October 23, 2009

Soupy Sales Dies at 83; White Fang Inconsolable

By Bill Kunkel

Another Baby Boomer TV Icon Passes. He was born Milton Supman 83 years ago, but it was on 50s and 60s TV that the legendary Soupy Sales became the most popular (and controversial) children's entertainer in America.

In a series of shows in cities such as Cleveland, Detroit and LA (and most famously on New York's WNEW-TV, now FOX, where he landed in '64) that clearly served -- along with Sandy Becker and Pinky Lee -- as the inspiration for "Pee Wee's Playhouse", Sales and his cast of puppet-like characters (they weren't really puppets, just actors wearing arm and hand costumes with names like "Pookie", "White Fang", "Black Tooth" and "the Nut at the Door"), entertained a generation of this country's kids. His wild, pie-throwing slapstick and jokes so loaded with double entendre that they sometimes exploded ("I like to take my girl to the baseball games," he once remarked, adding: "I kiss her between the strikes and she kisses me between the balls.") made him a legend among the college students of the day.

Of course the event that most people remember about Soupy beyond his use of pie throwing (often involving big name celebs getting pie-faced, including Jerry Lewis and Frank Sinatra), was the infamous New Years Day 1965 bit where he suggested that his viewers go through mommy's pocketbook and look for green pieces of paper with people's faces on them so they could send them to him. The stunt got him suspended but also booked him an eternal space in TV Lore & Legend.

Sales wrote his memoir “Soupy Sez!” (M. Evans, 2001), with Charles Salzberg, was a panelist on "What's My Line?" and even hosted a radio talk show for WNBC Radio in the 80s. During his time with WNBC, Sales feuded with two of his fellow talk show hosts at the station -- Howard Stern and Don Imus. Stern later recanted, claiming Sales had been his idol when Howard was a kid and he regretted the radio feud. He is survived by his wife, Trudy, and his two sons, Tony and Hunt.

Bookmark/Search this post with:

Delicious  | StumbleUpon  | Propeller  | Reddit  | Newsvine  | Furl  | Facebook  | Google  | Yahoo  | Technorati