Glass Menagerie?In the mid-1950s, Bob Wolff became the voice of Madison Square Garden. "The reason I got the job," Wolff once recalled, "is that the cigar sponsor and others said to the Garden, 'You got to hire this guy; he can sell anything--not well, but he tries.'
"My first night at Madison Square Garden, they let me ad-lib the cigar ads. The big commercial was the Robert Burns Imperial, which was 25 cents, their top-of-the-line cigar in that glass tube. They told me to talk about its aroma--the smell of that fresh tobacco--and I'll never forget looking in the camera, the cigar under my nose, and saying, 'Boy, this has a wonderful fragrance and aroma. And what rich tobacco!'
"The telephones start ringing and the vice president of the ad agency said, 'Congratulations, those words were great. Just one suggestion. The next time you're talking about that cigar and its wonderful aroma, please take it out of the glass tube first.'"
["At the New York Post, Arch Murray, a Princeton guy, smoked sloppily," Wolff once reminisced. "Wherever he sat in the press box there would be a pile of ashes behind him. We used to call them 'Murray's Droppings.'"]
[Trivia: Between 1956 and 1961, Wolff announced more World Series games than anyone but the "Voice of the Yankees," Mel Allen. Paraphrasing the immortal words of Grantland Rice, Wolff once said: "When the sponsor writes against your name, what he wants to hear is not who won or lost the game but how you sold the beer."]
Wolff, Bob (?- ) American broadcaster [noted for his work with Mutual Radio and NBC]
[Sources: Cigar Aficionado, 1996; Peter Golenbock, Bums]More Bob Wolff anecdotesRelated Anecdote Keywords:
Embarrassment Awkward Moments Cigars Smoking Smell Aroma Endorsements Marketing Advertising Business Sarcasm Bloopers Verbal Bloopers Glass
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