Soupy Sales: The Naked Woman Prank

For those who might not have gotten what I meant below about Soupy Sales being one of the first edgy guys, there's an interesting insight to his show at this link. If you click on the image it plays the original naked woman prank that went out live. Some old black and white frontal nudity. Scroll down for image and details.

Let me let you in on a little secret. Lunch with Soupy Sales, Detroit’s most popular TV kid’s show, wasn’t really a kid’s show at all. Oh sure, Soupy always reminded the kiddies to take their vitaminnies and eat Silvercup Bread, “the best bread in Dee-troit,” but the show always relied on more adult oriented humor. In a 1958 Detroit Times article Sales even admitted, “There’s really no message to this show. It’s actually a kid’s show for adults.”

Soupy and his straight man, puppeteer Clyde Adler, were basically a modern day vaudeville team. Their routines borrowed heavily from old school burlesque and yellowed copies of Captain Billy’s Whiz Bang, a series of bawdy post WWI joke books. The humor was ancient and corny but it was new to the kids. The fact that Soupy occasionally snuck in risqué material got the older kids and adults watching too.

Comments

[Lala]

Bugs Bunny really wasn't for kids either.

Remember Zackerlie? Am I spelling it right? He would make himself part of the movie that was being shown on TV.

[Lala]

Picked this up from a NY rant

Soupy used to take his girlfriend Peaches to the ballgame. He kissed her on the strikes and she kissed him on the balls. He wrote an "F" on a board and asked Whitefang what letter it was, Whitefang said "K". So Soupy asked again and again Whitefang said "K". Soupy, frustrated, asked "why everytime I write "F" you see "K"? One more... Soupy loved the apple pies his grilfriend made but said he liked when she made his banana cream better. He got these by the censor.

[Jayne]

I remember watching Soupy on BW TV. I loved his shows. Gosh I feel so old.

[joyMc]

I loved Soupy growing up. He was ahead of his time. Loved Whitefang. Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Roadrunner,Rocky and Bullwinkle. all those characters were for the grownups really, but kids loved them. And how about that Speedy Gonzalez? And tell me Boris and Natacia weren't into S&M. Captain Kangaroo had his charm but nary a double entendre in all those years, at least not one I ever caught.