Pie-splattered comedian Soupy Sales dies at 83

[Earth Bound Misfit]

Source: AP via Google News

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.

snip

His greatest success came in New York with "The Soupy Sales Show" — an ostensible children's show that had little to do with Captain Kangaroo and other kiddie fare. Sales' manic, improvisational style also attracted an older audience that responded to his envelope-pushing antics.

Sales, who was typically clad in a black sweater and oversized bow-tie, was once suspended for a week after telling his legion of tiny listeners to empty their mothers' purse and mail him all the pieces of green paper bearing pictures of the presidents.

The cast of "Saturday Night Live" later paid homage by asking their audience to send in their joints. His influence was also obvious in the Pee-Wee Herman character created by Paul Reubens.

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.



Read more: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gJ-8A5RJvk5EwfcUEinx0CoOGM9gD9BGIE8O0

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RIP Soupy.

[NanceGreggs]

1. This is very sad news ...

There are certain people on this earth who you want to see live forever - he was one of them.

And yet, somehow he will.

[Fridays Child]

2. Oh, no!

So sad! :(

[Zomby Woof]

3. RIP Soupy

Growing up in the 70's, I mainly remember him from the quiz show circuit, and the occasional talk show appearance. Funny, influential, and one of a kind.

[DJ13]

4. Goodbye green pieces of paper

[WriteDown]

5. Every kid, take out a dollar from your mom's pocket book....

Showing my age.

[Miss Authoritiva]

7. Me too.

I actually won an autographed photo of Soupy as part of a Scooter Pie contest.

[Ken Burch]

8. Goodbye Soupy....you were the only one who was anything like you...

(Is this the right place to say I thought he was already dead?)

[Earth Bound Misfit]

14. Same here.

New Years day, 1965, I believe.

[DainBramaged]

23. Yup I remember like it was yesterday.......

:cry:

[HamdenRice]

43. Iirc, he also said, "now kids, there's also something called a 'pay check...'"

I remember that show. It was brilliant.

[Rhiannon12866]

6. I remember him! How very sad, all the kids liked him.

;(

But, after all this time, we finally learn his real name: Milton Supman. :think:

[Iwillnevergiveup]

9. Every Saturday at noon

my family would gather around to watch Soupy, White Fang, Black Tooth (don't kiss!). It was really a show for adults, IMHO. Remember the solo sponsor? Jello.

RIP You brought a lot of joy to a lot of folks.

[GReedDiamond]

10. RIP Soupy...

...this is truly the end of an era.

[Bigmack]

11. 1955-7... growing up in Detroit....

I biked home from elementary school to watch Soupy and White Fang and Black Tooth.

Completely insane...

The dude was in the Navy in WWII, had a master's degree, and was totally off the wall.

I'd take a pie for you, Soupy...

[ginnyinWI]

12. the most fun on a Saturday was lunch with Soupy.

He was on after all the morning cartoons and was a welcome relief. Each week he would write a menu for the next week, so we could have our moms make the same food and we'd all eat together. Somehow dessert was always Jello!

[Iwillnevergiveup]

13. Great news!

NetFlix has Soupy classic DVD's - I just ordered up 3. Can't wait to see the meanest dog in the United States (White Fang) and the sweetest dog in the United States (Black Tooth).

They'll all live in my heart forever.

[Joe Bacon]

15. Do you remember when Sinatra visited Soupy's show?

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x33fj6_the-soupy-sales-show-frank-sinatra_fun

[Earth Bound Misfit]

17. Nice find!!!

A keeper.:hi:

[Earth Bound Misfit]

16. Soupy Sales with Pookie and White Fang

Remember "Do the Mouse"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNv3rVV1mfs&feature=fvw

Soupy does "The Mouse" at the 1:00 mark.

[ashling]

18. Another childhood icon who I thought was dead

dies

RIP . . . again

[Kind of Blue]

19. Wow, I vaguely remember him from childhood but I

know my parents would have laughing fits just saying his name, and for that I'm grateful. He brought a lot of joy to the world. Rest in peace, Soupy.

[Norrin Radd]

20. Never got to see his show in reruns, but my dad spoke positively

about him as a performer, so, rest in peace and condolences to his friends and family. Now I'll go search for him on YouTube.

[Earth Bound Misfit]

36. Check out the vid DUer Joe Bacon posted.

Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr, and {I believe?} Trini Lopez did a skit on his show that ended in pie-throwing mayhem. After Sinatra got pied, every celeb in Hollywood wanted to do it.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x4115696#4115775

[Norrin Radd]

54. Thanks for the link.

[AlienGirl]

21. Oh no!!

[DainBramaged]

22. Soupy, take this dollar with you and give it to God..........

:cry:

[Left Coast2020]

24. I do the "Fang" imperssionation to myself sometimes.

Just because I remember. Because I remember it looked stupid, but it was funny as a kid. :cry:

[Vidar]

25. RIP Soupy.

[Adenoid_Hynkel]

26. He was a native of my hometown of Huntington, WV

probably the most famous citizen ever to pass through our little area. he made a lot of return visits here and was, by all accounts, a good guy.

needless to say, the paper is going all-out in tribute to soupy tomorrow

[jillan]

27. Very sad - thanks for all the great laughs Soupy Sales.

[dmr]

28. Soupy, White Fang, Black Tooth & Pookie

Watched him on Channel 7 (Detroit) when I was a very little kid. (Detroit did great television back in the day.)

He had a great big smile, and an antimated face. A wild bow-tie, eyebrows raised, smiling eyes, and a large mouth that said silly stuff to us kids and his friends, White Fang, Black Tooth and Pookie.

Rest in Peace, Soupy.

[OneBlueSky]

31. um . . . I believe that's Black Toof . . . :)

Soupy Sales is one of my very earliest tv memories . . . my dad was in the Army, and we were living in the Chicago area when we got our first television set -- a 24-inch black-and-white Philco . . . must have been around 1955 or so . . . Soupy was on every afternoon on one of the three channels we got, and I remember laughing hysterically at his antics and those of White Fang, Black Toof, and Pookie after school every day . . . the pie schtick came several years later, as I recall . . . and after Sinatra was pied, every celebrity in the world wanted to be on the show to catch one in the face . . .

RIP Soupy . . . and all the characters you created . . .

[dmr]

33. You're prob right about the name,

it's hard to remember, except he made me laugh.

It was so long ago, but in some ways it seems just like yesterday. I can still see it in my mind's eye

[rfranklin]

38. 24-inch! That was a huge TV set...

I think we had the 12-incher...it was such an early model that I don't think it even had sound.

[SeattleGirl]

29. I love his humor.

RIP, Soupy.

[rurallib]

47. Much like Paul Ruebens (PeeWee Herman) the humor was on many levels

By the time we got Soupy Sales out here I was a teen. I thought he was hilarious and pretty risque.
Ruebens had the same quality.
Whenever I saw Sales or just thought about him as I did a few days ago, I would get a big smile.

[Hubert Flottz]

30. Very sad...

I grew up watching Soupy Sales. One of the best Saturday morning shows ever. I never got tired of watching the pies fly!

[murielm99]

32. Even though this makes me sad,

I am sitting here smiling. I remember how much I enjoyed this show when I was a kid.

When I was about eleven, my mom wouldn't let me watch it, because she said it scared my one year old brother. She was wrong. He was screaming and crying because she turned off the show. He loved it. I had to convince her by turning it back on. He stopped crying the minute Soupy came back on the tube.

[dmr]

34. that's a cute story, and a good memory

:)

[BumRushDaShow]

35. Oh NO!!!!!!! R.I.P.

Another from my childhood.... A whole generation is leaving us... :cry:

I don't think we'll ever see another era of comedians grace the airwaves with stage names like "Soupy Sales" or "Red Buttons", etc.

[sufrommich]

37. RIP funny man. nt

[Crabby Appleton]

39. RIP Soupy

[Ganja Ninja]

40. Here a little clip from one of his racer shows where the crew sneaked a

stripper on to the set. Warning partial nudity.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NdUD4giJPOk&feature=related

[formercia]

41. "I like my wife because she makes my banana cream."

I heard him say it on TV. He was gone for a while. :rofl:

I loved that show. You never knew what was going to happen.

[zbdent]

42. one of the greatest gifts a person can give is to make someone laugh ...

Soupy gave plenty of those great gifts ...

Rest in peace ...

[Bluenorthwest]

44. Soupy was the greatest

[AlexDeLarge]

45. Ah! Soupy & White Fang

God, I'll really miss his one-of-a-kind humor. I remember watching his show with my father, who also loved him, when my father asked what I was crying about. I wasn't crying, I was just laughing so hard it looked like I was crying.
See you in the next life, Soupy. Truly the end of a golden era.

[xchrom]

46. very sad -- it sounds like in his last years he suffered. nt

[hadrons]

48. I saw him about 4 or 5 years ago at a comic con, he was in awful shape ....

He was signing autographs and he looked like he barely alive (he was in a wheelchair, looked completely zonked, couldn't really hold a pen) ... I think he must have had a stroke or something.

[Tanuki]

49. Does anyone remember Frank Nastasi?

He was Soupy's side-kick and played the parts of White Fang, Black Tooth and Pookie, as well as playing in frequent sketches with Soupy. I loved the show, and my siblings and I watched it fanatically. What a sweet, original, merry heart Soupy Sales had!

[DainBramaged]

57. Sadly Frank is gone too.

Puppeteers Clyde Adler and Frank Nastasi have both passed away. Adler died in September of 1993; Nastasi on June 15, 2004.

[kwassa]

50. "Never chew your nails, especially if you are a carpenter."

Words of wisdom I remember from Soupy.

Part of my childhood!

[slackmaster]

51. I was watching when he made is "funny green pieces of paper with pictures of U.S. Presidents" joke

I was just shy of seven years old and thought it was the funniest thing I had ever heard.

[jmondine]

52. In the words of White Fang, "Ruh reh, reh ruh uh rooh"

Third greatest genius in the history of television, IMO, right behind Jim Henson and Ernie Kovacs.

[bikebloke]

53. I'd forgotten about Soupy.

Looking back, he was one of my favourites.

[bedazzled]

55. omigosh, he DID throw a pie in frank sinatra's face

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sT5TKTt5BeA

i have truly, absolutely seen everything.

he was on after school when i was a kid. i was
busy with dark shadows, so i didn't watch him
all of the time.

definitely off of the chain!

[DainBramaged]

56. GREAT info link on Soupy

http://www.tvparty.com/soupy3.html

Puppeteers Clyde Adler and Frank Nastasi have both passed away. Adler died in September of 1993; Nastasi on June 15, 2004.

[Earth Bound Misfit]

61. Good stuff, thanks! n/t

[onager]

58. If you've never seen it...

Rent the little indie movie "And God Spoke." Hilarious! (Keeping in mind that I am a Fundamentalist Atheist and like just about anything that gives religion a kick in the butt.)

Soupy Sales plays Moses, who comes down from Mt. Sinai carrying the Ten Commandments...and a six-pack of Coke as a product placement. (As a nice bonus, Eve Plumb plays Mrs. Noah and Lou Ferrigno plays Cain to Andy Dick's Abel: "You wanna piece of me?"

Just thinking about it makes me :rofl:

I may watch it again tonight.

Plot: two lo-budget, hack movie producers decide to film the entire Bible, since Biblical movies always make money.

Unfortunately, they have certain...limitations...

"Hey, did Jesus have 10 disciples or 8?"

"And just what screen credit does this angel get? 'Angel At The Nativity Who Blew The Co-producer To Get Her SAG Card?'"

[skip fox]

59. As a child growing up into early adolescence in Livonia, I had the good fortune

to watch Soupy often. Always loved him in a way I was attracted to no other man on television. He seemed to indicate how a man could be funny and loving, which went well with my father's model of hard work and honesty.

Rest in whatever delight you would.

[immoderate]

60. A nightly event in my fraternity...

We White-fanged and Black-toothed our way through college. No, somehow it's not a contradiction.

So long, Soup.

--imm