Those Amazing Celebrity Makers : Infomercials Sell Not Just Gizmos, but the Personalities Who Hawk Them

Susan Powter, Tony Little, Tony Hoffman, Jay (The Juiceman) Kordich, Ron Popeil and Victoria Jackson have made good livings pitching products for a price. Now they find themselves dealing with the price of fame.

Powter, Little and the others are finding it increasingly difficult to walk down the street or through an airport these days without being asked for their autographs.

Unknown a short time ago, they’re suddenly being given the best tables at restaurants. Strangers are coming up to them on the street, asking them for advice or thanking them for changing their lives.

They may not be household names yet, but they have become famous by trying to put their names in your household. Through appearances on continually running “infomercials,” those program-length commercials posing as talk shows or dramas, they have achieved celebrity status worthy of major network television stars strictly because of their ability to sell.

Now they are being invited as guests on late-night talk shows and have become targets of sketches on “Saturday Night Live.” News shows such as “20/20” and “Eye to Eye With Connie Chung” are following them around. Some show-business insiders say many of the hosts have higher popularity ratings than established TV stars. They get hundreds of pieces of fan mail a week. Powter has even been approached about starring in a network situation comedy.

“Being in an infomercial is just like it used to be if a person was discovered in Schwab’s drugstore,” said Ray Manzella of Manzella Personal Management, whose clients include Little, cosmetic queen Jackson, Kordich and “Perfect Smile” pitchperson Vanna White. “You can become a star.”

The infomercial “stars” were treated like royalty when they showed up in Las Vegas last week for the National Infomercial Marketing Assn. trade show and conference. A few, however, are finding that pitching incredible sweater machines, stain removers, cosmetic sprays that “add” hair and exercise tapes is a lot easier than dealing with celebrity-hood.

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“People come up to me all the time yelling, ‘Technique! Technique!’ ” said Little, reciting his trademark line on the “Amazing Discoveries” infomercial series that sell his “Target Training” video exercise series. Throughout the show, Little almost overpowers ubiquitous infomercial host Mike Levey, shouting out his lines with a machine-gun-paced delivery and constantly moving his body.

“There are folks who want me and expect me to be that guy on the show and I’m not really that guy,” Little said in a soft-spoken voice. “Having celebrity perks is the uneasy part of it for me. I really like my privacy.”

He added that there is some comfort in the fact that he’s sold about 5.5 million of the “Target Training” videos. “This allows me to support myself a lot better than I used to,” Little said with a smile.

Others find the new-found fame exciting.

“It’s a good thing in my life because I get so much love when people come up to me,” said Powter, of “Stop the Insanity” fame. “I don’t get harassed. I get love.”

Powter is acknowledged by infomercial experts as the first truly breakthrough infomercial star. Her popularity is fueled by her short, spiky, peroxide-blond hairdo and her bellowing hyperactive manner as she hypes her fitness video and tape package for $79.80.

“In the beginning, I was told by television people that my appearance would offend American women, that I would never make it on television,” she said. “But I am selling hope and I am selling the truth. The look is different, but the message is fabulous.”

In recent weeks, Powter has yakked it up with Jay Leno on “The Tonight Show,” been profiled on “Eye to Eye With Connie Chung” and reported on the infomercial convention for “Good Morning America.”

Her “Stop the Insanity” book, a spinoff of her infomercial, has become a New York Times bestseller. “Stop the Insanity 2” is on its way to a station near you. And next year, viewers can look forward to “The Susan Powter Show,” which Powter matter-of-factly says will be “the best show on television--the ultimate how-to show for women, with no whining and moaning or trash subjects.”

Powter said she has had discussions with prominent television producers Harry Thomason and Linda Bloodworth-Thomason (“Designing Women,” “Hearts Afire”) about starring in a sitcom, but the bright lights of Hollywood haven’t blinded her yet: “Nothing’s been signed with them and until it is, there is no deal.”

As far as dealing with fame, Powter says she doesn’t find it daunting. She referred back to the story of why she got into fitness in the first place. She once weighed 260 pounds and was abandoned, along with her two infant children, by her husband.

“You want to talk about something that’s hard, talk about anybody who is raising two children, living alone, living below the poverty level,” Powter said evenly. “Compared to that, dealing with being famous is easy. The average American woman deserves credit for the degree of difficulty she has to go through.”

What Ron Popeil goes through in terms of fame is anything but difficult. The veteran infomercial host and inventor of the Popeil Pocket Fisherman, the Ronco Food Dyhydrator and GLH (Great Looking Hair) Formula, said he is given preferential treatment all the time. He has gotten on sold-out cruises.

“I’m well-enough known not to be harassed, but to be treated favorably,” he said.

Victoria Jackson, who has sold more than $200 million in cosmetics over the last three years, said she also has no trouble dealing with celebrity. She said she visualized being famous.

“As an entrepreneur, you have to envision your success,” Jackson said. “There are so many people along the way who tell you you’re not going to make it, you have to think positive.”

Peter Spiegel, co-president of Kent and Spiegel Direct, a direct-response marketing firm, said not everyone who hosts an infomercial can be a star.

“You have to know and believe in your product,” he said. “That’s the real key. I think every year one or two of these infomercial personalities are going to break out and have huge success.”

He paused. “It’s a great job. I’ve been thinking about doing it myself.”