General Tom Remembers Soupy Sales

I was in High School when I first started watching Soupy Sales. Interesting, because he was supposed to be doing a kid's show. He had satire, slapstick, and general goofiness throughout his show. He also had his daily "Words Of Wisdom" like: "Girls who eat sweets........take up two seats!" The man was brilliant! Soupy died yesterday after living through some health problems. We will miss him. He was the son of Hungarian immigrants, a Navy veteran of WWII and later earned a Masters in Journalism! I encourage you to visit You Tube. When you do, think of David Letterman or Jay Leno or Adam Sandler or Saturday Night Live (when it's funny) or anybody who was obviously influenced by Soupy. The guy loved his audience and seemed to have a genuinely good time doing what he did so well! He was forced to work on New Year's day, 1965, on his local TV show in New York City. At the end of the show, he asked the kids to tiptoe into their still-sleeping parents' bedrooms and remove those "funny green pieces of paper with pictures of U.S. Presidents" from their pants and pocketbooks. "Put them in an envelope and mail them to me." "And I'll send you a postcard from Puerto Rico!" He was then hit with a pie. Several days later, a chagrined Soupy announced that money was unexpectedly being received in the mail. He explained that he had been joking and announced that the contributions would be donated to charity. As parents' complaints increased, WNEW TV's management felt compelled to suspend Sales for two weeks. Young viewers picketed Channel 5. The uproar surrounding Sales' suspension increased his popularity. Soupy did more than 5,000 live TV shows and it is estimated that he took (or gave) more than 20,000 pies in the face!

Several years ago I met one of Soupy's college professors. The professor was very proud as Soupy had earned a Masters degree in Journalism. The professor encouraged Soupy to do whatever he wanted. That's exactly what he did!