the end is nigh: Infomercial pioneer Ron Popeil dies at 86

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https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/infomercial-pioneer-ron-popeil-dies-at-86-010226753.html

Yahoo Entertainment
Infomercial pioneer Ron Popeil dies at 86
Raechal Shewfelt
Raechal Shewfelt·Editor, Yahoo Entertainment
Wed, July 28, 2021, 9:02 PM
Ron Popeil, the man largely responsible for infomercials as we know them, who used them to sell products that he had invented, such as the Pocket Fisherman, Hair in a Can spray, Mr. Microphone and many others, has died at the age of 86.

Family sources told TMZ that Popeil had a "severe medical emergency" Tuesday night and died Wednesday morning at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. He was reportedly "surrounded by his family."

The prolific inventor sold his first gadgets early on. "At sixteen, Ron began to sell the very products his father's factory produced in the flea markets on Maxwell street in Chicago," according to the biography on his official website. "Storing his goods and table in the back of grimy fish store. Ron would start his day there at 5 AM to set up and would gross as much as $500 per day; a huge success for a kid in the 1950's."

Popeil later began touring state fairs. He and his business partner rolled out their first commercial, for his Ronco company's Chop-o-Matic, in the '50s.