Ron Popeil: The Chop-O-Matic Pitchman Who Invented the Infomercial

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Ron Popeil began his career shouting over department store noise, slicing mountains of cabbage to prove how fast a kitchen gadget worked. Born in New York City in 1935, he was sent to Florida to live with his grandparents after his parents divorced when he was six. At 17 he moved to Chicago to work at his father Samuel's company, Popeil Brothers, and after six months at the University of Illinois he dropped out and returned to the factory floor. There, inventing a gadget and pitching it were treated as one act.

This episode shows how a logistics problem created a new kind of television. The Chop-O-Matic cut so quickly that no salesman could carry enough produce to demonstrate it all day, so the pitch was filmed once and broadcast to millions. Popeil founded Ronco in 1964, competed with his own father for shelf space, and built products designed to look good on camera. The Showtime Rotisserie sold over eight million units and pushed Ronco's housewares sales past one billion dollars.

The Chop-O-Matic retailed for $3.98 and eventually sold over two million units.
In 1993 Popeil received the Ig Nobel Prize in Consumer Engineering, cited as the incessant inventor and perpetual pitchman.
He was parodied by Dan Aykroyd on Saturday Night Live, and he licensed Weird Al Yankovic's tribute song Mr. Popeil, featuring his half-sister Lisa Popeil on backing vocals, for his own infomercials.
Popeil sat on the board of Mirage Resorts for 22 years under Steve Wynn and on the board of MGM for seven years under Kirk Kerkorian.
He sold Ronco in August 2005 for $55 million and died in July 2021 at age 86 at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.

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