Have you ever wondered about the success of Billy. While he didn’t seem exceptionally camera friendly or have a great voice according to VO standards… he sold A LOT OF PRODUCT. Here’s to you my friend.
Loren in my Producers Group writes…
Bill Mays is being laid to rest tomorrow. We’ve had to deal with a lot of celebrity deaths lately but his has, by far, affected me the most. Maybe it’s because I really got into the show on Discovery, or the fact he was based close to us, in the prime of his life and career or that he was a decent human being who worked his ass off to get where he was, despite the number of purists who criticized him for his schtick. I was one of those who hated Billy Mays – I couldn’t stand listening to him. I’m glad I was able to watch the show and see a different side to him; a good-natured, fun-loving family guy who was enormously grateful for the things his career had provided.
One sign he was a great dad: his son didn’t lead some screwed up life squandering his dad’s money on smack, but worked as a Prod Assistant on the sets and was expected to make his own path in the business the way his father did: by working at it and applying himself. Jerry Lewis’ son bused tables at the Sahara at the height of his father’s success…same deal.
Another thing…when his mother visited him on the set and said how proud she was of him, he could barely speak. Maybe it’s the Southern Boy in me, but when you’re mama can make you tear up with one sentence, you’re a good person.
Billy Mays’ product worked. As Anthony Sullivan commented in the show; it didn’t make sense why it could have worked and he, like many of us, was a critic at one point until he realized that Mays was on to something and instead of standing on the sidelines and going “tisk tisk,” he’d jump in and share the wealth.
You can’t argue with results…and he definitely got them, far surpassing others in the industry.
I can’t do what Billy Mays did….and nor can you. Only he could, and the world of infomercials will be immutably changed.
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