Joe Ades, 1934-2009

I’m very sorry to learn from today’s New York Times that the white-haired gentleman with the elegant beard and wonderful lulling, trilling voice who sold vegetable peelers in Union Square and elsewhere has passed away. I am glad, though, to have learned his name.

From Howard Kaplan’s excellent 2006 profile in Vanity Fair:

Joe pushes his gear through the streets on a hand truck, which he in his English way calls a trolley. He and the trolley are often stopped by strangers ready with a heartfelt line: “Sir, you’re the greatest salesman in New York!”

He likes the recognition and is never ungracious, but privately he quibbles over the use of the word “salesman.” “I couldn’t sell one to one,” he explains. “I couldn’t sell real estate or cars, for example. What I like to do is pitch to a crowd, draw a crowd together and have them give me their money.”

More, too, about Mr. Ades at Stir the Pots.