A pie as memorial on Sales' star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
Soupy Sales was born Milton Supman, to the only Jewish family in Franklin County, NC. His brothers were nicknamed Hambone and Chicken Bone, and Sales was called Soup Bone, later shortened to Soupy. Sales produced and starred in a series of successful TV children's shows in the 50s and early 60s. Later he was a panelist on the popular TV game show "What's My Line?" and also appeared numerous times as a guest panelist on "Hollywood Squares," "Match Game," and "To Tell the Truth."
In the course of his career, Sales made 5,000 live television appearances. His children's shows were just as beloved by adults as by children due to their sophisticated wit and double entendres. A trademark of his shows was the pie in the face, and Sales claimed to have been smacked by over 20,000 pies. Guests of the show also sometimes got a surprise pie-smack, but this did not deter celebrities from showing up. Guests ranged from Frank Sinatra (one of Sales' biggest fans) to Alice Cooper. In addition to humans, a number of puppets starred on his shows, including White Fang, "The Biggest and Meanest Dog in the USA," and Pookie the Lion.
Sales was a jazz lover who promoted the genre at every opportunity. In addition to his children's shows, he once had a nighttime show in Detroit that went national briefly in the early 60s. Among his guests were a number of jazz greats, including Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonious Monk, and Duke Ellington, at a time when it was still rare to see blacks on television. Jazz numbers became themes for the puppets and other characters on his children's shows, and Sales performed musical numbers regularly. He made two albums for Sinatra's label, Reprise Records, and later signed with Motown in the late 60s.
Sales died on October 22 at Calvary Hospice in the Bronx, New York.
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