K-tel creator Philip Kives has died at age 87

TORONTO – Philip Kives, the tireless TV pitchman whose commercials implored viewers to “wait, there’s more!” while selling everything from vegetable slicers to hit music compilations, has died at age 87.

Samantha Kives said Thursday her father died a day earlier after being hospitalized with an undisclosed illness.

Kives became wealthy after founding K-tel International, which sold Miracle Brush hair removers, Veg-o-matic vegetable slicers and compilation albums with such titles as “Goofy Greats” among other products.

Through it all, Kives mostly remained in his beloved Winnipeg and always balanced work with family life, his daughter said.

“He would literally leave in the middle of a business meeting to come watch us play in a tennis tournament,” she recalled. “The commercials were also a family affair. A lot of the commercials he shot, he’d bring us kids in … and we’d be actors in the commercials.”

Kives started K-tel in the 1960s, and according to his website, his biggest selling product was the Miracle Brush, which sold 28 million in the late 1960s. More products would follow, including the Pocket Fisherman, a hamburger patty stacker and the mood ring.

Kives said his biggest music seller was “Hooked on Classics,” which sold more than 10 million records.