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Retail Gangster



I've received a review copy of RETAIL GANGSTER, the new Gary Weiss book about the rise and fall of Eddie Antar, aka Crazy Eddie, famous NY based retailer of electronics in the '70s and '80s.

By the way, if when I say this you think immediately of the guy who used to shout at us on television about how his prices were IN-SAAAAANE, you are not alone. That was an actor, Jerry Carroll, doing a fine job.

Weiss reminds us early on that, memorable though it was, Carroll's act -- which became a company calling card and was quoted in the 1984 fantasy romance SPLASH, was not especially original. I'll quote Weiss directly here:

"By the 1970s, the 'crazy merchant' shtick was a well-worn cliche in retail advertising....In 1962 the sitcom Car 54 Where Are You -- set in the Bronx -- featured a men's shop with a loudspeaker screaming, 'Get a new suit for practically nothing! I'm having a mental lapse! Come in and take advantage of me!....'."  

That was a full decade before Carroll starting saying much the same on Antar's behalf. 

The broader point is that much of what was going on behind the scenes was not crazy at all, but crazy like a criminal fox. 




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