R.I.P. Phil Kives, infomercial king and founder of K-tel

Infomercial pioneer Phillip Kives, founder of TV channel and sometime record label K-tel International, died on Wednesday, according to the Winnipeg Free Press. He was 87.
Kives and his brother started out as door-to-door cookware salesmen, and would demonstrate their products at local stores. The salesman was growing weary of life on the road, though, and founded K-tel in the 1960s, originally marketing household items via mail order before deciding to use television to sell his products. “I bought some TV time on the local channel so I could demonstrate to a whole world of people at one time,” Kives told The Independent in 2005. In 1962, Kives produced a five-minute long commercial for a Teflon non-stick frying pan—according to Kives, the first infomercial.
The “original ‘As Seen On TV’ company,” according to its website, K-tel products included the Blitzhacker food chopper, the Veg-O-Matic, and Baby Duckling wine. Outside of the kitchen, K-tel also marketed Comb Away Grey hair products and Air Rings earrings. However, Kives’ most popular household product was the Miracle Brush, which moved 28 million units by the late ’60s. Kives would acquire products from Seymour Popeil, father of Ron Popeil, who would go on to have his own success as a TV pitchman.