Call For Philip Morris
by Priscilla Burgers
Title
Call For Philip Morris
Artist
Priscilla Burgers
Medium
Photograph - Photography
Description
CALL FOR PHILIP MORRIS by PRISCILLA BURGERS
Johnny Roventini was the little Brooklyn-born bellhop with the big bell-clear voice whose ''Call for Phillip Morris,'' delighted radio audiences in the 1930's and 40's and made the cigarette into a household name. From the time Mr. Roventini first went on the air for Philip Morris on the Ferde Grofe Show on April 17, 1933 until the cigarette company began to phase him out as a radio and television spokesman in the early 1950's, Mr. Roventini's was one of the most recognizable voices in the land. With the picture of the little man in his bright red, gold-trimmed uniform plastered in store windows and in magazine ads he was one of the nation's most recognizable figures. At 4 feet tall, he was billed as ''the world's smallest bellboy,'' and even had his picture on postcards. It was a pituitary gland disorder that halted his development before his voice changed and left him with a 12-year-old's body for the rest of his life, but it was his gregarious personality that helped make Mr. Roventini a favorite of the many singers and other radio stars he introduced. This statue of "the world's smallest bellboy" can be seen at the original antique store called Antique Archaeology store in LeClaire, Iowa. This is the the business at the center of the American Pickers television series.
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Uploaded
June 18th, 2016
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