By David N. Goodman ASSOCIATED PRESS
DETROIT | Soupy Sales, the rubber-faced comic whose anything-for-a-chuckle career was built on 20,000 pies to the face and 5,000 live TV appearances across a half-century of laughs, has died. He was 83.
Mr. Sales died Thursday night at Calvary Hospice in the Bronx, N.Y., said his former manager and longtime friend, Dave Usher. Mr. Sales had many health problems and entered the hospice last week, Mr. Usher said.
At the peak of his fame in the 1950s and '60s, Mr. Sales was one of the best-known faces in the nation, Mr. Usher said.
"If President Eisenhower would have walked down the street, no one would have recognized him as much as Soupy," Mr. Usher said.
At the same time, Mr. Sales retained an openness to fans that turned every restaurant meal into an endless autograph-signing session, Mr. Usher said.
"He was just good to people," said Mr. Usher, a former jazz music producer who managed Mr. Sales in the 1950s and now owns Detroit-based Marine Pollution Control Corp.
Mr. Sales began his TV career in Cincinnati and Cleveland, then moved to Detroit, where he drew a large audience on WXYZ-TV. He moved to Los Angeles in 1961.
The comic's pie-throwing schtick became his trademark, and celebrities lined up to take one on the chin alongside Sales. During the early 1960s, stars such as Frank Sinatra, Tony Curtis and Shirley MacLaine received their just deserts side-by-side with the comedian on his television show.
"I'll probably be remembered for the pies, and that's all right," Mr. Sales said in a 1985 interview.
Mr. Sales was born Milton Supman on Jan. 8, 1926, in Franklinton, N.C., where his was the only Jewish family in town. The family later moved to Huntington, W.Va.
His greatest success came in New York with "The Soupy Sales Show" - an ostensible children's show that had little to do with Captain Kangaroo and other kids' fare. Mr. Sales' manic, improvisational style also attracted an older audience that responded to his envelope-pushing antics.
Mr. Sales, typically clad in a black sweater and oversized bow-tie, was once suspended for a week after telling his legion of tiny listeners to empty their mothers' purse and mail him all the pieces of green paper bearing pictures of the presidents.
The cast of "Saturday Night Live" later paid homage by asking their audience to send in their joints. His influence was also obvious in the ______-Wee Herman character created by Paul Reubens.
Mr. Sales remained a familiar television face, first as a regular from 1968 to 1975 on the game show "What's My Line?" and later appearing on everything from "The Mike Douglas Show" to "The Love Boat." He played himself in the 1998 movie "Holy Man," which starred Eddie Murphy.
He joined WNBC-AM as a disc jockey in 1985, a stint best remembered because Mr. Sales filled the hours between shock jocks Don Imus and Howard Stern.
Mr. Sales is survived by his wife, Trudy, and two sons, Hunt and Tony.
DETROIT | Soupy Sales, the rubber-faced comic whose anything-for-a-chuckle career was built on 20,000 pies to the face and 5,000 live TV appearances across a half-century of laughs, has died. He was 83.
Mr. Sales died Thursday night at Calvary Hospice in the Bronx, N.Y., said his former manager and longtime friend, Dave Usher. Mr. Sales had many health problems and entered the hospice last week, Mr. Usher said.
At the peak of his fame in the 1950s and '60s, Mr. Sales was one of the best-known faces in the nation, Mr. Usher said.
"If President Eisenhower would have walked down the street, no one would have recognized him as much as Soupy," Mr. Usher said.
At the same time, Mr. Sales retained an openness to fans that turned every restaurant meal into an endless autograph-signing session, Mr. Usher said.
"He was just good to people," said Mr. Usher, a former jazz music producer who managed Mr. Sales in the 1950s and now owns Detroit-based Marine Pollution Control Corp.
Mr. Sales began his TV career in Cincinnati and Cleveland, then moved to Detroit, where he drew a large audience on WXYZ-TV. He moved to Los Angeles in 1961.
The comic's pie-throwing schtick became his trademark, and celebrities lined up to take one on the chin alongside Sales. During the early 1960s, stars such as Frank Sinatra, Tony Curtis and Shirley MacLaine received their just deserts side-by-side with the comedian on his television show.
"I'll probably be remembered for the pies, and that's all right," Mr. Sales said in a 1985 interview.
Mr. Sales was born Milton Supman on Jan. 8, 1926, in Franklinton, N.C., where his was the only Jewish family in town. The family later moved to Huntington, W.Va.
His greatest success came in New York with "The Soupy Sales Show" - an ostensible children's show that had little to do with Captain Kangaroo and other kids' fare. Mr. Sales' manic, improvisational style also attracted an older audience that responded to his envelope-pushing antics.
Mr. Sales, typically clad in a black sweater and oversized bow-tie, was once suspended for a week after telling his legion of tiny listeners to empty their mothers' purse and mail him all the pieces of green paper bearing pictures of the presidents.
The cast of "Saturday Night Live" later paid homage by asking their audience to send in their joints. His influence was also obvious in the ______-Wee Herman character created by Paul Reubens.
Mr. Sales remained a familiar television face, first as a regular from 1968 to 1975 on the game show "What's My Line?" and later appearing on everything from "The Mike Douglas Show" to "The Love Boat." He played himself in the 1998 movie "Holy Man," which starred Eddie Murphy.
He joined WNBC-AM as a disc jockey in 1985, a stint best remembered because Mr. Sales filled the hours between shock jocks Don Imus and Howard Stern.
Mr. Sales is survived by his wife, Trudy, and two sons, Hunt and Tony.
