soupy sales dies

[Bing Bang Shin King]

DETROIT - Soupy Sales, the rubber-faced comedian whose
anything-for-a-chuckle career was built on 20,000 pies to the face and 5,000
live TV appearances across a half-century of laughs, has died. He was 83.

Sales died at Thursday night at Calvary Hospice in the Bronx, New York, said
his former manager and longtime friend, Dave Usher. Sales had many health
problems and entered the hospice last week, Usher said.

At the peak of his fame in the 1950s and '60s, Sales was one of the
best-known faces in the nation, Usher said.

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.

---AP