THE VEG-O-MATIC IT SLICES IT DICES

Without Ron Popeil, Cher would be just another rock star/Oscar winner. This hyperkinetic salesman is considered the grandpa of the infomercial, a genre as American as mock apple pie. Popeil has squeezed out roughly 50 ads (including Pocket Fisherman, spray-on hair), the first for a mere $550. But his pitch for Veg-O-Matic, a slicer/dicer/julienner, was his Sistine Chapel. With trademark understatement, he called it "world-famous… amazing…tremendous!"