RIP Ron Popeil

[Tabonga 2,167]

For those of you not familiar with him he was forever hawking sundry goods of dubious usefulness on tv.  Most famous IMHO was his pocket fisherman:

Edited July 29, 2021 by Tabonga

[Andy_Bogomil 793]

The world is so weird... I was just thinking about this guy only a few days ago after not thinking about him in about 20 years when the 'set it and forget it' slogan popped into my head when making dinner. I was wondering how/if he was still alive and here we are.

[CodysGameRoom 2,007]

 

[Tabonga 2,167]

 

[arch_8ngel 1,597]

I thought he was best known for Pasta Magic?

[Californication 1,466]

I really liked the food dehydrator. I keep thinking about buying a similar device.

[Tabonga 2,167]

1 hour ago, arch_8ngel said:

I thought he was best known for Pasta Magic?

I think it was called Pasta Maker.   This probably reflects (and this is one of those things where there is no right answer) the age difference between  us as the Pasta Maker was mostly an extended infomercial campaign while the earlier pocket fisherman was a straight tv commercial (before infomercials got really big) .

A somewhat related phenomena I remember  were the exhibition halls at the Minnesota State Fair when I was a lot younger - vendors would set up stalls where they demonstrated all sorts of odd merchandise via  extended spiels.  One of the things I remember getting was this paste/cleaner you could put on your eyeglasses that would prevent them from from fogging up.  Which was surprisingly useful in Minnesota winters when eyeglasses were glass rather than plastic.  As far as  I know they still do this at the annual Denver Stock Show.

Edited July 29, 2021 by Tabonga

[Startyde 175]

I feel to gen x he is most famous for his Ronco Rotisserie. Just "set it and forget it."

It's interesting seeing some of these 20 year old informercials now. So many things you would never say like "so easy, even my wife can do it." Yikes.

Def a great inventor. 

[Bighab 58]

Love the Ronco Weiner Skinner