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Thu 22 Oct, 2009 09:45 pm
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.
Former manager and longtime friend Dave Usher of Detroit says Sales died Thursday night at a hospice in New York. Usher says Sales had many health problems and entered the hospice last week.
Sales began his TV career in Detroit, where he drew a large audience on WXYZ-TV. He move to Los Angeles in 1961.
The comic's pie-throwing schtick became his trademark, and celebrities like Frank Sinatra, Tony Curtis and Shirley MacLaine queued up to take one on the chin.
Sales was born Milton Supman in North Carolina in 1926. He grew up in Huntington, W.Va.
Wow. He's been out-of-the-limelight for so long, I thought he'd already passed away. And I'm really shocked that he was only 83.
RIP Soupy
@eoe,
Like you, eoe, I thought he was older and probably long gone.
Requiescat in pacem.
Soupy was the very first person I ignored on tv.
May he rest in peace.
@ossobuco,
I used to do "the mouse" and was a little kid who could im itate White FAng and Black Tooth .
I never had opportunity to watch his show. But other kids often spoke of him. They made me feel I knew something about him. After seeing the above video, I doubt that even as a kid I would have watched. But he appears to have been a good guy.
I always, even as a kid, considered Soupy Sales to be a silly buffoon on tv. He seemed, otherwise, to be a nice guy. There may have been a place for his slapstick humour but I never enjoyed it.
That being said, I am sorry that he has passed.
@farmerman,
farmerman wrote:
I used to do "the mouse" and was a little kid who could im itate White FAng and Black Tooth .
There a picture floating around somewhere in the universe of my old sister and one of my brothers doing the mouse.
I was fortunate to be able to walk home for lunch every day ( from school) and have lunch with Soupy.
I remember him closing the show with an "And remember, don't pick it; it will never heal." This was in reference to chicken pox - not to pick at the itching scabs.
@Intrepid,
I loved him as a kid - but I was (and probably still am) a silly buffoon. How can you not love (especially as a kid) some one very silly?
I used to watch Soupy at my Grandma's. I guess the slapstick was lame but we enjoyed it. ('course my grandma watched wrestling too.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNv3rVV1mfs&feature=fvw
I always thought Soupy Sales was funny by nature. Just looking at his face made me laugh. A few years ago I heard him interviewed on the radio. He even told a joke: "Did you hear about the guy that accidentally took both Rogaine and Viagara? Now he can't keep his hair from sticking up!"
@Intrepid,
Quote: I always, even as a kid, considered Soupy Sales to be a silly buffoon on tv. He seemed, otherwise, to be a nice guy. There may have been a place for his slapstick humour but I never enjoyed it.
I rest my case.
HOW can you not laugh at this/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNv3rVV1mfs&feature=fvw
@Swimpy,
If you were doing a white fang imitation, it doesnt translte into writing very well. You hadda be there
That last clip was pretty good.
@wandeljw,
From Soupy: "My girlfriend couldn't bake an apple pie but boy could she make my banana cream!"
@Ragman,
How come I do not remember his dirty jokes? Most likely because I was so young when I used to watch him.
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