Word: spieling
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...much in the past few thousand years. But in recent years they have moved indoors; first as department store demonstrators and then as radio salesmen. TV, however, is a pitchman's paradise: he reaches a large audience and is visible as well as vocal. "The pitchman's spiel is not as important as his hands," says 36-year-old Harold Kaye. "He sells in proportion to how skillful he is at manipulating the worker (see glossary). Whether it's a potato peeler or a card trick-he has to make it look easy...
Unlike the men, who devoted most of their time to the exteriors and engines, most of the women concentrated on the upholstery. Some showed a lack of reverence toward the whole show, as did one female who stopped a salesman in mid-spiel by nudging her husband and saying. "Let's go buy a TV set." If they did, they were foolish. They should have waited for the raffle...
...Real Feeling. What Elliott would like to say is a good word for the sponsors. Often, he drags other Roosevelts into the spiel: "The other day we were driving in from the country and one of the children suddenly called out that there was a great, big bird in the sky . . . Sure enough, there it was, the great big Flamingo blimp, advertising Flamingo orange juice . . ." or ". . . In fact, Mother. I remember when you used to buy numbers of the famous Emerson portables to give away as Christmas presents...
...practiced the auctioneer's spiel as he did his farm chores, at 19 apprenticed himself to an auctioneer for three years, at nothing a year, and became an expert judge of fine cattle. "Doctors may make mistakes, patients die, and laymen don't know why," explains the colonel. "But on the auction stand you're talking to men who know as much...
...tattered stranger appeared at the sophomores' door, claiming that he was "a poor merchant seaman off the S.S. Flamingo" who had gotten drunk on pay day and had been robbed of all he had in the world. His spiel ended with an appeal to the open-mouthed listeners to have a warm spot in their hearts for "a poor Irishman who had a wee bit too much to drink...