Samuel Joseph Popeil

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Samuel J. Popeil, former head of the company that developed and manufactured such household gadgets as the Veg-O-Matic and Pocket Fisherman, which are advertised on late-night television, died Sunday at the age of 69.

Mr. Popeil, who began as a product demonstrator at 17 and became chairman and chief executive officer of Popeil Bros. Inc., died in a hospital in Miami, where he had lived for four years, according to his son, Ron, who lives in the Chicago area.

With his younger brother, Raymond, they founded Popeil Bros. in New York in 1939, moving the company to Chicago in 1941. The company trained demonstrators to sell vegetable slicers in department stores.

Mr. Popeil suffered a severe heart attack in 1978, and in 1979 Popeil Bros. was sold.

The survivors, in addition to his wife, Eloise, and son, include two daughters.

Services were held Wednesday in Asbury Park, N.J.