Chic Sale
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Charles "Chic" Sale (b. August 25, 1885, Huron, South Dakota - d. November 7, 1936, Los Angeles) was an American actor and vaudevillian.
In 1929, inspired by a carpenter named 'Lem Putt' from his hometown of Urbana, Illinois, Sale wrote The Specialist, a play about an outhouse builder. Because copyright infringement was widespread in Vaudeville, Sale enlisted the aid of two newspapermen to adapt The Specialist into a book. This enjoyed great success, and Sale spent the next several months responding to fan mail.
Following his success with The Specialist, Sale began a career in Hollywood, appearing in various comic supporting roles until his death from pneumonia in 1936.
Although an obscure figure today, Sale was a well-known popular culture figure during the 1930s, and was often the subject of jokes by comedians like Groucho Marx, usually in reference to The Specialist. For many years, even after his death, his name was used as a euphemism for the word "toilet". He is known to have found this unflattering, calling it "a terrible thing to have happen."
