Billy Mays, Jr., the most famous direct response pitchman will always be remembered for pitching products like Oxi Clean, Orange Glo, and the Jupiter Jack. Billy Mays possessed a unique personality. Coupled with his trademark blue shirt and beard endeared him to working class Americans.
On July 20, 1958, Billy Mays Jr. was born in McKees Rocks Pennsylvania. He graduated from Sto-Rox High School in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Billy Mays joined the movement to become a college graduate; however, he soon dropped out of West Virginia University. After college, he found employment with his dad’s hazardous waste company. Billy Mays would leave hazardous waste and move to Atlantic City in 1983.
Billy Mays’s move to Atlantic City introduced him to his future career…pitchman. Billy started pitching products such as Washamatik. Washmatik is a portable cleaning device. He „pitched“ to anyone who would listen or could be drawn into listening. Soon, the world would realize that Billy Mays had found his calling.
Pitchmen must be able to draw people to them, interest them, and make the sale. Billy Mays learned how to sell from other Atlantic City pitchmen. Billy listened to every word. The skills learned in Atlantic City would become the launchpad for Billy Mays’s career. Leaving Atlantic City, he traveled from home shows, to automobile shows, to state fairs throughout the country.
In 1993, Bill Mays became friends with Max Appel. Max Appel was another pitchman with whom Billy had cultivated a rivalry. Appel had moved from pitchman to entrepeneur by founding Orange Glo International. Max Appel realized the greatness that was Billy Mays. He hired Billy to pitch his line of cleaners on the Home Shopping Network. Billy moved to St Petersburg, Florida to pitch products such as OxiClean, Orange Glo, and Kaboom.
Mays Promotions, Inc. introduced Billy Mays to the world of entrepeneurship. He founded Mays Promotions, Inc. out of his Odessa, Florida home. Billy Mays served as the company’s CEO. He achieved success by becoming known as the world’s greatest pitchman. Companies would pay top dollar to have him pitch their products. Inventors would pitch their inventions to him, hoping that Billy Mays would turn them into millionaires.
In 2009, Billy Mays became a TV superstar. Discovery Channel began airing „Pitchmen“. Pitchmen took viewers behind the scenes of TV infomercials. Viewers were able to watch inventors pitch their products to Billy Mays and his partner Anthony Sullivan. See which products they picked up and see how an infomercial is produced.
No one gets out of life alive. Billy Mays expiration came on June 28, 2009. His wife found him unresponsive in bed. Early reports seemed to indicate a head injury from a very turbulent flight. Overhead bins had opened and released various items onto Billy Mays’s head. Autopsy would not find any head trauma. It would indicate Mays had died of a massive heart attack.
Billy Mays’s autopsy was performed by Dr. Vernard Adams. Dr. Adams is the coroner for Hillsborough County, Florida. His autopsy found that Mays was brought down by hypertensive heart disease. A heart attack had ended the world’s greatest pitchman.
Billy Mays was a pitchman to the end. At his funeral in McKees Rocks, Pennsylvania, Billy Mays was buried in a shirt bearing the OxiClean logo. His career was seen throughout the service. Pallbearers wore khaki pants and blue shirts, just as Billy had during his commercials.