Soupy Sales no more
Friday, October 23, 2009
Soupy Sales, the rubber-faced, pie-in the-puss comic beloved by the Baby Boomer generation, died Thursday night. He was 83.The funnyman’s longtime friend Dave Usher said Sales succumbed to cancer at Calvary Hospice in the Bronx.Born Milton Supman in North Carolina, Sales was best known for his long-running local and network children’s television show, “Lunch with Soupy Sales.”
The show’s comedy sketches made use of such whacky characters like White Fang, the biggest and meanest dog in the USA; Pookie the Lion, a hipster with rapier wit; Peaches, Soupy’s girl, whom he played in drag; private detective Philo Kvetch; The Mask, Kvetch’s evil nemesis, and “Onions” Oregano, henchman of The Mask.The sketches often ended with Sales getting plastered with a pie in the face, which became his trademark and delighted his fans.Stars such as Frank Sinatra, Tony Curtis and Shirley Maclaine appeared on the show for pie-throwing.By his count, Sales got hit with about 20,000 pies during his career, which started out in Detroit. He later moved the show to Los Angeles.In the 1950s and ’60s, at the height of his fame, Sales had one of the most recognizable faces in the country, Usher said.“If President Eisenhower would have walked down the street, no one would have recognized him as much as Soupy,” said Usher.In the 1980s, Sales had a radio show in New York and appeared in the movie comedy “Birds Do It.” He also was a regular panelist on the syndicated revival of “What’s My Line?” from 1968 to 1975.No true fan can forget the New Year’s Day 1965 live broadcast on WNEW.Sales, miffed at having to work the holiday, signed off by encouraging his young viewers to tiptoe into their still-sleeping parents’ bedrooms and remove those “funny green pieces of paper with pictures of U.S. Presidents” from their pants and pocketbooks.“Put them in an envelope and mail them to me,” Sales instructed. “And I’ll send you a postcard from Puerto Rico!”He was then hit with a pie.Money started coming in and embarrassed station officials felt compelled to suspend Sales for two weeks.That prompted fans to picket Channel 5 and the uproar wound up increasing Sales’popularity.After he retired his floppy polka dot bowtie, Sales settled in New York, where he was a member of the renowned Friars Club.Sales is survived by his wife, Trudy, and two sons, Hunt and Tony, a pair of musicians who backed David Bowie in the band Tin Machine.
The show’s comedy sketches made use of such whacky characters like White Fang, the biggest and meanest dog in the USA; Pookie the Lion, a hipster with rapier wit; Peaches, Soupy’s girl, whom he played in drag; private detective Philo Kvetch; The Mask, Kvetch’s evil nemesis, and “Onions” Oregano, henchman of The Mask.The sketches often ended with Sales getting plastered with a pie in the face, which became his trademark and delighted his fans.Stars such as Frank Sinatra, Tony Curtis and Shirley Maclaine appeared on the show for pie-throwing.By his count, Sales got hit with about 20,000 pies during his career, which started out in Detroit. He later moved the show to Los Angeles.In the 1950s and ’60s, at the height of his fame, Sales had one of the most recognizable faces in the country, Usher said.“If President Eisenhower would have walked down the street, no one would have recognized him as much as Soupy,” said Usher.In the 1980s, Sales had a radio show in New York and appeared in the movie comedy “Birds Do It.” He also was a regular panelist on the syndicated revival of “What’s My Line?” from 1968 to 1975.No true fan can forget the New Year’s Day 1965 live broadcast on WNEW.Sales, miffed at having to work the holiday, signed off by encouraging his young viewers to tiptoe into their still-sleeping parents’ bedrooms and remove those “funny green pieces of paper with pictures of U.S. Presidents” from their pants and pocketbooks.“Put them in an envelope and mail them to me,” Sales instructed. “And I’ll send you a postcard from Puerto Rico!”He was then hit with a pie.Money started coming in and embarrassed station officials felt compelled to suspend Sales for two weeks.That prompted fans to picket Channel 5 and the uproar wound up increasing Sales’popularity.After he retired his floppy polka dot bowtie, Sales settled in New York, where he was a member of the renowned Friars Club.Sales is survived by his wife, Trudy, and two sons, Hunt and Tony, a pair of musicians who backed David Bowie in the band Tin Machine.
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