With a long line of hit gadgets in his cupboard — including the iconic Veg-O-Matic — Ron Popeil knows what sells.

But he won't sell a product unless he believes in it. Since he's an inventor as well as a marketer, he spends years tinkering with it until he feels it's just right.

He invented the Electric Food Dehydrator, Automatic Pasta Maker and Ronco Showtime Rotisserie & BBQ, to name a few. On their own, he says, they'd be worthless — but for one thing.

"What does it all mean if you can't sell your product? A piece of paper," he told IBD.

Known as the father of the infomercial, Popeil is especially sure of what will sell on TV. He's been pitching his and others' inventions on that medium for half a century.

Popeil's unscripted pitches and demonstrations in late night infomercials have made hits of the Veg-O-Matic, Automatic Pasta Maker and the Showtime Rotisserie — the "set it and forget it" oven, as he puts it.

He would often say: "But wait! There's more!" He'd throw in a free book or steak knife to seal the deal.

His redesigned 1975 version of the Veg-O-Matic is part of the Smithsonian's American Legacies collection. The gadget is under the Everyday Life category, along with the Barbie doll and Girl Scout uniform.

Popeil's father, Samuel Popeil, invented the Chop-O-Matic and original Veg-O-Matic.

Ron Popeil bought the right to sell others products, such as the Ronco Spray Gun and spray-on GLH (good looking hair).

One of his first rules: A product must be unique. "If you have something that is common, I'm sorry, you most likely will not be successful," he said.

Products also must be well-made and safe to use. And they must interest the masses. After all, TV is expensive. To make a profit, you need to sell a lot of items.

Kitchen products are ideally suited for the mass market, Popeil says. Why? "Everybody's got a kitchen!"

He sold more than 11 million Veg-O-Matics, making it his biggest hit in terms of unit volume.

Dollarwise, the more pricey Showtime Rotisserie has been the biggest success, generating about $1 billion in sales.

Popeil's Automatic Pasta Maker was credited with starting the home pasta-making craze.

He put both the Automatic Pasta Maker and Showtime Rotisserie through countless tests before they made their TV debuts.

By the time the Showtime Rotisserie first aired in 1998, the glass front had just the right slant to offset glare to best showcase the glistening chicken rotating inside. It rotated at just the right speed and temperature to achieve an even brown.

"Most companies have sketches of products and focus groups. That's not Ron at all," said Alan Backus, his longtime collaborator. "The only way he develops is to have prototype after prototype after prototype. He has to use it. It has to feel right."

Popeil started selling knives and other utensils as a teen at Chicago's Maxwell Street flea market around 1950. He bought them from his dad's factory and paid the same wholesale price as other vendors.

He later demonstrated and sold the Chop-O-Matic in Woolworth's flagship store in Chicago. Still a teen, he worked up to 12 hours a day. Of the many hawkers demonstrating wares in Woolworth's aisles, Popeil drew the largest crowds.

"One day I walked into Woolworth's and saw 100 people watching his demonstration," said friend Mel Korey. "They would stand through a number of demonstrations. He captivates an audience."

In the summer, Popeil worked the fair circuit. He'd get up at 3 in the morning to buy heaping pounds of produce to get him through a long day of demonstrations.

By talking to live audiences — answering their questions and listening to their objections — he learned how to fashion his pitches to the products' best advantage.

It also gave him the wherewithal to later sell products on TV without any scripts.

The infomercial — typically 30 minutes — was a perfect medium for Popeil. It gave him time to zero in on the product and explain all its benefits and how to use it properly.

"How can you introduce a product in a minute?" he asked. Or in a 10-second or 30-second spot?

In sales, Popeil began to make a lot of money. And he enjoyed the rapport with people, something he didn't have much growing up.

When he was 3, his parents divorced. He and his older brother moved in with their grandparents, who later shuttled them off to boarding school. His relatives never visited, he says.

His mother disappeared, and he didn't see his father until he was a teenager, when he started buying goods from his factory. His grandfather was a stern man.

"Through sales I could escape . . . the miserable existence I had with my grandparents. I had lived for 16 years in homes without love, and now I had finally found a form of affection and a human connection through sales," he wrote in his autobiography, "The Greatest Salesman of the Century."

Popeil's father treated him like any other vendor, never giving him a discount on goods. And he did learn.

"He taught me to deliver the promise of giving the customer a quality product," Popeil said. "People don't want to buy cheap. If they buy cheap, they get cheap. They are willing to pay a fair price for a quality product."

After one year of college, Popeil dropped out. "I had poor study habits," he said. "I couldn't retain what I read. I ended up hiring the people that graduated."

In 2005, Popeil sold his company, Ronco Inc., for $55 million.

At 72, Popeil is still thinking up new products that will entice consumers to buy.

His latest invention is a home turkey fryer, which he plans to sell under his own name — on TV, naturally. In his large, commercially equipped kitchen at his home in Beverly Hills, Popeil is on his 30th or 40th prototype.

Popeil says it'll fry the works: mozzarella, leg of lamb, crab cakes, baby-back ribs (in six minutes).

He thinks it'll be a hit. Why? "Masses are eating fried food around the world. Food markets have dedicated whole aisles to fried everything. Who's using this food? People who fry food! But who has a food fryer? Nobody!"

There are hitches — such as health issues. A lot of consumers won't eat fried food because they think it's close to poison.

Popeil has an answer: Use healthier olive oil!

But what about those who might not want to fry anything, regardless of the oil?

No problem. Popeil has devised a way for the fryer to be used as a steamer.

Just put in water instead of oil. Set it and forget it.


BY MARILYN ALVA