Forger of the whipped cream pie (actually a shaving cream pie), Soupy Sales is known all over the world as one of the most popular variety show hosts of all time. With his squished hat and ridiculously oversized bow tie, he appealed to children, adults, and everyone in between with his crazy high jinks, his fantastic guests, and his pets, including dogs White Fang and Black Tooth who spoke in their own secret language that only Soupy could decipher, Pookie the Lion, Hippie the Hippo, Willie the Worm, and Herman the Flea. But did you know the story behind the man who claims to have been the recipient of nearly 20,000 pies in the face?
Soupy was born in small town North Carolina and raised in small town West Virginia. Milton Supman, who went by the childhood nickname Soupy, always had a passion for the comedic. He refined this style on the radio and in nightclubs under the name Soupy Hines, and he started to develop quite a following. So much so, that television was the next reasonable step.
It started with the local Cincinnati show Soupy's Soda Shop, the first of the teenage dance shows. It was so successful, that Soupy soon branched out with The Soupy Sales Show.
The Soupy Sales Show was at first a live 15-minute summer replacement show for Kukla, Fran, and Ollie, which aired in Detroit in 1955. But it soon went national and became one of the most adored shows of the 1950s and ’60s. Kids loved it because Soupy wasn’t afraid to carry on like one of them, adults loved it because his style of humor appealed to all levels, not just the kiddies.
Of course, adults didn’t love Soupy all the time. A New Year’s Day, 1965 stunt had parents in an uproar and, as a matter of fact, almost ended his career! As a joke, Sales told his young viewers to sneak into their parent’s wallets and "take some of those green pieces of paper with pictures of George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Lincoln, Jefferson" and such on them...and send them to him! If they did this, he claimed, he would send them a postcard from Puerto Rico. Rumors say that Sales received over $80,000 in responses, though still other rumors say most of this was in Monopoly money, and the jokester was suspended from television for a week.
Outraged parents aside, still more fans found this little episode hilarious. In any event, it wasn’t the only time parents would complain to ABC about Soupy’s high jinks. He knew how to push the envelope just far enough and it was a formula that kept him on top for over three decades. Soupy now has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 7000 Hollywood Boulevard, given to him on February 7, 2005.
Recently, Soupy Sales’ Pookie the Lion had a brief visit with Hake's Americana and left fetching over $5,000.00. Considering the item was only expected to see for $500-$700, this proves that Soupy is still loved the world over! The puppet was 3" tall with plush/fur covered body, soft vinyl head, and yarn "mane." Soupy Sales' earliest show was Lunch With Soupy Sales and this puppet was sold as Pookie the Lion, an actual show used puppet. Archival photos show at least 3 versions of Pookie puppet, earliest photos appear to show this particular one.
Vist www.hakes.com for more results of Hake's auction #194.
