Soupy Sales - Soupy Sales (a.k.a. "Milton Supman") started with a TV local show in Detroit called SOUPY'S ON in 1953 and later hosted his own children's program THE SOUPY SALES SHOW/ABC/1955-1967 which featured outrageous riddles, puns, old jokes and a gallery of animal puppet characters including Pookie the Lion, Hippy the Hippo, Herman the Flea, Willy the Worm and his two off-camera canines called Black Tooth, and White Fang (all you saw was their black or white paws). Soupy was most famous for having cream pies (some 25,000) thrown into his face or tossing them into the faces of others including Frank Sinatra (a.k.a. "Old Blue Eyes") and Sammy Davis, Jr. In 1979 Soupy Sales produced a new series of 90 shows, syndicated by Viacom that reproduced many of his early antics on television. Although many of his original shows no longer exist (videos erased to record over new programming) many will remember his funny songs like "What Did the Animals Say?" (a laundry list of animals who just grunted "Ruh Uh Ruh Uh" when asked "What did the - Tiger, Lion, Hippo, Zebra, Gorilla, etc.- say?" on the "Spy With A Pie" record album ABC/Paramount Records,1964) as well as his novelty dances "Do The Mouse" and "The Soupy Shuffle." Soupy Sales was born January 8, 1926 in Franklinton, North Carolina, and grew up in Huntington, West Virginia. He graduated with a B.A. in Journalism from Marshall University, and then got a job as a radio script writer at WHTN, a small station in Huntington. Since then he has performed in radio, TV, films, theater and clubs for over 50 years including SOUPY'S SODA SHOP (1950 Cincinnati - this was America's first teen dance program); CLUB NOTHING (a 45-minute talk-show); LUNCH WITH SOUPY (1959-62); WHAT'S MY LINE and TO TELL THE TRUTH (game show guest panelist); JUNIOR ALMOST ANYTHING GOES (kid's game show host from 1976-77); SHA NA. NA (musical variety show regular from 1978-81) and TV's BLOOPERS & PRACTICAL JOKES. You can read about Soupy's life story in his autobiography Soupy Sez! or watch snippets of his zany antics on the video Absolutely the Best of the Soupy Sales Show (Rhino Video, 1998). TRIVIA NOTE: According to Sales' autobiography, the name Soupy Sales was derived from his childhood nicknames "Soupy or Soupbone" and "Sales" in honor of a 1920s actor Chick Sale (Soupy added the final "s" ). Sales has also gone by the name "Soupy Hines ("Hines" for the famous soup company) See also  MONEY - Soupy Sales"  and FACELESS FAVORITES - "Animal Character"

Puppeteer Clyde Adler and Soupy Sales doing the
White Fang the Dog routine