Episode 4: What’s Up With South Florida?: The Naked Carpet Man

Thu, Mar 11, 2010

Episode 4, What's Up With South Florida?

: The Don Bailey Carpets sign/ Jen Mertens

As journalist Nicholas Spangler once wrote in The Miami Herald: ”He calls to mind Michelangelo’s David, with a mission from a more swinging time.”

Don Bailey is that naked carpet guy you’ve noticed on the billboard driving down the I-95, and according to our most recent poll you’ve been wondering: What’s up with that?

We put reporter Sammy Mack on the case. The picture is actually an ad for Don Bailey Carpets. But the idea came from an iconic photograph from 1972, when Burt Reynolds posed for Cosmopolitan magazine in the same state of undress. It was believed to be the first male centerfold in history.

The picture of Reynolds sold out at newsstands in a matter of days. But Bailey’s flooring ad is still with us, meaning carpet is still sexy.

Listen to Sammy’s radio piece at the top of this post and learn the story behind this bronzed, scantily-clad stud muffin stretched out on a burgundy shag.

You can also listen to Sammy Mack discuss the story on the Takeaway. For that segment, click here.