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Show SALT FLAT NEWS, MARCH, 1972 4 Wontfhis S Son IPresenfl The SonsEiioIio of Television CocnEiierciols by Richard Menzies . . . Hello, Im Mark Vrontikis. I'd like to introduce my father was to outlast all television Thus hpgan the first episode of the situation comedy that beside such immortals commercials, a series destined to win for young Vrontikis a place as Lucille Ball, Ed Sullivan, and Kipchoge Keino as one of the longest runners of all time. Young Mark, junior partner in the household appliance firm of Pete Vrontikis & Son, was only ten years old at the time, but apparently fearless and to tally at home in front of the camera. Not since Shirley Temple had the public been Striking an Ed Sullivan pose, Mark Vrontikis faced the television camera for die first time in 1965. A mere lad of ten, young Vrontikis was to stir a minor revolution in TV merchandising. treated to the spectacle of such juvenile aplomb. In the months and yean following that historic broadcast, Mark was to become a phenomenon among TV pitchmen. A lively mix of slapstick, special camera effects, and straightforward if mildly ironic dialogue, the show was the first to offer TV viewers an alternative to the standard pretty girl opening and dosing washing machine lids. With lines reminiscent of vaudeville and with all the candor of a family snapshot album, the Vrontikis commercial has in seven yean evolved into a local folklore, or what one foreign viator declared Utahs only truly native art form. What Pete Vrontikis was aiming for, way bads in 1965, was a commercial patterned after the successful national campaigns informative, yet entertaining, too. He remembered the fateful words of Earl Lifshey, a writer, for Home Furnishings Daily, who had once been accosted in the store by a Dale Carnegie with an uncommonly glib sales pitch. You should use. that kid, remarked Lifshey, barely able to escape the premises empty-handeSo a star was born. With a new routine every month, Mark became a regular fixture on the tube, usually popping up in the 11:30 Nightmare Theatre slot, offering comic relief between scenes of Godzilla stepping on Tokyo and pitchfork and torch processions in Transylvania. Fellow schoolkids, never famous for benevolence, were quick to tease Nightmare Mark, and for the first few years video fame became a problem for the' young performer. It didnt help that Marks routines involved a variety of ridiculous costumes; once seven-year-o- d. peso -- noircsiuKtt-KES- s Fcar-rara-oEEM-UAta-- otU tmiftosemtawsH' mtAuJjaiA ! ld during an anniversary sale he appeared in the guise of a birth- day cake, with candles stuck in his ears. This brought an immediate barrage of complaints and telephone calls from little old ladies protesting cruelty. I cant hear you, replied Ive got Mark, unruffled, candles in my ears. Whatever the costume, Mark succeeded in selling refrigerators, freezers, and home stereo systems. At Motorola conventions he was a hit, at appliance conventions he stole the show. The Sales and Marketing Executives' of Utah awarded him a special for outstanding proficiency in the art and science of salesmanship. He Oscar of Business was written up in Merchandising Weekly, and, at the zenith of his career, Philco Focus dubbed him bigger than Batman. At the same time Mark was g followwinning an: folks in TV ing among land, who watched him grow from boyhood to young manhood in inch color. For a twenty-on- e time, when the commercial ran concurrently with the Joe Pyne show, die front office received more complaints. How can you let a nice boy like that appear with nasty Joe Pyne? Over the years, new characters were to debut on the Gun-smoof television commercials. When Mark was out of action with a neck ailment, his two younger sisters, Stella and Petrula, were pushed onto the stage, not entirely against their will. Petrula, or ever-growin- ke Eight-year-o- Toots ld instantly won, the hearts of viewers by throwing herself into the line, after the enumeration of appliance bargains, Isnt my dad generous? The Vrontikis thirty second special had become a family affair, and whenever newcomers showed up on the set, they were assumed part of the family When dapper, urbane Alan Frank first appeared in a sportsman's special, wearing bush -- jacket and toting a deer rifle, the kids promptly dubbed him Mort the Sport and later Uncle Mort. In one routine Frank, an advertising executive and originator of many of the Vrontikis scripts, brushed young Mark off the set with an old W. C. Fields line, Go away, kid, you bother me." It was all in jest, of course, but for those little old ladies who had adopted the Vrontikis kids via the airwaves, it was still another example of child abuse. The letters poured in, the phones rang off the hook, and poor Unde Mort" became the Oil Can Harry of the melodrama. And as in the melodrama, the last laugh was saved for the villain. Nowwhen Mr. Frank, heretofore a well known business man, steps off an elevator or walks in a door, young kids shriek, Theres Unde Mort! Alas, the villain slinks away, thoroughly mortified. As for Mark, he is frequently besieged for autographs, and to avoid recognition in public often goes without eyeglasses, long a Vrontikis trademark. Now a handsome young man of seventeen, Mark remains the backbone of the femily advertising campaign, although he prefers to avoid the cornier routines of yesteryear. Nights after school he works at the store, and after college Mark plans to stay in the business and maybe diversify into advertising or dramatics or both. Hes grown up so fast, exclaims Mr. V rontikis, and career has provMarks indeed, ided a chalk mark measuring seven years of life for many a loyal fan. For Mark Vrontikis they were good years, despite the notoriety and problems of early celebrity. That he survived junior high school is to his everlasting credit, declared a former teacher. I don't care what you say about me, Mark says, just be sure you spell my name right. 1 NEWS Seven yean later, a grown-u- p Mark hovers in the thoughts wisecracks lendcondc relieffrom everyday video fare. ' photo by R. Manzwi of a prospective buyer. Special effects, usual ' |
