Known to her fans as Becky the Queen of Carpet.
(KEVIN MANNING/P-D)
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Becky Rothman got called onto the carpet about 15 years ago, and she's been riding the heck out of it ever since.
Rothman is the owner and manager of six Becky's Carpet & Tile Superstores throughout the area. She is the active mother of a 14-year-old daughter, and a dog trainer and breeder.
But to local television viewers, she is "Becky, Queen of Carpet."
Along with roller-skating appliance dealer Steve Mizerany and the furniture-hawking boys from Schweig Engel, the magic-carpet riding Rothman forms the holy trinity of wacky local commercials.
Dressed in sequin-dotted gowns and a tiara, Rothman, 47, has been pushing her rugs from the rug since 1988.
"My first reaction to the idea was 'You want me to do what?' Rothman said, recalling the first time she manned the carpet. "But Mark Earls, who has been producing my commercials since Day One, just said "I want you to fly.' And so I ended up on the magic carpet."
The ride started on Feb. 3, 1956, when Becky was born at Jewish Hospital in St. Louis. Her parents, Murray and Donna Rothman, owned Veterans Linoleum and Rug Co., at 415 Collinsville Avenue in East St. Louis.
"My dad opened the store in 1946, so it's the only job I remember him ever doing," said Rothman, now single after two divorces. "People ask me how I learned the business. I don't think I learned it as much as I simply grew up into it."
Rothman grew up in Fairview Heights "before it was officially a city and before the mall or anything was there. When I was a kid, there was still a lot of farmland around there; it was country. I remember when they opened a Venture store there, and it was the place to be Friday night."
She attended Grant Grade School and Belleville East High School.
"I majored in partying, I have to confess," she said, sitting in the office of her store in Manchester. "I didn't ever find a single subject I liked, except lunch and recess.
"But I knew I'd go right into this business. On my 16th birthday, my dad gave me a set of keys to a car and a set of keys to the doors," she said. "I worked from 3 p.m. until close from that point on."
Rothman has a big soft spot for animals. As a young girl, she had two horses - first Major and then Rebel. "Each one was my best friend."
As an adult, the affection turned to Doberman Pinschers. "Sometime in my early 20s, someone gave me a Doberman as a gift," Rothman recalled. "She was kind of wild, so I went to obedience class with her. And that's where it really all started."
Rothman began practicing for "schutzhund" competitions, in which dogs are graded on obedience, tracking and protection.
"I spent a whole lot of time in these meets. I went to the world championships twice with Ajax, and in 1993 we finished sixth in the world - four points out of first place."
When asked more about Ajax, Rothman's eyes misted up as she recalled that he died in 1997 at the age of 10.
Rothman pared back her dog days as her daughter, Rachel, got older.
"Now, most of my time away from the store is spent driving her and picking her up from school (Horton Watkins High School in Ladue) or from (tennis) practice. We've both been following women's professional soccer, the WUSA, together and we've traveled to other cities to see games."
But back to the commercials. Earls said he has loved working with Rothman for more than 20 years.
"We just decided to get crazy with the whole thing. We'd been doing it straight for a while and I don't know, the idea of riding a carpet just hit me. I'd produced some commercials for Steve Mizerany right when I got out of school, so I thought it wouldn't hurt Becky's business to get a little crazy," Earls said.
"And Becky is so much fun to work with," he said. "She always knows her lines and will always try something new," he said.
Rothman said the celebrity brought about by the commercials is mostly positive. "I get people walking up to me all the time and tell me they love the spots. I also get a few people who don't like them, and they call me to tell me that, too."
Rothman said the one that most viewers mention to her is the one in which she was struck by lightning, leaving her a bit charred and smoking. A current batch of print ads that feature her head on other people's bodies is just another gimmick to draw attention to her business.
Viewers can count on more goofy ads - and more carpet rides - in the foreseeable future.
"I was at a carpet store in Michigan some time back and there was this old gal, about 80 years old and in a wheelchair, and she was just zipping around the store like crazy," Rothman said.
"I've told people that'll be me in a few years."
Reporter Joe Holleman
E-mail: jholleman@post-dispatch.com
Phone: 314-340-8254
