Unsolved Mysteries brought me here. :-)

Thank you Unsolved Mysteries.

he was saying hi and by to his kids and niece and nephews, i lived down the street from him and went to school with Debbie Barbara

I lived in the SF Bay Area in the 70s. Me and my college friends used to imitate this guy. Later on, Robert Stack did a piece on him on “Unsolved Mysteries”.

This aired during Captain Cosmic which was for children. Bye kids! He probably reasoned that parents would be in the room.

@michaelschramm1064

8 ай бұрын

Bob Wilkins and KTVU-my days of youth! Met him at a Star Trek convention in Oakland once.

A rival company did an ad with a lookalike wearing an "Ask Me About Credit" button saying, "Well, we only have one size and color- but LOTS of ways to pay for it!'

Living in San Jose since 76 and loving it. Miss all the bad commercials of the day. MMM carpets also with the ol sour dough and his partner. What ever became of those guys?

@waldoman0

7 жыл бұрын

They were also known as Bascom Avenue and Race Street with their Movies Til Dawn.

@mxxjss

10 ай бұрын

Who could forget Marty Sherman & the Saw Mill!

“Hi Kids!” and “Bye Kids!”

The 'Hi Kids/Bye Kids' thing was addressed to his own kids (although his adult son was doing the ads shortly before the store went under, in the late '80s)

Growing up in Oakland in the 70's!!!! and seeing this. I always wondered why he addressed his potential customers, who "must be 18 years or older", as "kids".

@Sykyk777

Жыл бұрын

Michael..really...are you that clueless?

Well, Ed was already a millionaire ,his kids convinced him to keep the furniture business going.Isn't something that every commercial that came on,everybody just sat there watching it.It worked. It worked bigtime.

Seemed like a lovely man.

@invisghosty

2 жыл бұрын

Nope. Source: Look at my name.

i'd like to see ed barbara and paul from the diamond center as a wrestling tag team.

@dlchambers

6 жыл бұрын

Yeah, with Phil Swift as their manager

I bought a Philco console tv from this guy back in about 1981, and a day after the warranty ran out so did the picture tube. Last I heard "honest Ed" was under investigation by the security and exchange comission, then he disappeared under suspicious circumstances.

@judyking7768

4 жыл бұрын

i bought a bedroom and living room set from him. i even met him. this was late 70's

@invisghosty

2 жыл бұрын

Yeah, he definitely wasn't up to anything good. They had back rooms where you'd go if you didn't pay and they'd convince you to pay. Not a great legacy to have.

@happydayz7857

2 жыл бұрын

@@invisghosty he’d have their ass beat over furniture?

a friend of mine used to joke that the repo truck probably had a picture of him on the side that said, "sorry kids."

- The term "Hi Kids" and "Bye Kids" was his tag-line. His own "catchy phrase." It wasn't intended for a specific age group.

unsolvedmysteries.wikia.com/wiki/Ed_Barbara Here's the mysterious story of Ed Barbara. Bye Kids.

To him 40 year olds are kids #40yearoldkids

Actually he did take his stuff to wall street.Might do a search.Glolden Cycle gold shares(dean witter).

Then the commercials paid off .Ed was a household name,Da.

They didn't sell Philco in that year.Philco was owned by Sylvania then,They carriedGE,RCA,Admiral.

@Charliecomet82: Apparently he did--and was indicted for it.

It's kind of funny how so much people in the comments are talking about the nostalgic factor but don't realize that this guy was a huge con man

Merced too? Buy kids!

The whole "Hi Kids" thing was how older adults used to address younger adults. To some guys of his generation, every person under 35 was a "kid." I used to see his commercials on TV in Los Gatos and we used to imitate him on the schoolyard. Interesting this guy ran off and was indicted for fraud in 1988 before dying the following year in Florida.

@misterkrad

5 жыл бұрын

he was saying hi kids and bye kids to his own kids. as i recall, his kids did not believe it was him on television unless he said hi kids and bye kids. and he just kept it going

@invisghosty

2 жыл бұрын

@@misterkrad From what I was told, the kids were the ones helping film the commercial so I don't know how true it is that the kids didn't believe him. 🤷‍♂

@happydayz7857

2 жыл бұрын

@@invisghosty are you somehow related to this freakazoid Ed?

i knew this guy was a slimeball the moment he had his lawyer, famous sf attorney Melvin Belli do a furniture usa commercial with him. i think he had ties to the mob too.

@invisghosty

2 жыл бұрын

Definitely ran in the mob crowd. I've heard slight references to it growing up but they never went into detail about it.

Classic!

I could never understand what he said between "Hi kids" and "Furniture USA". Ape bob bar?

@pac4ever455

4 жыл бұрын

I think he’s saying his name which is ed barbera.

Lol...we used to make fun of this guy all the time in my family.

@invisghosty

2 жыл бұрын

Lol mine too. We were a little closer to it though :P

Poor Ed! If only he had taken his snake oil to Wall Street--then he could have really scored!

So you never needed a tv,washer,dryer,stereo,furniture,ect?Did you live in a cave?

Lol

hahaha