Soupy Sales died at age 83 yesterday. He hosted an afternoon kiddie show that reached its height of popularity in the mid-1960s. He was totally unlike other kids-show hosts of that, or any other, era. He wasn’t soft-spoken, like Mr. Rogers; he wasn’t grandfatherly, like Captain Kangaroo; he didn’t want to teach you anything, like Mr. Wizard.
What Soupy was was a unique combination of silly and hip. He mixed slapstick with self-conscious irony. He was forever getting a pie thrown in his face. He talked to puppets, especially two — White Fang and Black Tooth — that were really little more than offstage voices, with arms that entered the camera frame. He played jazz on his show and snapped his fingers like a nightclub performer. Cool cats and kitties of the era, like Frank Sinatra and Shirley MacLaine, dropped by to visit and take a pie in the face, because Soupy was, for a little while, himself very cool.
He had a Top 10 hit at the height of Beatlemania with “Do The Mouse.” His musical sons, Hunt and Tony, played with David Bowie in the band Tin Machine, and backed Iggy Pop on Lust For Life, among much other excellent L.A. session-work.
The Soupy Sales Show’s set decor said “clubhouse,” but the off-camera guffaws — when Soupy made the crew laugh with constant his ad libs — introduced a generation to the idea that there were real people behind the TV cameras, that this was a show, not a fantasy-world. Well before The Larry Sanders Show, Soupy was busy breaking the fourth-wall surrounding the creation of TV.
To his eternal and ambivalent fame, he was once suspended from the show for a New Year’s Day 1965 joke: he asked kids to go into their parents’ bedrooms and take the “little green pieces of paper” they found — i.e., money — and send them in to him.
I interviewed him for EW years ago, by phone. As the conversatiomn began to fade, Sales thanked me for not asking him about the “little green pieces of paper” controversy. “Everybody thinks they have to bring that up — why?” he asked me, irritation in his voice.
“Because their editors tell them to, thinking they’ll get a bit more controversy out of it,” I suggested.
“Yeah,” he said, sighing. “Maybe. Or maybe some people just like to make happy people unhappy.”
I hope Soupy Sales has found some happiness now.
Comments (1-15) of 80 Add your comment
Back in the 1980’s I had the pleasure to meet Soupy at a Radio Station where I worked. He was truly kind and generous with his time and as ‘cool’ off camera as on. A genuine talent who will be missed.
A very nice man is lost forever to us. Soupy, we loved you.
Soupy Sales had the amazing ability to be silly AND witty at the same time. I hope he had as much fun off-camera as he always seemed to be having on. He was a unique treasure.
He will be missed by all the TV viewers that remember watching his show. RIP Soupy, you will be terribly missed.
one of the last of the tv personalities who were real, not pre-packaged…bye Soupy, RIP
Soupy Sales used to wear crazy joke eyeglasses that used to scare me. Anyone remember them?
OMG! I do. I already miss him, he was just fantastic
I will miss Soupy…he was “constant” in my childhood!
Soupy came to my hometown (Welch, WV) on a tour to plug his new movie in the late 60’s. He was a genuine star. His genre was later emulated by Pee Wee’s Playhouse, though the latter was less entertaining and more risque.
Saint Peter is trying very hard not to let go a loud belly laugh.
Thanks Soupy, hope to see you again one day.
Fox News has a story today about how he was an anti-american communist
*eyeroll* @ Fox News
Hey Bob… Just read the article on Fox. It says nothing like that. Where did you learn to read?
I never liked him, and he always left the studio filthy when I came in to do a broadcast, so I cut his piano strings when we both worked for WNBC Radio.
and that is why we miss him and not “some people”
Everyone loved Soupy…he was a true person and he will be missed…he may have left the studio filthy but a room can always be cleaned but not a filthy mouth like some have…
Howard, you’re a jerk.
Looks like Soupy’s soaring comic genius brought out the sulking, self-absorbed, bully in mean little Howie Stern. They shoulda cut Stern’s piano strings!
He was an entertaining, funny man. Remember the “Soupy Shuffle”?
Soupy was sure someone who could make your banana cream!
I remember way way back then as a little boy eyes glued to the black & white tv watching and laughing as Soupy got a pie in the face. That was one of the fonder moments I remember as a little boy. RIP Soupy. You will always be a fond memory of this little boy and the joy you gave as one of the pioneers of tv.
Last time I saw him was in Huntington, WV in the late 80’s. He was proud of WV and we were proud of him! So many generations enjoyed his quick wit and sense of humor. We will miss u and our thoughts are with the family. Smile, Shari O’Neil Hart