Actors - Soupy Sales

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	Actors - Soupy Sales

Soupy Sales (born Milton Supman, January 8, 1926, in Franklinton, North Carolina) is an American comedian and actor.

A graduate of Huntington High School in Huntington, West Virginia and Marshall University, Sales' career began as a script writer and then DJ at radio station WHTN in Huntington.

Soupy had gotten his unusual nickname from his family. His older brothers had been nicknamed "Hambone" and "Chicken Bone"; young Milton was dubbed "Soup Bone", which was later shortened to "Soupy". When he became a disc jockey, he began using the stage name "Soupy Hines". After he became established, it was decided that "Hines" sounded too close to Heinz, which made a line of soups at that time, and so Soupy chose the surname "Sales" after a comedian by that name.

Lunch with Soupy Sales

Sales is best known for his long-running daily noontime children's television show. Improvised and slapstick in nature, Lunch With Soupy Sales was a rapid-fire stream of sketches, gags, and puns. Almost all resulted in Soupy receiving a pie in the face, which became his trademark.

Characters on the show

Appearing on the show were the puppets:

White Fang, "The Meanest Dog in the USA"
Black Tooth, "The Sweetest Dog in the World"
Hippie the Hippo who never spoke
Pookie the Lion, a 1950s hipster

Other famous characters were:

Philo Kvetch, a private detective played by Sales in a long-running comedy skit on the show (a parody of early 20th century fictional detective Philo Vance).
The Claw, evil nemesis of Philo Kvetch, revealed in the last episode to be Nikita Kruschev, who had been deposed about a year earlier.
"Onions" Oregano, henchman of The Claw, who ate loads of onions. Every time Oregano would breathe in Philo's direction, Philo would make all sorts of comic choking faces, pull out a can of air freshner, say "Get those onions out of here!", etc.

History of the show

The show originated in 1953 from the studios of WXYZ-TV in Detroit, Michigan. It was later syndicated nationally by ABC, and in 1964 found a weekday home at WNEW-TV in New York City. A new show appeared in 1978 with the same format and ran for one season. Sales later had a radio show for several years on WNBC radio in New York, at the same time Howard Stern had an afternoon show on that station. They did not get along, and there was a well-known incident of Stern's people cutting the wires in Soupy's in-studio piano.

The New Year's Day incident

On New Year's Day 1965 Soupy, miffed at having to work on the holiday, ended his live broadcast by encouraging his young viewers to tiptoe into their still-sleeping parents' bedrooms and remove those "funny green pieces of paper" from their pants and pocketbooks. "Put them in an envelope and mail them to me," Soupy allegedly instructed the children. "And you know what I'm going to send you? A post card from Puerto Rico!" In his 2001 autobiography Soupy Sez! My Life and Zany Times, Soupy admits it is true. He was suspended by the station for two weeks for encouraging children to steal. Soupy received $80,000 from viewers, mostly in play money. Any real money was donated to charity.

Claims that Sales told dirty jokes on air

For some unexplained reason, the show became a hit not only with children but also with college students. Urban legend has it that this was because Sales sneaked dirty jokes onto his show for their amusement. Sales vehemently denies that and states in his autobiography:

:". . . about those myths. There were all these other things I was supposed to have said, like "What begins with 'F' and ends with 'UCK' . . . a firetruck," or, "I took my wife to the ball game and kissed her on the strikes and she kissed me on the balls," or, "My wife is a great cook, she makes great pies -- I eat her cherry and she eats my banana." And people would swear that I said it! Now, you know that in those days you couldn't say nuthin' (like that on television).

:"I got so annoyed at these stories that I used to have a standing offer of ten thousand dollars cash to anyone who could prove that I said any of the things that people claim I've said. Look, at every TV station, whether you know it or not, there's a little spool in the master machine in engineering that records everything that's said, everything that goes on. And believe me, if I said half the things I'm supposed to have said, they would be on some blooper record making the rounds.

:"After many years, I think I finally figured out how these ridiculous stories got started. Kids would come home and they'd tell a dirty joke, you know, grade school humor, and the parents would say, "Where'd you hear that?" And they'd say "The Soupy Sales Show," because I happened to have the biggest show in town. And they'd call another person and say, "Gladys -- did you hear the joke that Soupy Sales was telling on his show?" and the word of mouth goes on and on, until people start to believe you actually said things like that."

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