Soupy Sales

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Soupy Sales (born Milton Supman on January 8, 1926) is an American comedian and actor. Sales was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on January 7, 2005, a day before his 79th birthday.

Supman was born in Franklinton, North Carolina. He is a graduate of Huntington High School in Huntington, West Virginia and Marshall University. His career began as a script writer and then DJ at radio station WHTN in Huntington.

Soupy had gotten his unusual nickname from his family. His older brothers had been nicknamed "Hambone" and "Chicken Bone"; young 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" sounded too close to Heinz, which made a line of soups at that time, and so Soupy chose the surname "Sales" after a comedian by that name.

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[edit] Lunch with Soupy Sales

Sales is best known for his long-running daily noontime children's television show. Improvised and slapstick in nature, Lunch with Soupy Sales was a rapid-fire stream of sketches, gags, and puns. Almost all resulted in Soupy receiving a pie in the face, which became his trademark. The show was also known as The Soupy Sales Show.

[edit] Characters on the show

A children's hand puppet featuring the likeness of Sales
Enlarge
A children's hand puppet featuring the likeness of Sales

Clyde Adler, a film editor at Detroit's WXYZ-TV, performed in sketches and voiced and operated all puppets on Sales' show during the Detroit run in the 1950s, and in Los Angeles in 1959-62 and 1978. Actor Frank Nastasi assumed the role of straight man/puppeteer when Sales took the show to New York from 1964-66.

Appearing on the show were the puppets:

  • White Fang, "The Meanest Dog in the USA", who appeared only as a giant white shaggy paw with black triangular felt "claws" jutting out from the corner of the screen. Fang spoke with unintelligible short grunts and growls, which Soupy repeated back in English, often for comic effect.
  • Black Tooth, "The Sweetest Dog in the World". Also seen only as a giant black paw, and with more feminine, but similarly unintelligible dialogue.
  • Hippie the Hippo, who never spoke at all.
  • Pookie the Lion, a 1950s hipster with a rapier wit. His repartee with Soupy was rapid-fire. For example: Soupy: "Do you know why my life is so miserable?" Pookie: "You got me!" Soupy: "That's why!"

Other famous characters were:

  • Peaches, Soupy's girlfriend, played by Sales in drag.
  • Philo Kvetch, a private detective played by Sales in a long-running comedy skit during the show's New York run (a parody of early 20th century fictional detective Philo Vance).
  • The Mask, evil nemesis of Philo Kvetch, revealed in the last episode to be Nikita Kruschev, who had been deposed about a year earlier.
  • "Onions" Oregano, henchman of The Mask, played by Frank Nastasi, who ate loads of onions. Every time Oregano would breathe in Philo's direction, Philo would make all sorts of comic choking faces, pull out a can of air freshener, say "Get those onions out of here!", etc.

[edit] History of the show

The show originated in 1953 from the studios of WXYZ-TV in Detroit, Michigan. It was later telecast nationally on the ABC television network, and in 1964 found a weekday home at WNEW-TV in New York City. This version was syndicated by Screen Gems to local stations outside the New York market. (By some measures, this show marked the height of Sales' popularity. The show featured a number of guest appearances by stars like Frank Sinatra. Sales' hit dance record, "The Mouse", is from this period of his career as well. And this was the period during which Sales starred in the movie comedy, Birds Do It.)

A new show appeared in 1978 with the same format and ran for one season. Sales later had a radio show for several years on WNBC radio in New York; at the same time Howard Stern had an afternoon show on that station. They did not get along, and there was a well-known incident of Stern cutting the wires in Soupy's in-studio piano at 4:05pm on May 1st, 1985.

[edit] New Year's Day incident

On New Year's Day 1965, Soupy, miffed at having to work on the holiday, ended his live broadcast by encouraging his young viewers to tiptoe into their still-sleeping parents' bedrooms and remove those "funny green pieces of paper" from their pants and pocketbooks. "Put them in an envelope and mail them to me," Soupy allegedly instructed the children. "And you know what I'm going to send you? A post card from Puerto Rico!" In his 2001 autobiography Soupy Sez! My Life and Zany Times, Soupy admits it is true. He was suspended by the station for two weeks for encouraging children to steal.[1]

[edit] Claims that Sales told dirty jokes on air

For some unexplained reason, the show became a hit not only with children but also with college students. Urban legend has it that this was because Sales sneaked dirty jokes onto his show for their amusement. Sales vehemently denies that and states in his autobiography:

...about those myths. There were all these other things I was supposed to have said, like "What begins with 'F' and ends with 'UCK'...a firetruck," or, "I took my wife to the ball game and kissed her on the strikes and she kissed me on the balls," or, "My wife is a great cook, she makes great pies—I eat her cherry and she eats my banana." And people would swear that I said it! Now, you know that in those days you couldn't say nuthin' (like that on television).
I got so annoyed at these stories that I used to have a standing offer of ten thousand dollars cash to anyone who could prove that I said any of the things that people claim I've said. Look, at every TV station, whether you know it or not, there's a little spool in the master machine in engineering that records everything that's said, everything that goes on. And believe me, if I said half the things I'm supposed to have said, they would be on some blooper record making the rounds.
After many years, I think I finally figured out how these ridiculous stories got started. Kids would come home and they'd tell a dirty joke, you know, grade school humor, and the parents would say, "Where'd you hear that?" And they'd say "The Soupy Sales Show," because I happened to have the biggest show in town. And they'd call another person and say, "Gladys—did you hear the joke that Soupy Sales was telling on his show?" and the word of mouth goes on and on, until people start to believe you actually said things like that.[1]

[edit] Topless dancer prank on Sales

The show's set included a door in the background. At one point in the show there would be a knock at the door, and Soupy would answer it. He never knew in advance who would be there. Normally, the guest would be a fairly major celebrity.

One time during the Los Angeles years, as Sales was ending the show, when he opened the door he saw a topless dancer gyrating with a balloon. Viewers saw only the balloon (although a second, non-broadcasting camera captured the uncensored version) and Sales was forced to try and keep the show going without letting on as to the risque events backstage. Some reports say the gag was furthered by the crew by switching the studio monitors, so Soupy would think the stripper image was going out over the air! This event (in censored and uncensored variations) has been featured on many blooper compilations.

[edit] Game shows

From 1968 to 1975, Sales was a regular panelist on the syndicated revival of What's My Line?. He generally was the first panelist introduced and occupied the chair at the far left side of the panel (facing the camera).

Sales was also a panelist on the short-lived 1980 revival of To Tell the Truth.

[edit] His sons' activities

Soupy's sons, musicians Hunt Sales and Tony Sales, played bass and drums in the band Tin Machine with David Bowie, as well as playing on the albums Runt by Todd Rundgren and Lust For Life by Iggy Pop. Hunt Sales created the percussion riff for "Lust for Life" that has been used in numerous commercials.

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b Sales, Soupy, Charles Salzberg (2001). Soupy Sez! My Life and Zany Times. New York: M. Evans and Co.. ISBN 0-87131-935-7.

[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org../../../s/o/u/Soupy_Sales_caec.html"