American businessman, with his brother Barry, led their family furniture store to new heights of success. Jordan Furniture company is in 2006 a multi-store New England chain primarily through the clever marketing of the Tatelman brothers known simply as Barry and Eliot.
The brothers who inherited the family business from their father and grandfather became well-known throughout New England for starring in their own clever TV and radio advertisements, for making furniture sales fun and for rewarding their staff handsomely. In 1999, for example, they took their sales team to Bermuda. Their faces became known to Boston consumers through their seemingly home-made and ubiquitous TV ads in which they spoofed movies, other companies, and themselves, but always with gentle humor and always showcasing their stores. Their Boston accents, however, annoyed some viewers and they began to take speech lessons to modify the accent, without giving it up altogether.
In October 1999, they sold the firm to Warren Buffett’s company Berkshire Hathaway for untold millions (reported to be over $225 million); they continue to star in advertisements for the company and continue to serve on its management team with Barry being CEO and Eliot overseeing day-to-day responsibilities as President.
Their father Edward Tatelman died in September 1980. He was CEO of the furniture store that had been founded by his father, Eliot’s and Barry’s grandfather. The brothers lost another sibling to AIDs. Milton who had been responsible for the advertising campaigns of Jordan’s Furniture died in June 1993.
Barry and his wife produced “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels” a musical starring John Lithgow i 2005.
Link to Wikipedia biography