"My idiot son left the sofa making machine on and now we have to blow them out!"
this post was submitted on 03 Sep 2025
14 points (93.8% liked)
Mildly Interesting
22741 readers
676 users here now
This is for strictly mildly interesting material. If it's too interesting, it doesn't belong. If it's not interesting, it doesn't belong.
This is obviously an objective criteria, so the mods are always right. Or maybe mildly right? Ahh.. what do we know?
Just post some stuff and don't spam.
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
He was an amusing sales guy that got into the TV advertising game early in the 50's. He found great success from barraging radio and TV with ads, especially late night TV, and half-ass daytime radio ads that were so bad they were good
With a disarming and quirky personality, he wore an inappropriate outfit and tall cowboy hat. He'd refer to the furniture store as the corral, call the viewers partner and always end with his catch-phrase 843 Main Street - C'Mon Down!. None of the cowboy presentation made sense given our city's culture, but perhaps it help him stand out!
His gag was constantly blaming his dopey No. 1 Son for leaving the furniture-making machine on overnight hence the blow-out sale (You'd think after taking so many losses he'd install an timer kill switch on the machine or get his son help, but I digress)
He was clearly not concerned about quality in the radio ads in particular, and you could just tell most were first-take probably to shave every cent off ad costs. He often was too leisurely and charming in the first 15 seconds, then realizing he's running out of time spoke faster and faster to get out the sales points, until he has but a second left to belt out his closing catch phrase, good fun
His philosophy in business was "give the customer more than they expect" which I heard him explain on a local AM radio time-filler interview one random weekend, but that really stuck with me and truly served me well in my life!
Mr Hill passed away many years ago but his memory is still strong here. The original building at 843 Main Street is gone due to arson but few will forget the impact this humble furniture salesman had in our city's culture
Basically.
Later on as he got on in years, he started to bring the No. 1 Son into the picture, and the number one son had a much taller cowboy hat. He seemed a little simple but nice.