Advertising icon Jess Duboy dies at 79
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The voice that launched thousands of Sell-A-Thons and Toyota-Thons, tv commercials seen from coast to coast, went silent last week, when 79-year-old Richmonder Jess Duboy lost his battle with cancer. Hawes Spencer has this report.
Having seen Duboy's commercials in Baltimore, longtime news anchor Gene Cox recalls arriving at Channel 12 in 1978.
"And then I came to Richmond and walked into the television station and saw him there, I said, "Wow, so that's where this comes from."
While Cox prepared the news, Duboy might be taping a dozen commercials-- over 20,000 in all.
[audio: auto commercial]
"He was the McDonald's of advertising."
Duboy would launch an ad agency and evangelize for God, but his early career as a DJ-turned-singer helped make "Woo-Hoo" an enduring tune.
[audio: "Woo-Hoo"]
Ever the marketer, he and his own late-1950s group, Jess Duboy and the Hitchhikers, would literally hitchhike across the country. For WCVE News, this is Hawes Spencer.
[audio fadeout: "Beautiful Love"]
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PHOTO: Jess Dipboye, his legal name, pitches a Virginia Beach auto dealer in 1988. (screen capture)
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