Soupy Sales: Master of the Pie-in-the-Face

This week the American baby boomer population lost one of its most beloved television icons. "The Soupy Sales Show" will always be one of the most memorable television memories of any American child who grew up during the 1960s. Who could forget his puppets? Black Tooth, the meanest dog on earth and White Fang, who were really just big furry paws and Pookie the lion appeared on almost every show. And the most beloved character portrayed by Soupy himself was "Philo Kvetch". He even had famous guests; Frank Sinatra, the Supremes, and the Shangri-Las all made an appearance.

We can never forget Soupy getting a pie in the face during every show. Soupy didn't invent pie-throwing [or "pie-ing"] as a comedic element. People had been getting assaulted with custard and whipped-cream pie mpissiles since silent movies and vaudeville a hundred years ago, but Soupy perfected the art, getting his face smashed into stationery pies, hit from above to his head, or even having pies smashed into both cheeks simultaneously. Soupy even invented dances, which he did in a black shirt with a floppy polka-dotted bow tie. His most famous ones were the "mouse" and the "Soupy Shuffle", which we did in my 5th grade class. And do you remember the words to his own original song "Pakhalafika"?
"Pakhalafika, Pakhalafika
They whisper it all over Turkey
Pakhalafika, Pakhalafika
`It sounds so romantic and perky....."

Soupy Sales, born Milton Supman, was a comedian way ahead of his time. He stretched the limits of comedy and silliness, sometimes too far. He soon received a reputation of being risque for television. Some of this reputation was well-deserved, but some of the stories around Soupy Sales were sensational myths. See Snopes.com for information about Soupy and some of the rumors around him that gave him an aura of cracking dirtier jokes than he really did. But, one thing that was not a lie, was a New Year's Day stunt, that I heard for myself. One Jan 1, Soupy told us kid listeners that our moms and dads were probably still sleeping from their night-before reveling. Therefore, he told us to go into their wallets and take out the "green papers with pictures of presidents" and send them to "Uncle Soupy", and he even gave us an address. Well, he reportedly got money from several children, which he tried to return if possible. The money that didn't contain a return address, he gave to charity. It was also reported that he did this because the TV station made him work on New Years Day, which angered him. But Soupy paid a price for this misdeed; he was suspended from television for two weeks!

After that, a lot of teens and pre-teens, who were caught telling dirty jokes, tried to get out of punishment by claiming that they heard the jokes on Soupy Sales' show. Before we knew it, a whole bunch of off-color jokes were unjustly attributed to Soupy. One I heard was "What starts with 'F' and ends with 'u-c-k'?" When the adult gasped, you yelled out " 'Fire truck! What did you think I was going to say?" If you don't remember Soupy Sales, or didn't grow up in an area that aired his TV show, you can find some footage on YouTube. Rest in peace Soupy. Baby Boomer television would never have been the same without you!!