Sift through the history of advertising and you’ll find a strange subgenre: the CRAZY home electronics salesman. New York’s “Crazy Eddie” was probably the most (in)famous, with his IN-SA-A-A-A-A-ANE prices and his company’s equally IN-SA-A-A-A-A-ANE fraud charges. In Milwaukee, meanwhile, American TV pitchman “Crazy TV Lenny” (played by owner Len Mattioli) kept things nutty throughout the ’80s and ’90s. But, as they say, there was another…
“FRIENDS, WELCOME TO DICK’S PLACE!” bellows an animated madman in a pair of mid-’80s commercials for Milwaukee-area computer joint Dick’s Place. “THE ONLY PLACE IN TOWN WITH DOWN AND DIRTY DISCOUNT PRICES!” Ahhhh!!!
Yes, 30-plus years ago, Dick’s Place was dishing out zany deals on Commodore computers, Atari800XLs, and all the accompanying disk drives, monitors, and printers. And what’s that? Two hundred dollars of free software? “DICK HAS GONE CRAZY!” indeed.
There’s next to no information about Dick’s Place online, though the commercials note it was located “three blocks north of Capitol” at 4475 N. 124th St. If anyone has back-in-the-day memories of getting CRAZY deals at Dick’s—a Commodore 64 for just $129!!!—we’re all ears. [via The TV Madman]