Varney was talk of the town

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) -- Jim Varney, the comedian who took his character "Ernest" from commercial success to the big screen, was the talk of the town when he was the pitch man for Braum's Ice Cream &

Friday, February 11th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) -- Jim Varney, the comedian who took his character "Ernest" from commercial success to the big screen, was the talk of the town when he was the pitch man for Braum's Ice Cream & Dairy Stores, a company official remembered Thursday. Varney, 50, died Thursday of lung cancer.

"He did our commercials in 1983 and 1984 and was a huge hit," said Terry Holden, Braum's marketing director. Sixteen years later, Holden said he still gets calls and still is asked if he knows Ernest when people find out he works for Braum's. "The reaction to him was really almost unbelievable," Holden said. He said the company got some negative reaction at first when it switched from pretty commercials showing fudge being poured to Ernest with his bumbling, know-it-all approach. But that didn't last. "That quickly turned to where he was literally the topic ofconversations," Holden said.

Holden said a Tulsa station received so many calls from people wanting to know when the Braum's commercials with Ernest would air that the station ran a message on the screen each morning at 7:30a.m. to let viewers know the time table.

Varney became a cult figure in the 1980s in the series of regional commercials, portraying Ernest P. Worrell, a know-it-all good ol' boy whose best-known phrase was "Know-what-I-mean?" and who addressed a character known as "Vern."

In the commercials, he got his fingers slammed in a house window, fell off a ladder and got electrically shocked fooling with a broken TV set. In addition to dairy products, he plugged a variety of products, like car dealerships, pizza and broadcast stations. Braum's hired Varney as its spokesman for its markets in Tulsa, Oklahoma City and Dallas.

Holden said Varney started off with dairy companies but expanded his client base. He did about 30 commercials for Braum's, selling everything from orange juice in the window slam skit to premium ice cream in the television shocker. "Jim Varney in person was hilarious," Holden said. He described Varney as like a kid who always needed attention. All he had to do to get it was give his big grin and everybody would recognize him.

Holden said the company would bring him in for tours twice a year, hitting four stores in each of its largest markets in Tulsa, Oklahoma City and Dallas. Varney's appearance in Dallas once caused a traffic jam all the way back along Interstate 635. "We had to drive on the shoulder to get around everybody" and get Varney to the store. "It was really a phenomenal thing," Holden said.

Holden said Varney was just as funny in person as he was in the commercials. But he also was very intelligent and had a rounded career. He could do 40 to 50 voice impressions and was a Shakespearean actor. "He wasn't somebody that just kind of got a high school degree and just fell onto the stage. He could talk theater. He could talk Hollywood. He could talk finance. He could talk history.