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Crazy Eddie Electronics Stores Making <em>Insane</em> Comeback
By
John Del Signore
Published Mar 2, 2009
Modified Mar 2, 2009
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By
John Del Signore
Published Mar 2, 2009
Modified Mar 2, 2009
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A Brooklyn entrepreneur has purchased the trademark for Crazy Eddie, a Northeast electronics retail chain famous in the '80s for its irritating, low-budget ads, which featured DJ Jerry Carroll hyperventilating about the store's "insane" sales. (Watch below.) The company went bankrupt in 1989 after the U.S. Attorney in New Jersey busted brothers Eddie Antar and his nephew Sam for fraudulent business practices.
Now one Jack Gemal has bought the trademark from Trident Growth Fund LP, which tried to auction it for $800,000 on eBay back in 2006. The top bid then was $30,100, but the deal was never closed. Gemal tells the Post he acquired the trademark for "less than the price of a Prius," and says he plans to open the first store this year near Penn Station. But Sam Antar, who spent six months in house arrest for cooking the books, says Gemal's the crazy one for buying the disgraced name: "Imagine starting a new investment firm called Bernie Madoff or a corporation by the name of Enron? It's nuts. The name has a vile, ugly history—because of the crimes we committed. We lost investors millions of dollars." And annoyed millions of TV viewers!
Mercifully, those strident commercials probably won't be revived, because it seems Carroll owns the rights to the Crazy Eddie character. In a comment that belies either a death wish or a tragic misunderstanding of an important Godfather plot point, he tells the Post, "All they have to do is make me an offer I can't refuse." Below, some video clips of Carroll's best work from the Crazy Eddie golden era.
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crazy eddie
electronics
it's insane
nyc
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John Del Signore
Originally from the Albany area, John Del Signore has called NYC home since 1995. In addition to his thousands of meticulously-crafted bespoke blog posts for Gothamist, his writing has also been published in The Awl, Deadspin, The Nervous Breakdown, and performed at The Brick Theater in Brooklyn.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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