Eddie Antar founder of "Crazy Eddie" electronics stores dead at 68

[Cooley Hurd]

http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2016/09/crazy_eddie_antar_whose_insaaanne_retail_chain_col.html

'Crazy Eddie,' electronics chain kingpin with 'insaaane' prices, dead at 68

Eddie Antar, the electronics kingpin who once presided over a retail empire spanning four states, died Saturday, according to a family member. Antar's company was known for its frenetic television advertising of a seemingly crazed pitchman—before it all collapsed like a house of cards in a multi-million-dollar securities fraud.

He was 68. Funeral services are scheduled today in New Jersey.

Antar, who first went into business with his father out of a storefront on Kings Highway in Brooklyn, turned Crazy Eddie into the largest electronics chain in the New York metropolitan area.

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Indeed, not many knew what Antar looked like. Most mistakenly believed that former New York radio disc jockey Jerry Carroll, whose spastic, over-the-top delivery that promised the lowest "insane prices" anywhere, for everything from VCRs, stereos, televisions and speakers—and became the face of the Crazy Eddie business—was in fact Eddie himself.

But because of those commercials, seemingly everyone in the New York metropolitan area knew Crazy Eddie, a store that some said had greater name recognition than Coca-Cola.

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[Javaman]

1. Had a crazy eddies in my neighborhood. I used to get my car stereo's from that store...

One day, I walked in and bought a stereo, the very next day, I went back to get a cable, and they were closed.

All sorts of notices pasted on the doors about court orders and stuff like that.

I picked up the daily news and sure enough, big story about fraud.