[Infowarrior] - TV pitchman Billy Mays dead

[Richard Forno]

Wow....what a week!!!

-rf

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/28/AR2009062800820_pf.html

Infomercial King Had the Perfect Pitch

By Joe Holley
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, June 29, 2009

Billy Mays, the bearded, boisterous pitchman who, as the undisputed  
king of TV yell and sell, became an unlikely pop culture icon, died  
yesterday at his Tampa home at age 50. Tampa police told the  
Associated Press that his wife discovered him unresponsive early  
yesterday 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 Saturday  
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.

Recently, he was featured on the Discovery Channel reality show  
"Pitchmen," which follows Mr. Mays and Anthony Sullivan, his business  
partner and producer, as they entice viewers with such new gadgets as  
the Impact Gel shoe insert, the Tool Band-It and the Soft Buns  
portable seat cushion.

"One of the things that we hope to do with 'Pitchmen' is to give  
people an appreciation of what we do," he told the Tampa Tribune this  
year. "I don't take on a product unless I believe in it. I use  
everything that I sell."

He was born William D. Mays Jr. in McKees Rocks, Pa., and grew up in  
Pittsburgh, where he was a high school football player. He dropped out  
of West Virginia University and worked for his father's hazardous- 
waste trucking company. In 1983, he ran into a high school friend who  
was headed to Atlantic City to sell Ginsu knives on the boardwalk, at  
the time a pitchman's mecca. Mr. Mays went along for the ride and  
ended up becoming a pitchman himself.

He worked for a company called International Housewares; the first  
product he pitched was WashMatik, a hose that could pump water from a  
bucket without being hooked up to a faucet. He told The Post that he  
wasn't much of a salesman at first. He spent too much time describing  
the product and not enough time "chilling 'em down" -- that is,  
getting potential buyers to fork over their money.

After a few years with the WashMatik, he spent five years pitching the  
Ultimate Chopper at home shows and state fairs across the country. His  
demonstration involved "ballying," as the pitchman sales banter is  
known, at full volume for hours on end and then making salsa with the  
kitchen tool. Along the way, he met Max Appel, an inventor and  
pitchman who was selling Orange Glo, a wood-polishing liquid. When  
Appel asked Mr. Mays to pitch his product on the Home Shopping  
Network, he sold 6,000 units in 11 minutes, at $18 a piece. He was on  
his way to superstardom.

He reached the pinnacle of pitchman success in 1999, when he did a two- 
minute commercial for the all-purpose OxiClean, which Appel had  
created. Appel would later sell his company, which included OxiClean  
and other products, for $325 million. By then, Mr. Mays had become an  
infomercial phenom.

His marriage to Dolores "Dee Dee" Mayes ended in divorce.

Survivors include his wife, Deborah Mays, of Tampa.