Goodbye Soupy
Posted on 10/23/2009 7:31:47 AM PDT by La Lydia
The comedy icon made pie-in-the-face gag a pop-culture phenomenon: It was a simple gag, but one that made Soupy Sales a household name: a pie in the face, or 20,000 pies, to be exact. That slapstick comedic trick, along with a warehouse of goofy faces and wacky characters helped elevate Sales (born Milton Supman) to one of the country's most beloved comedians in the late 1950s. Sales died on Thursday at the age of 83 at a hospital in the Bronx, after several years of declining health...
With his loose-limbed physicality and malleable face, Sales honed his craft on children's television programs in the 1950s, blazing a trail for everything from "The Simpsons" to Pee-Wee Herman by cracking wise for kids while making jokes their parents found funny too. He's best known for his long-running kids show "Lunch With Soupy Sales," where he originated the pie-throwing gag. He moved on to "The Soupy Sales Show," which ran for 13 years in Detroit, New York and Los Angeles, before being picked up in other cities and overseas.
The program was salted with silly puppets named Pookie, White Fang and Black Tooth, but it was Sales who commanded center stage with his pratfalls, campy jokes, loopy characters and puns. The obligatory pie-in-the-face gag became such a phenomenon that...stars such as Frank Sinatra, Mickey Rooney, Tony Curtis and Sammy Davis Jr. lined up to be smeared for its hip cachet.
Sales was born in the tiny town of Franklinton, North Carolina, on January 28, 1926...The family's name was so often mispronounced as "Soupman" that his parents jokingly nicknamed his brothers "Hambone" and "Chickenbone," bestowing on him the name "Soupbone," which was eventually shortened to Soupy....
(Excerpt) Read more at mtv.com ...
In honor of Mr.Sales,I’d like all you Freepers to send me
a dollar!
Goodbye Soupy
How about all Freepers throw a pie in your face instead. ;)
That was a classic.
!!! :)
White Fang is that you?
I only knew him as a game show celebrity. His show and schtick were a little before my but I have seen some old clips of it. The man was hilarious!
Thanks for all the laughs Soupy. RIP.
He’s doing the “soupy-shuffle” over the horizon now. Dance in peace!
Funny guy was Soupy.
One of my absolute favorites. I loved his show when I was a kid. One of the funniest things on TV, especially because, as a kid, a lot of the stuff was spontaneous and “among the adults,” and if you got that, it was extra funny. Thanx for the many laffs, Soupy!
Here’s Soupy being accosted by none other than “The Biggest, Meanest Dog in the United States”, White Fang. Fang was played by film editor Clyde Adler, in a giant white shaggy paw (with black triangular felt claws) jutting out from the corner of the screen.
Black Tooth, in contrast, was”The Biggest, Sweetest Dog in the United States” and was portrayed with a brown glove with claws. Both “dogs” spoke with unintelligible short grunts and growls(White Fang meaner and Black Tooth sweeter), which Soupy repeated back in English for comic effect.
Thank you! I’ve always thought so, too! I can’t believe that someone else sees the resemblance and has posted it here.
Oh golly, how I loved him. I lived in Dearborn, Michigan and watched his noon show in Detroit as much as possible. My girlfriend and I skipped school one day (high school) and went downtown to meet him. What an experience.
His “Words of Wisdom” were priceless. One that I have used often through the years was my favorite:
“Always be true to your teeth and they won’t be false to you.”
Rest in Peace, you funny wonderful man.
Loved The Soup. RIP.
R.I.P. Soupy
“In honor of Mr.Sales,I’d like all you Freepers to send me
a dollar!”
Are you quoting Obama? Certainly he seems to be inspired by that piece of Soupy’s schtick. Of course, the difference is that back then it got Soupy suspended for a week.
My heart is broken. White Fang and Black Tooth must be inconsolable. He answered the door one last time and St. Peter hit him with a pie.
Thanks for posting. I’ve been to that comedy club many times. A wonderful man.
Yeah! A Cow Pie!
The fourth Stooge. Thanks Soupy!
“White Fang, why is it when I see an F you see K?”
Alice Cooper took a Pie in The Face too.
Now, that would make a great cartoon to say "Good-Bye" to Dear Old Soupy.
I used to watch him back in Wisconsin. I never missed a show...he was so funny.
there is a classic piece of tape on some blooper reels where the crew had set Soupy up for a practical joke. He was live on-air, and a knock came at a door on the set which was supposed to be White Fang. Instead, the crew had placed a very well endowed (and naked!) blonde woman behind the door. Soupy opened the door live on television and was confronted with the bouncing naked blonde, who the audience could not see (but who is in the camera shot they saved on the tape). Watching him try to react to this on the fly was just priceless!
Couldn't find one, all I found were a bunch of green papers with pictures of presidents on them.
Without White Fang, there is no Scooby-doo.
I have many fond childhood memories of him. R.I.P.
Does this mean the Howie Carr “Death Pool” is open?
How about all Freepers throw a pie in your face instead. ;)
I just paid $11.95 for a black cherry pie yesterday...the dollar would be cheaper.
And, most important:
May he rest in peace.
RIP SOUPY YOU BROUGHT MANY SMILES AND LAUGHES TO MOST OF US THAT ARE OLD ENOUGH TO REMEMBER YOUR SHOWS....
Difference is, Soupy was cool and Feingold is an A$$.
He and Captain Kangaroo, Howdy Doody, Mr. Rogers and the like.
Nostalgia for a time not so long ago.
ping
Whoa - where is this posted on the web?
I lived in Detroit in the 1950’s and watched Soupy everyday after school. When I was 10 we moved back to Tennessee and I was upset because I couldn’t watch Soupy’s show anymore.
RIP Soupy.
I’ll never forget Soupy’s skit about the injury insurance policy that only pays out if you are hit by a falling tree while being attacked by an atomic submarine between 1 and 3 PM.
Oh my gosh, I remember that .. and it was hilarious!
I’d completely forgotten about that schtick. Still sitting here laughing which would make Soupy’s day, some 50 years later. RIP, Mr. Supman.
I used to sit in my Dad’s lap and we both howled till the last second. My big brother was part of the Soupy cult and couldn’t even speak without Soupisms.
RIP. So many memories. There is nothing even close to the Soup today. Wishing many, many pies ‘up there’.
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