Word: pitchman
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...well imagine my dismay in seeing not only myself described as a "pitchman," but the whole subject of the motion picture industry's new dimensional developments presented with an air of erudite derision . . . The motion picture industry is in a critical phase, and it is true that there is a certain amount of groping at this stage of its progress. Uncertainty is characteristic of any institution, art or industry at a time of upheaval or radical change. On the other hand, aoth Century-Fox has completed two pictures, The Robe and How to Marry a Millionaire...
Showman de Mille, serving as his own narrator-pitchman, fills the screen with pageants and parades, finds a spot for 60-odd circus acts: aerialists, sword swallowers, clowns, acrobats, showgirls, lions and tigers, performing dogs, horses, seals, bears and elephants. He is also fascinated by circus logistics: the huge, complex task of getting the show on the road and off, of grappling with such photogenic jobs as unfurling acres of canvas and raising them into...
Louisiana's State Senator Dudley J. Le-Blanc is a stem-winding salesman who knows every razzle-dazzle switch in the pitchman's trade. By resorting to most of them during the past six months, he has managed each month to sell more than 2,000,000 bottles of a patent medicine called Hadacol (TIME, June 19). A spectacular, three-dimensional display in New York's Grand Central Station and sensational advertising gimmicks in other big cities proclaim the "merits" of the mixture, which consists of B vitamins, honey, iron, phosphorous and calcium, all shaken...
...oldtime pitchman employs the "high pitch" and is usually "a screamer, a semi-comedian and comparatively illiterate," says Kaye. On television, the "low pitch" is preferred: "Our people tend to be on the quiet side; they're subtle, more confidential, and much more personal." In evidence, Kaye points to his top TV pitchman, William "Hoppy" Haupt, a college graduate (Loyola of Los Angeles) and a former teacher at Los Angeles' Immaculate Heart College Labor School. Says Kaye admiringly: "Hoppy does everything except gadgets. He's extraordinary at selling finer quality merchandise...
Kaye has noted approvingly that more & more big network shows are using pitchmen's techniques: "Whenever a performer demonstrates an article and sells it, he's a pitchman. Arthur Godfrey is one of the greatest; he has many of the pitch techniques." But Kaye looks with tolerant amusement on Sid Stone, an apostle of the high pitch whose rapid-fire commercial spiels for Texaco are an adornment of the Milton Berle show. "Stone's not a pitchman," Kaye says condescendingly, "he's just an entertainer...