What a life. I didn't realize he fought at Okinawa and had a journalism degree. In some ways he may have been the original edgy, or truly out there guy, certainly when it came to doing a kids show. But his comedy was based on old routines. He lived quite a life.
The possibility of humor dogged Sales from the start. He was born Milton Supman on Jan. 28, 1926, in the North Carolina backwater of Franklinton. The Supmans were the only Jews in town. Sales' father ran a dry goods store that sold sheets to the Ku Klux Klan.
Soupy Sales, a comic with a gift for slapstick who attained cult-like popularity in the 1960s with a pie-throwing routine that became his signature, has died. He was 83.
Sales had numerous ailments and died Thursday at Calvary Hospital in the Bronx, said Kathy O'Connell, a longtime friend.
As the star of "The Soupy Sales Show," he performed live on television for 13 years in Detroit, Los Angeles and New York before the program went into syndication in the United States and abroad.
Oh, White Fang and Black Tooth, how I have missed you both. Soupy Sales...you made me laugh.
Posted by: Philip McDaniel | Friday, October 23, 2009 at 08:48 AM
LOL You old dude. I wonder how many won't get the reference?
Posted by: Dan Riehl | Friday, October 23, 2009 at 08:58 AM
"sold sheets to the Ku Klux Klan" no wonder he became a comedian.
I loved it when he told kids to send him the green pieces of paper with Presidents on them.
Posted by: Lala | Friday, October 23, 2009 at 09:09 AM
LOL! I remember that.
Posted by: Philip McDaniel | Friday, October 23, 2009 at 09:27 AM
Yeah, probably his most famous gag.
Posted by: Dan Riehl | Friday, October 23, 2009 at 09:56 AM
He had a bit of a "blue" sense of humor as well. Didn't he go on Carson and get a little dirty one time? Now THAT is a show that oughta be in syndication. I'd love to see all those old timers on the Carson show. RIP Soupy Sales!
Posted by: Mad Monica | Friday, October 23, 2009 at 10:30 AM
My favorite Soupy Sez: People that live in glass houses...Should dress in the basement... RIP Soup
Posted by: Noel | Friday, October 23, 2009 at 10:30 AM
I watched him as a kid on WNEW in New York. Good memories.
Posted by: rrpjr | Friday, October 23, 2009 at 10:48 AM
"Never feed your cat lemons, or you'll get a sourpuss." Soupy Sales, circa 1965-6. It was a real pleasure to watch Soupy's show as a kid in the NYC area. I missed the famous New Years Day show ("send me the little green pieces of paper... and I'll send you a picture postcard from Puerto Rico"), but we all talked about it in school for days, and watched the show when he was allowed to come back on.
Posted by: REM828 | Friday, October 23, 2009 at 11:01 AM
Soupy had a late night show, Saturday, on WXYZ in Detroit back in the late '50s that was hilarious.
He was "Charles Vichyssoise", a smarmy lecher with a fake French accent and mustache, with some pretty funny "blue" skits. I was a kid, waiting for the grainy black & white horror movie that followed.
Heh, remember that Willie the Worm that lived in a toy trailer on his desk?
What a guy! Still makes me smile.
Posted by: carol | Friday, October 23, 2009 at 11:42 AM
Damn, we're all old. How did those old guys manage to be so funny...and memoriable....without F bombs and crotch grabbing?
Posted by: WAHOO WILLIE | Friday, October 23, 2009 at 12:58 PM