Perfect Pitch
Billy Mays, the bearded, boisterous pitchman who, as the undisputed king of TV yell and sell, became an unlikely pop culture icon, died June 28 at his Tampa home at age 50. Tampa police told the Associated Press that his wife discovered him unresponsive early in the morning. A fire rescue crew pronounced him dead at 7:45 a.m.The man many TV viewers knew as "the OxiClean guy" was among the passengers on a US Airways flight that made a rough landing the previous afternoon at Tampa International Airport. Mr. Mays told Tampa's Fox TV affiliate that something fell from the ceiling and hit him on the head, "but I got a hard head." A police spokeswoman said linking his death to the rough landing would "purely be speculation." As often as 400 times a week, his "Hi! Billy Mays here!" signaled yet another paean to Mighty Putty, Simoniz Fix It scratch remover, the Big City Slider Station, the Handy Switch, the Awesome Auger and numerous other "As Seen on TV" products. In a 2008 profile of Mr. Mays, The Washington Post noted that top pitchmen get about $20,000 upfront for each commercial they tape, although Mr. Mays made even more money from a commission on gross revenue. He refused to be specific about his annual income, although Forbes magazine said his efforts accounted for more than $1 billion in combined sales for the products he pitched. Posted by: Fred 2009-06-29 |
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