Eliot Tatelman, a fixture on regional television for his quirky ads, is retiring as president of Jordan’s Furniture. It was a nostalgic moment for a place known for fiercely guarding its traditions.
Bostonians like to brag about their celebrities with big personalities — David Ortiz, Mindy Kaling, Mark Wahlberg, to name a few. And then there’s Eliot Tatelman of Jordan’s Furniture.
While not well known outside New England, Mr. Tatelman has been a fixture for years on local television, hawking mattresses and sofas in humorous, relatively low-budget ads that made him one of the region’s instantly recognizable personalities, an avuncular pitchman with a ponytail guaranteeing “underprices.”
Now, Mr. Tatelman is stepping away from his job, relinquishing his crown as New England’s king of couches.
He announced this week that he was retiring as president of Jordan’s and that his sons, Michael and Josh, were taking over as the fourth generation of the family to run the furniture chain. They already serve as co-chief executives of the company, which is based in Dedham, Mass., and has 1,200 employees and eight stores in Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island.
In an interview on Friday, Mr. Tatelman, 79, said he began thinking about retiring when his wife of 56 years, June, died in May. It made him think about “how fast and precious life is,” he said. He said he realized “it’s time to step back.”