(LA Times) vSoupy Sales, 83 - comic genius
BobF
http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-soupy-sales23-2009oct23,0,699167.story
OBITUARY
Soupy Sales dies at 83; slapstick comic had hit TV show in 1960s
The comedian acquired a cult-like following among adults with a show
ostensibly meant for children. His signature routine, which he
elevated to an art form, was pie-throwing.
By Elaine Woo
10:33 PM PDT, October 22, 2009
Soupy Sales, a comic with a gift for slapstick who attained cult-like
popularity in the 1960s with a pie-throwing routine that became his
signature, has died. He was 83.
Sales had numerous ailments and died Thursday at Calvary Hospital in
the Bronx, said Kathy O'Connell, a longtime friend.
As the star of "The Soupy Sales Show," he performed live on television
for 13 years in Detroit, Los Angeles and New York before the program
went into syndication in the United States and abroad.
Ostensibly for children, the show had broad appeal among adults who
found Sales' puns, gags and pratfalls deliciously corny and camp. His
cast consisted of goofy puppets with names like White Fang, Black
Tooth and Pookie, and a host of off-camera characters, including the
infamous naked girl.
The high point of every show came when a sidekick launched a pie into
Sales' face. Sales once estimated that he was hit by more than 25,000
pies in his lifetime.
The gag became more than hilarious; it evolved into a hip badge of
honor. Frank Sinatra was first in a long line of celebrities who
clamored for the privilege to be cream-faced, including Tony Curtis,
Mickey Rooney, Sammy Davis Jr., Dick Martin and Burt Lancaster.
"I've never done a pretentious show; it's always had a live feeling,
the kind of thing that comes across when you don't know what's going
to happen next," Sales told author Gary Grossman in the 1981 book
"Saturday Morning TV." "I've never done anything simply because I
thought I could get away with it. I've just wanted to do the funniest
show."
The possibility of humor dogged Sales from the start. He was born
Milton Supman on Jan. 28, 1926, in the North Carolina backwater of
Franklinton. The Supmans were the only Jews in town. Sales' father ran
a dry goods store that sold sheets to the Ku Klux Klan.
The family name was often mispronounced as "Soupman." To make matters
worse, his parents, who had nicknamed his brothers "Hambone" and
"Chickenbone," dubbed him "Soupbone." Eventually, Milton became just
Soupy.
His father died when he was 5, prompting a move to Huntington, W.Va.
Sales acted in school plays and in high school was voted most popular
boy.
World War II did not dampen his showbiz ambitions. He fought in the
Pacific theater in the Navy and participated in the invasion of
Okinawa but managed to entertain crew mates with routines broadcast on
the ship's PA system.
After his discharge, Sales returned to West Virginia and enrolled in
Marshall College as a journalism major, earning a bachelor's degree in
1949. He went to work for a radio station in Huntington as a
scriptwriter. At night he did stand-up in nightclubs. Soon he became a
disc jockey.
In the early 1950s he moved to Ohio, where a Cleveland station manager
gave him the professional name of Soupy Hines. That was nixed in
Detroit, where his new station manager thought Hines would be confused
with an advertiser, the Heinz soup line. Thus was Soupy Sales born.
In 1953, Sales launched a daily live children's show on Detroit's
WXYZ-TV, called "Soupy Sales Comics." The show caught on, causing the
station to give him a nighttime slot for "Soupy's On." Sales created
characters such as Wyatt Burp, a belch-prone sheriff, and Calypso King
Harry Bella, a crazy-eyed South American with a mop top.
In 1955, the show was picked up by ABC as a summer replacement for
"Kukla, Fran and Ollie" and renamed "The Soupy Sales Show." Its star
soon became Detroit's top-rated daytime television personality.
Sales was joined by White Fang, "the meanest dog in the United
states," and Black Tooth, "the nicest dog in the United States," of
whom all that viewers saw were giant paws. Other characters included
his irrepressible girlfriend, Peaches, the vivacious Marilyn Monwolf,
and a bloodthirsty neighbor, the Count, who touted an album titled
"Love in Vein."
Every show featured a segment called Words of Wisdom, an opportunity
for silly sayings such as "Be true to your teeth and they won't be
false to you."
The highlight of each show, of course, was the pie-throwing, which
Sales elevated to an art.
Sales took his first pie in the face in 1950 when he played an Indian
in a spoof of the James Stewart movie "Broken Arrow." That pie was
real. Later, he would switch to shaving-cream pies. But he swore that
the secret of a good pie was the crust: If it stuck to the face, it
was, in Sales' opinion, no good.
"A pie has to hit you and explode into a thousand pieces," the expert
explained, "so you see the person's face and see it take away his
dignity."
By 1961, the face that launched several thousand pies in Detroit began
to dominate local TV in Los Angeles. Critics were unkind, calling the
show "a mishmash of mediocrity" that was meant for "kids with low
IQs." But viewers lapped it up, making it the No. 1 local show by
1962. A survey at the time revealed that more than a third of Sales'
fans consisted of adults. Some of them were hosting pie-lobbing
parties in their basements.
One day, Sinatra called. "Hey, Soupy, it's Frank," he said. "I want to
come on your show on one condition: I get hit with a pie." Sales was
happy to fulfill the legendary crooner's wish.
The appearance by Sinatra stirred a stampede of stars hungry for the
same humiliation. One night featured a triple-header: Sinatra, Sammy
Davis Jr. and Trini Lopez were all pied together.
In his evening show, Sales also featured jazz musicians including
Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie and Duke Ellington. The Ken Burns jazz
documentary included a clip from Sales' show.
Once, the crew played a joke on him by posing a naked woman in a stage
door. When Sales opened the door, he gasped and feared his career was
over, but the scene was never telecast.
For notoriety, nothing beat the show that aired New Year's Day 1965,
when Sales was producing the program in New York. Told he had a minute
to fill, the comic told the children watching on WNEW-TV to find their
parents' wallets and "get all the green pieces of paper with the
pictures of guys in beards" and mail them to him. In return, he said,
he would send them "a postcard from Puerto Rico."
Sales had used the same joke in Detroit and Los Angeles. But this
time, the prank elicited some $80,000 "in Monopoly money," as well as
a complaint from a viewer filed with the FCC. Sales' show was
suspended, prompting fans to swamp the station's switchboard with
protest calls, mostly from high school and college students who
demanded that their favorite television fare resume. Within a week, it
did.
On a website devoted to the Sales show, a fan recalled that the first
program after the New Year's episode opened with stock footage of
dancing girls kicking up their heels and crowds cheering; the musical
accompaniment was "Happy Days are Here Again." "It was obvious to all
of us that our beloved Soupy was unrepentant," the fan wrote, "and we
repressed youths were behind him. I must dispute the thesis . . . that
Froggy from 'Andy's Gang' was the cause of '60s rebelliousness. It was
Soupy who inspired my generation to anarchy."
Sales called the episode "the most brilliant minute of ad-lib in
television history because it proved how powerful the medium is."
Later that year he invented a dance called "The Mouse," a loony
version of the Twist in which Sales bared his upper teeth, raised his
hands to his ears and wiggled his fingers while chewing in time to the
music. He performed it several times on "The Ed Sullivan Show," where
he met dancer Trudy Carson. They were married in 1980. He is also
survived by two sons from a previous marriage, Tony and Hunt.
When animation took over children's programming in the 1960s,
personalities such as Shari Lewis and Sales began to lose their
appeal. In 1966 his show was not renewed in New York and went into
syndication. A new version was produced and syndicated in 1978-79.
During the next few decades, Sales starred in a short-lived Broadway
comedy and became a regular panelist on the long-running TV game show
"What's My Line?" He also was a featured performer in the musical
variety show "Sha Na Na" from 1978 to 1981.
In the mid-1980s, he emceed a radio show on WNBC in New York,
sandwiched between Don Imus and Howard Stern. He acted in several
movies, notably in the role of Moses in the 1993 cult comedy " . . .
And God Spoke."
He once acknowledged that his trademark pie routine hurt his career:
"Producers say, 'Hey, all he does is throw pies.' It kept me off a lot
of shows."
His authority in pie-tossing even landed him in court -- as an expert
witness. In 1974 he was called to testify in the court-martial of a
sailor accused of pitching a pie into an officer's face. Noted defense
attorney William Smith enlisted Sales to tell how, after more
launching more than 19,000 creamy missiles, he had never been
prosecuted for assault with a pie. Pie-hurling, Sales told the court,
was "a harmless joke" designed to "relieve tensions and frustrations."
He offered to perform at the Port Hueneme naval base Christmas show if
the charges were dropped but was turned down. The sailor was found
guilty.
Sales kept up club appearances through the 1990s, performing before
audiences of baby boomers who had grown up on his raucous routines.
"A lot of people grew up watching me," he told The Times several years
ago. "I'll probably be remembered for the pies, and that's all right.
That's fine and dandy. I'm flattered."
He is survived by his wife of 29 years, Trudy Carson Sales; sons Tony
and Hunt, a brother and four grandchildren.
--
"It's not that I'm afraid to die. I just don't want to be there when it happens." - Woody Allen
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Wax-up and drop-in of Surfing's Golden Years: <http://www.surfwriter.net>
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Matthew Kruk
Brad Ferguson
> Sales was joined by White Fang, "the meanest dog in the United
> states,"
"the biggest and meanest dog in the United States"
> and Black Tooth, "the nicest dog in the United States,"
"the nicest and sweetest dog in the United States"
> The appearance by Sinatra stirred a stampede of stars hungry for the
> same humiliation. One night featured a triple-header: Sinatra, Sammy
> Davis Jr. and Trini Lopez were all pied together.
That was in New York, and the victims included WNEW Radio personality
William B. Williams, who was friends with all those guys. Show date
was 10 September 1965, and it was originally shown during the regular
after-school timeslot. (Yes. Sinatra once did kidvid.) The show was
repeated at least once in prime time.
> In his evening show, Sales also featured jazz musicians including
> Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie and Duke Ellington. The Ken Burns jazz
> documentary included a clip from Sales' show.
I guess that must have been in Los Angeles. In New York, Soupy had a
Saturday morning show that was pre-taped (the weekday shows were live
with taped inserts) and which featured musical acts -- rock bands,
usually.
> Once, the crew played a joke on him by posing a naked woman in a stage
> door. When Sales opened the door, he gasped and feared his career was
> over, but the scene was never telecast.
Oh, yes, it was; they just didn't show the naked lady. It was also
done twice. The first time was in Detroit.
> On a website devoted to the Sales show, a fan recalled that the first
> program after the New Year's episode opened with stock footage of
> dancing girls kicking up their heels and crowds cheering; the musical
> accompaniment was "Happy Days are Here Again." "It was obvious to all
> of us that our beloved Soupy was unrepentant," the fan wrote, "and we
> repressed youths were behind him. I must dispute the thesis . . . that
> Froggy from 'Andy's Gang' was the cause of '60s rebelliousness. It was
> Soupy who inspired my generation to anarchy."
The "Happy Days Are Here Again" thing was actually a commercial
celebrating Soupy's return, which pretty much indicates that the
station approved of it. It ran hundreds of times for weeks, maybe even
months. At the end of all the clips, etc., Soupy comes onto the set
through the door, strides briskly up to the camera and says "Hi!" Then
he gets pied.
> He is survived by his wife of 29 years, Trudy Carson Sales; sons Tony
> and Hunt, a brother and four grandchildren.
They really should have identified which brother they're talking about.
Jack (Chickenbone), born in 1921, is Soupy's surviving brother.