“In Japan, the hand can be used like a knife,” the off-screen narrator of a television commercial intones as a wooden board is karate-chopped in two. “But this method doesn’t work with a tomato.” Suddenly the hand tries to cleave a plump tomato. Splat!
Barry Becher hammering on the Ginsu knife in a 1978 photo.
That commercial was the first of a hokey series for Ginsu knives, broadcast from 1978 to 1984. And masterminding them were Barry Becher and Ed Valenti, business partners who made a fortune marketing the knives on television as ultrasharp and versatile and helping to pave the way for the infomercial and other kinds of direct-response television.
Both had a hand in the commercials, literally. That was Mr. Valenti (or part of him; only his right hand was visible) chopping the board and smashing the tomato in the first of the series, and Mr. Becher (pronounced BESH-er) performed in many others (his face often visible).
“Barry had various cutting roles: slicing ham, cutting a tin can, a hose,” Mr. Valenti said on Thursday, days after Mr. Becher had died at 71 in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Mr. Becher’s stepdaughter Stacy Paradise attributed his death, on June 22, to cancer.
The partners’ two-minute Ginsu commercials — offering “an amazing, low, low price!,” urging viewers to “Order now!” because “Operators are standing by,” and sweetening the pitch with their trademark, “But wait, there’s more!” — were an inescapable staple of television, mostly in the late hours, for almost a decade.
They also became a small, often lampooned part of pop culture. Johnny Carson sometimes used the knives in his routines, and Jerry Seinfeld did a Ginsu bit on the “Tonight Show. ” Mr. Becher and Mr. Valenti, who called themselves the Ginsu Guys, wrote the commercials with the copy writer Arthur Schiff and performed in them while reaping substantial profits for their twin companies, Dial Media and Ginsu Products, based in Warwick, R.I. They sold more than three million sets of knives (priced from $9.95 to $29.95 per set), racking up more than $30 million in sales by the time Ginsu was acquired by Warren E. Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway in 1985.
But Ginsu (pronounced with a hard G) was not made in Japan. Searching for a product they could market on television, Mr. Becher and Mr. Valenti came across a sturdy set of knives manufactured by the Scott Fetzer Company in Ohio. Wondering who would buy a knife called Fetzer, they renamed it with hope of evoking samurai swords and the dashing knife-work in Japanese steakhouses — even though Ginsu has no meaning in Japanese.
“Can it really cut through a nail and still go through a pineapple like this?” one commercial asks. “Incredible! Isn’t that amazing?”
Robert Thompson, director of the Bleier Center for Television and Popular Culture at Syracuse University, once told The Toledo Blade that the Ginsu commercials occupied a special niche in television history.
“It remains close to the top of the Hall of Fame of those types of commercials,” he said, “along with the Chia Pet and the Clapper.”
Barry Harris Becher was born in Brooklyn on April 24, 1941, to Harold and Cora Becher. After high school, he moved to Warwick, where he bought two Aamco transmission franchises. One day, Mr. Valenti, an account executive for a local NBC television station, drove to one of the Aamco shops to see if Mr. Becher wanted to buy advertising time.
“I was driving an orange Datsun 240Z, and he had one also,” Mr. Valenti said. “I thought, this guy’s got some class, and we quickly became friends.” Soon they had formed their own marketing firm.
Their first commercial — for Miracle Painter, a splatter-resistant product designed to render the paint brush “obsolete” — appeared in 1975 featuring a man in a tuxedo painting a ceiling. (“You’ll paint an average size room in just half an hour!”)
The partners later reprised their winning television formula for products created by others, among them the Miracle Slicer, Lusterware silverware and Royal DuraSteel mixing bowls.
Mr. Becher’s first marriage, to the former Charlotte Pimental, ended in divorce. Besides his stepdaughter Stacy, he is survived by his wife of 18 years, the former Leslie Smyler; two daughters from his first marriage, Lisa Young and Kim Delmastro; another stepdaughter, Jodi Lynes; two stepsons, Adam and Eric Friedman; his sister, Gail Scott; and 10 grandchildren.
For Mr. Valenti, an old T-shirt sums up the partnership. “It says, ‘TV made me what I am today,’ and that would be true for Barry and me,” he said.
“Barry had a great saying,” he added. “Whenever someone would ask, ‘What does Ginsu mean in English?’ he would say, ‘I never have to work again.’ ”