R.I.P. Soupy

Also today came word of the passing of Soupy Sales last night at a hospital in the Bronx. Mr Sales had been in declining health for a number of years. Best known as a television comedian, Soupy was one of the greatest comedians of the early television years and one of the first to truly make television his own.

A bit of biography courtesy of Wikipedia:

Sales was born as Milton Supman in Franklinton in Franklin County in north central North Carolina to Irving and Sadie Supman. The Jewish Irving Supman, a dry goods merchant, had emigrated to America from Hungary in 1894. Soupy Sales had two siblings, Leonard Supman (deceased) and Jack Supman (b. 1921). Sales got his nickname from his family. His older brothers had been nicknamed "Hambone" and "Chicken Bone"; Milton was dubbed "Soup Bone," which was later shortened to "Soupy". When he became a disc jockey, he began using the stage name Soupy Hines. After he became established, it was decided that "Hines" was too close to the Heinz soup company, so he chose the surname Sales, after comedian Chic Sale...

Sales is best known for his daily children's television show, Lunch with Soupy Sales. The show was originally called 12 O'Clock Comics, and was later known as The Soupy Sales Show. Improvised and slapstick in nature, Lunch with Soupy Sales was a rapid-fire stream of comedy sketches, gags, and puns, almost all of which resulted in Sales receiving a pie in the face, which became his trademark. Sales developed pie-throwing into an art form: straight to the face, on top of the head, a pie to both ears from behind, moving into a stationary pie, and countless other variations. He claimed to have been hit by more than 25,000 pies during his career...

In 1964, Sales found a new weekday home at WNEW-TV in New York City. This version was seen locally until September 1966, and 260 episodes were syndicated by Screen Gems to local stations outside the New York market during the 1965-1966 season. This show marked the height of Sales' popularity. It featured guest appearances by stars such as Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis Jr., as well as musical groups like the Shangri-Las and The Supremes.

As with his earlier shows, Sales performed musical numbers on the show and his extensive jazz record collection was used in his TV work. "Mumbles" by Oscar Peterson with Clark Terry was Pookie's theme. "Comin' Home Baby" by Herbie Mann was the theme for Sales' "Gunninger the Mentalist" character (a parody of Dunninger the Mentalist).

This was also the period when Sales starred in the movie comedy Birds Do It. During the run of the New York show, actor Frank Nastasi played White Fang, Black Tooth, Pookie, and all the "guy at the door" characters...

One incident from the TV show caused Sales quite a bit of trouble... but lets hear the story from the man himself:



And also for your viewing pleasure, here's a complete show of Soupy's from 1965:



Thanks for the laughs, Soupy... You will be missed...

(for those interested in reading more about Mr. Sales, here's an excellent remembrance by Mark Evanier...)