Tommy "The Diamond King" Van Scoy Passes Away

[DowntownHazleton]

Tommy Van Scoy who's corny jingles and famous fights with Henry "Cash" Wilson of Henry Wilson Diamonds passed away in Wilkes-Barre this past Thursday. Tommy had been ill for several years now. Like him or not, all of his advertising in the 70's & 80's made for some interesting radio in Binghamton & Scranton.

 

[interndj]

Sad...

I remember growing up in Binghamton and his commercial's always started with "Hi Tommy Van Scoy", then his spot..

Sorry to hear he's gone. Classy guy.

 

[Admiral37]

Tommy Van Scoy's spots always made good targets for spoofs.

The one I remember most was done around '78 or '79 by Michael E. Wilson and Keven Smith, then of the Wilson & Smith morning show at WINR 680. I believe the station was then owned by the Lessner brothers, and Dave Mitchell was the GM.

The Admiral

 

[AlexBrowne]

Been away from the Twin Tiers for years, but part of this song from the 70s or 80s I remember:

"...Look at my diamond, it came from Van Scoy!
My boyfriend bought it, saved lots of money too,
Van Scoy, the diamond kind, yes, he's the man for you!"



> Tommy Van Scoy who's corny jingles and famous fights with
> Henry "Cash" Wilson of Henry Wilson Diamonds passed away in
> Wilkes-Barre this past Thursday. Tommy had been ill for
> several years now. Like him or not, all of his advertising
> in the 70's & 80's made for some interesting radio in
> Binghamton & Scranton.
>

 

[scappy]

> Tommy Van Scoy's spots always made good targets for spoofs.
>
>
> The one I remember most was done around '78 or '79 by
> Michael E. Wilson and Keven Smith, then of the Wilson &
> Smith morning show at WINR 680. I believe the station was
> then owned by the Lessner brothers, and Dave Mitchell was
> the GM.
>
> The Admiral
>

Is that the same spoof that's on my site?
<P ID="signature">______________
Jon Scaptura
Binghamton Radio Archive
http://www.BinghamtonRadio.com
</P>

 

[Admiral37]

No, Jon. It's a different one. I think I have it on reel somewhere around here; my wife was working as the copywriter at WINR at the time. If I can find it I'll get it to you!

> > Tommy Van Scoy's spots always made good targets for
> spoofs.
> >
> >
> > The one I remember most was done around '78 or '79 by
> > Michael E. Wilson and Keven Smith, then of the Wilson &
> > Smith morning show at WINR 680. I believe the station was
>
> > then owned by the Lessner brothers, and Dave Mitchell was
> > the GM.
> >
> > The Admiral
> >
>
> Is that the same spoof that's on my site?
>

 

[DowntownHazleton]

> Tommy Van Scoy's spots always made good targets for spoofs.
>
>
> The one I remember most was done around '78 or '79 by
> Michael E. Wilson and Keven Smith, then of the Wilson &
> Smith morning show at WINR 680. I believe the station was
> then owned by the Lessner brothers, and Dave Mitchell was
> the GM.
>
> The Admiral
>
Under the heading of "Whatever Happened To.....??" Does anyone know where Michael E. is these days or what he is doing?????

 

[AlexBrowne]

I'm a lucky girl, hooray, oh boy!
Look at my diamond, it came from Van Scoy!
My boyfriend bought it, saved lots of money too,
Van Scoy, the diamond kind, yes, he's the man for you!

 

[DowntownHazleton]

> I'm a lucky girl, hooray, oh boy!
> Look at my diamond, it came from Van Scoy!
> My boyfriend bought it, saved lots of money too,
> Van Scoy, the diamond kind, yes, he's the man for you!
>
Tommy's son Wayne has been running the original Van Scoy store in Wilkes-Barre now for a number of years, and they are still using parts of that jingle.

 

[DowntownHazleton]

> > I'm a lucky girl, hooray, oh boy!
> > Look at my diamond, it came from Van Scoy!
> > My boyfriend bought it, saved lots of money too,
> > Van Scoy, the diamond kind, yes, he's the man for you!
> >
> Tommy's son Wayne has been running the original Van Scoy
> store in Wilkes-Barre now for a number of years, and they
> are still using parts of that jingle.
>
Another interesting thing is that almost all of the Van Scoy children own and operate jewelry stores..Tommy Jr. runs a store called Tovon & Co. in Dallas, PA, Wayne Van Scoy as mentioned above runs the original Van Scoy store in WB, Joe Van Scoy runs a store in Scranton, and Betsy Van Scoy's store in Vestal of course got closed after her darling husband got caught cheating their customers. Absolutely NONE of the kids will talk to each other, and of course there was all sorts of in-fighting over Tommy Sr. The lawyer having to read Tommy's will should come clothed in Kevlar!!!

 

[DonPerkins]

Hi, I'm Tommy Van Scoy...

My biggest memories of Tommy Van Scoy are of Pete Kinney making fun of him on 3WT and hearing that Tommy cancelled. I guess his daughter heard the spoof spot and reported it.

Later, Tommy apparently became his own production man, because we'd get spots from him that were too long. I recall getting the razorblade and grease pencil out (does that date me?) and cutting out all the breaths and pauses to cut the spot down to :30. As annoying as those spots were, they helped put bread on the table for us, especially when Henry Wilson Diamonds and VanScoy would go at each other. Remember "If you buy diamonds from a mine, you might just get the shaft!"

There was another jeweler in town at the time....the husband and wife sounded so lovey-dovey on the air, but you should have heard the fights in the hallways of WINR while they were recording those spots. David Mitchell and Rocky Brown needed striped shirts and a whistle to get the spots done!

Yea, I know, "back in the day when everything was wooden and you had to walk to the radio station....uphill both ways....