BILLY MAYS

Booming Voice Silenced

A few months ago, the most any of us knew about Billy Mays, if anything, was that he was the loud – super loud – guy with the jet-black hair and jet-black beard who shouted as loud as possible about OxiClean and a slew of other products he pushed on countless infomercials.

Not exactly the type of guy we’d be mourning.

But, talk about timing, all that changed over the past few weeks. His death on Sunday (due to heart disease) was a sad passing in a week that saw more than its share of celebrity deaths.

What happened was that we got to know Billy Mays, the guy, more than the infomercial pitchman.

That came courtesy of Discovery Channel’s surprisingly good Pitchmen, a show that prior to Mays’ death was scheduled to air its first season finale tonight.

That finale will still air, along with the show’s other episodes in a full-day marathon, a tribute to a man who, as it turns out, was quite likeable.

In Pitchmen, Mays and fellow infomercial personality Anthony Sullivan shed light onto the behind-the-scenes making of infomercials.

More than that, the show follows the process that leads to a product getting its 15 minutes of televised fame.

A lot of work goes into these products. The inventors who come to pitch their products to Mays and Sullivan have sometimes spent years and their life savings on inventions that don’t always fly.

What we’ve learned about Mays in the few months the show has been on is that in everyday life Mays isn’t a shouter, perhaps not surprisingly – who could keep that up all the time?

He was often soft-spoken. He was kind to almost everyone, except maybe Sullivan. He was passionate about his job and his performance.

He was also humble when fans approached him, which was often.

Mays was a nice guy. He was likeable. I’m glad we got to know him.