RONCO The REAL Story! – Dandy Fun House episode 58

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Chop-o-Matic. Veg-o-Matic. Dial-o-Matic. Smokeless Ashtray. Spray-On Hair. Mr. Microphone. Pocket Fisherman. These are just a few of the handy, dandy, kitschy, quirky products from the genius mind of one man… Ron Popeil (ok, that’s not entirely true. I’ll explain later) but what IS true is that Ron Popeil’s name is permanently etched into history as the man who could sell ice cubes to eskimos and produce the perfect gadget to make them with as well as being the founder and face of… RONCO! And THIS is THAT story! Time to Set it! Forget it! And Let’s step into the FUN HOUSE!

Hello and welcome to the Dandy Fun House Video Show, Podcast and Blog! I’m your host Neil Dandy and this is where we bring you the best in retromatic pop culture, toys and games and all the fun stuff! And what could be more fun than throwing back to the crazy, clever, quirky and classic as-seen-on-tv products from the legendary Ron Popeil and his namesake company RONCO!?

BUT FIRST! I want to tell you all about our amazing DANDY FUN HOUSE T-SHIRTS! They are the perfect attire for singing into your Mr. Microphone or relaxing pond-side with your Pocket Fisherman and best of all they are 100 percent cool-o-matic! But wait! There’s more! Buy one t-shirt and get a second one for ZERO DOLLARS OFF! Just visit the Dandy Fun Shop at the Dandy Fun House website at dandyfunhouse.com and Order yours today!

Oh and while you’re there, be sure to check out our new designs like GORILLATUDE, BODY BY DONUTS, MAYPOP TIRES, LED ROBSTER and more! They make great Christmas gifts! Just get to the Dandy Fun Shop at the Dandy Fun House website at dandyfunhouse.com today!

THE STORY OF RON POPEIL AND RONCO!

Ok! RONCO! It’s impossible to tell you the story of RONCO without also bringing you the story of its founder and pitch-man-in-chief, Ron Popeil. You may remember Ron as recently as the 2000s selling kitchen gadgets on tv, but his more amusing products stem from the 1980s,70s and from Ronco’s founding in the 1960s. But to really po-peel back the curtain on the iconic RONCO and the man who started it all, Ron Popeil, we need to go back farther! MUCH FARTHER!

The year: 1935. A little jewish boy named Ronald Milton Popeil was brought kicking and screaming into a world of many wonders to a mother named Julia and a father named Samuel Popeil who was an inventor and manufacturer of household products. Not much is known about the early life of Ronald Milton except that his parents divorced at a very young age and he went to live with his grandparents in Florida because… that’s where grandparents live.

Samuel Popeil

But in 1952 at the age of 17, Ronald went to work at his father Samuel and Uncle Raymond’s manufacturing facility, Popeil Brothers in Chicago, Illinois selling kitchen gadgets in the street markets. He was a natural and claims to have made over a $1000 per week before heading off to college for a whirlwind 6 months of higher education at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, paid for by his sales earnings but quickly ditched college to go back to earning money with the Popeil Brothers marketing his father’s inventions The Chop-O-Matic, the Veg-O-Matic and the Dial-O-Matic. That’s right! In fact, many of the most iconic and soon-to-be Ronco products were actually invented by Ron’s father Samuel and already had millions of sales before Ronco was ever even conceived!

But the products had a problem! In order for salesmen to conduct their demonstrations, because the products were so efficient at what they did, they had to carry around an obscene amount of vegetables everywhere they went! So Ron’s big solution was to film the products in action and broadcast it to the world as television commercials which were surprisingly more cost effective than anyone in the Popeil Brothers company ever imagined!