His Sperling, founder of the Hair Club for Men, has been a weaver of dreams and hopes for 44 years for those who are in jeopardy.
Daughter Shari Sperling said her father’s ambition arose shortly after her parents divorced, and she had to move in with his mother. “My dad suddenly found himself in his mid-20s with thinner hair. He tried to go out again and he didn’t really achieve much success.”
But after repairing his own mane hair, an inspired Sperling business began marketing a process that attached non-surgical real human hair to men’s existing hair. And in 1982, the Hair Club launched its first ad – actually two of them.
“They shot one ad of, like a man on horseback, with some kind of thick, like, wavy hairstyle,” Shari said. “And the ad guy was like, ‘Look, if this doesn’ t work, why don ‘t we shoot one with you?’
Correspondent Mo Rocca said: “At the scene they said to your father: ‘She, let’s make a backup’?”
“Yeah. The first ad didn’t work; they barely got calls. So, they run my dad’s ad, and we had like 2,000 calls.”
And these calls come everywhere from Lonely Joes: ‘Let’s say it’s Friday or Saturday night. And maybe he did not become so happy, did he? To be blunt. So they come home and watch TV because they’m still awake, maybe a little drunk. And they browse through channels. And there’s my dad talking to these guys almost directly. ‘
“I say, ‘I’m going to help you. ‘”
“Exactly.”
TV actors with “ordinary guy” were nothing new, but it was Sperling’s bare honesty at the end of the commercial that set him apart.
“I’m not only the president of the Hair Club, but also a client.”
That tagline became his mantra. Shari said: “He took something that was embarrassing to him, you are naked, and he made himself vulnerable.”
“He actually shared something about himself,” Rocca said.
“Exactly. Touched. Touched, Mo.”
His Sperling became a comedy favorite late at night. Rocca asked, “Does he like being famous?”
“He loved it, he loved it,” Sahri replied. “This is the American dream that has come true.”
But for Shari – and so many Hair Club clients – His Sperling was no joke. “He helped men feel better about themselves and lead life the way they wanted, without embarrassment,” she said.
His Sperling died in February at the age of 78 in Boca Raton, Florida. His family said to the end that he was a client of the Hair Club.
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Story produced by Dustin Stephens. Editor: George Pozderec.
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