Milton Supman (aka Soupy Hines)
Born: January 8, 1926
Died: October 22, 2009 (83 years old)
"Lunch with Soupy" aired at noon every
weekday on WXYZ-TV. Mostly a one-set
production, Soupy entertained us with
old film clips combined with his own
slapstick and improvisation.
Two of his sidekicks, seen on camera
only as big hairy forearms with clawed
paws, were Black Tooth and White Fang.
Frequently they'd engage in seltzer duels.
Soupy is best known for taking many shaving cream pies in the face, a dish served up nearly every time Soupy opened the door of his set.
Willie the Worm resided in a miniature travel trailer
on Soupy's desk.
Each time Soupy removed the cork that plugged a
hole in the wall behind his desk, he would get squirted
with a stream of water.
Toward the end of each show, he'd to to a blackboard
where he had written his lunch menu for the next day
so the kids watching would be able to eat along with him.
He would sign off by saying "I love you and I give you
great big kiss...mmmmmuuuuuaaaa"...as he blew us a
kiss with a sweeping arm gesture.
One of his sponsors was Pie-O-My Pudding Cake.
("It's not a pudding, it's not a cake, it's Pie-O-My
Pudding Cake!")
Now, when's the last time you did -- or even thought of --
the Soupy Shuffle?
Or remember "Do The Mouse?
Soupy received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
on January 7, 2005. He and his wife, Trudy, lived in New York City.
BONUS VIDEOS:
Soupy's Greenmail Scandal
Soupy Sales asks kids for cash -- Back in 1965, the comedian told his young audience to search through their parents bedrooms and send all ''green pieces of paper'' to him...
By Benjamin Svetkey, Entertainment Weekly
He slung puns and hurled pies better than anyone on TV. But on Jan. 1, 1965, slapstick comic Soupy Sales pushed the joke a tad too far, and the shtick hit the fan. ''We were finishing (the) show and the director told me we had an extra minute to kill,'' Sales, 67, recalls. ''So I walked right up to the camera and said, 'Hey, kids! I want you to tiptoe into your parents' bedrooms, look in their pockets for all the green pieces of paper with the pictures of the guys in beards, and send them to Soupy Sales at channel 5 in New York.'''
The gag netted only $1 (and a few envelopes stuffed with Monopoly money), but it made Sales the most famous, and widely condemned, ad-libber in America. ''It was the first time I realized how incredibly powerful television was,'' he says. ''One woman wrote a letter to the Federal Communications Commission complaining that I was teaching kids to steal. They were even discussing the show in Congress — how they could stop it from happening again.'' Syndicator WNEW-TV took the program off the air for a week.
Sales (born Milton Supman) began his career with a 1953 kids' TV show in Detroit called Soupy Sales Comics, and went on to star in both syndicated and network TV shows (including three for ABC) until his last series in 1979-80. They all followed similar formats: slapstick, awful punning, and goofy banter with shaggy puppets like White Fang and Black Tooth. And, of course, there were the trademark tossed custard pies — a career total of 20,000, according to Sales' calculations.
Though this infamous episode of the show was lost, some of Sales' TV legacy is still available: Rhino Video is releasing a third video of his vintage & clips early this year. Now mugging in comedy clubs, he is wistful about the old days. ''I miss TV,'' says Sales. ''I miss the creative outlet, the energy, the attention.'' Not to mention the green pieces of paper with the pictures of the guys in beards.
