Ronald Martin (“Ron”) Popeil was born to a Jewish family in Manhattan in 1935, and was the son of Julia and Samuel Popeil. Samuel Popeil was an inventor and salesman of numerous kitchen-related gadgets, such as the Chop-O-Matic and the Veg-O-Matic.
At the age of six, Ron Popeil’s parents divorced and he and his brother moved to Florida to live with their grandparents. When he turned 17, Popeil traveled with his grandparents to work for his father at the manufacturing facility for his father’s company, Popeil Brothers, in Chicago. Though his grandparents returned to Florida, Popeil remained with his father.
Popeil matriculated at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, but left school after six months. Popeil continued to work and learn from his father.
The Chop-O-Matic had created a problem that launched Popeil into television. The device was so efficient at chopping vegetables that it was impractical for salesmen to carry all of the vegetables needed for a day’s worth of demonstrations. The solution was to film the demonstration, and then broadcasting the demonstration as a commercial was a simple next step. Like contemporaries who filmed demonstrations of such devices as the Vit-A-Mix, the direct response marketing idea used by Popeil would spawn the “infomercial.”
Popeil initially operated as a distributor of his father’s kitchen products, but later formed his own company, Ronco, in 1964. He eventually added additional products from other manufactures. Eventually Popeil and his father became competitors in the 1970s for the same retail store business.
Popeil invented a wide variety of products in addition to marketing his father’s inventions. Among Popeil’s inventions are his Food Dehydrator, his Electric Pasta Maker, Showtime Rotisserie & BBQ, and 5-in-1 Turkey Fryer & Food Cooking System. The Showtime Rotisserie sold 8 million units in the U.S. alone, helping Ronco’s housewares sales exceed $1 billion in sales. Popeil also invented Great Looking Hair Formula #9 (“GLH-9”), better known as the often-mocked Spray-On Hair.
In infomercials for the Showtime Rotisserie, Popeil famously coined the phrase “Set it, and forget it!” He was also known for popularizing the lure, “But wait, there’s more!”
Popeil’s infomercial ubiquity led to cameos in television series as varied as The X-Files, The Simpsons, and The West Wing. His informercials were parodied on Saturday Night Live by Dan Aykroyd and Eddie Murphy.
Popeil received the Ig Nobel Prize in Consumer Engineering in 1993, the awards committee describing him as the “incessant inventor and perpetual pitchman of late night television” and awarded the prize in recognition of his “redefining the industrial revolution” with his devices. He served as a member of the board of directors of Mirage Resorts for 22 years under Steve Wynn, and a member of the board of directors of MGM Hotels for seven years under Kirk Kerkorian. Popeil received the Electronic Retail Association’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 2001. He also was a member of the advisory board for UCLA’s Business Management, and Legal Programs.
In 2005, Popeil sold Ronco to Fi-Tek VII for $55 million, but continued to serve as the spokesman and inventor while spending more time with his family.
Popeil was married three times, and had five daughters. He died in 2021.
Self magazine readers have voted Popeil one of the 25 people who have changed the way we eat, drink, and think about food.
