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Daily Variety
By Dennis Harvey
An engaging look at the snake-charming ways of professional product hawkers, "Pitch People" tells you more than you probably thought you wanted to know about those folks who've made the purchase of Whip-O-Matics, Miracle Knives and other slicing, dicing, scrubbing, broiling gadgets seem like a life-or-death necessity. A broader scope and more retro-kitsch stylish approach might have made this the "Atomic Cafe" of TV hard-salesmanship. By focusing on personalities, Stanley Jacobs' docu provides an amiable diversion, albeit one that's a bit content-lite for feature length; broadcast berths seem preordained, with trimdown for 60-minute slots unlikely to do much harm.
Brief early seg charts the trade back to transient "medicine men" hawking "herbal remedies" -- as one latter-day "demonstrator" notes, such vending is probably the "world's second oldest profession." Once fellow travelers on the carnival circuit, now more likely to appear at trade shows and consumer "fairs," the old-school pitch men used to consider Atlantic City boardwalks as their career Mecca. (A genial Ed McMahon, who's spent his post-Carson years hosting infomercials, got his start there; he says Charles Bronson and Jack Klugman did, too.)
Leading lights were a tight-knit, largely all-in-the-family concern. Late patriarch of the still-active Morris clan was an inventor and manufacturer as well as a pioneer in TV marketing. The Popeils of Popeil Potato Peeler fame were the Morrises' chief competitors. (Final credits duly note that "Ronco" Ron Popeil, probably the most famous pitcher.......
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