Billy Mays was pronounced dead on June 28, 2009, Billy at 50 years old. His wife discovered Billy and he was unresponsive. On June 28, 2009, the world lost one of the best pitchmen of all times. William D. Mays JR. Billy was born in Pennsylvania on July 20th 1958.
After he graduated High School he started out his career as a salesman on the famous Atlantic City Boardwalk. He started promoting a product called Washmatik Portable Washing Machine Devices. As Billy worked the boardwalk he began to perfect his technique, Billy prided his sales pitches as elevator pitches. Soon, he started working a home shows across the United States and worked at that for over 10 years.
While he was working a trade show in his home state in 1993, he started a friendship with a competitor Max Appel, who happened to be the founder and owner of Orange Glo International. Included in their products are Orange Clean, Orange Glo and OxiClean. As Billy started as a pitchman for a one time rival, customers loved his approach. The company saw a growth spurt after Billy’s first appearance on the network TV. With Billy as their leading salesman, the company was listed as a top ten company from 1999 to 2001.
Billy Mays started his own company called Mays Productions from his home in Florida. Soon, companies were fighting over who was going to enlist Billy to sell their products. As people wondered how come Billy could sell his products so well, and he would reply that he believed in the products because he had used the products he sold on TV. Then in December 2008, Billy started appearing in TV ads on the online service for ESPN called ESPN360. This type of work was very different than what he was used to. This job allowed Billy to make parodies of other infomercials and of himself.
In February of 2009, Billy offered a challenge of the pitchmen. These other pitchmen included Vince Shlomi or Vince Offer or more commonly known as the Shamwow Guy. Billy wanted a pitch off if you will between the Shamwow and the Zorbeez. The magazine Popular Mechanics moderated the challenge but the Shamwow turned out to be the better product. Billy went on to sign a deal with the Discovery Channel to air a reality show called Pitchmen starring Billy and Anthony Sullivan.
The pitchman was full of life and on June 28, 2009 Billy was pronounced dead at 50 years old. His wife discovered Billy and he was unresponsive. The cause of death has not been determined but it has been revealed that Billy was on a flight that has encountered a rough landing in Tampa on June 27. 2008. Other passengers from the plane have revealed that they received bumps and bruises from the landing. Only time will tell the cause of death and until then the world will mourn the loss of the greatest pitchman of our time.
