[78-L] Soupy Sales: One of jazz's best friends is gone

[Royal Pemberton]

And Soupy was truly a master at it.

On Mon, Oct 26, 2009 at 9:31 PM, Michael Biel <mbiel at mbiel.com> wrote:

>
> From: Royal Pemberton <ampex354 at gmail.com>
> > The UK children's show TISWAS had lots of 'pies', done with shaving cream
> > and all....paper plates were standard. More goop here:
> > http://www.tiswasonline.com/pies_gunge_water.php?section=pies
>
> This would not have met with Soupy's approval and is probably why he was
> so successful for so many years, and so many celebrities like Frank
> Sinatra wanted to be on the show and get hit.  Shaving cream is soap and
> tastes disgusting and could make the person sick. Word of this would
> travel and turn celebs off. Paper plates would stick to the goop and
> since they are very lightweight they might not fall away fast enough to
> show the person's face for an IMMEDIATE reaction shot.  Breaded crust
> breaks at impact showing the face immediately, and if there are small
> pieces that fall away one at a time, that increases the humor by
> lengthening the effect.  Whipped cream and bread pie crust, maybe with
> some cherry or lemon filling to add color for color TV.  Truly inspired
> comedy is not casual, it is a science.
>
> Mike Biel mbiel at mbiel.com
>
> On Mon, Oct 26, 2009 at 8:33 PM, Michael Biel <mbiel at mbiel.com> wrote:
>
> > Soupy died on the eve of the Friends of Old Time Radio convention, and I
> > opened my broadcast of the event with Soupy's obit. He had made 3 or 4
> > appearances there in recent years, and was well remembered this weekend
> > by some of his WNEW-TV co-conspirators such as Chuck McCann. Sandy
> > Becker's widow Cherie showed some X-rated outtakes of her hubby from
> > that same station. Soupy had been very ill in recent years and suffered
> > from an illness which left his body in the way that he looked and
> > sounded like he had suffered a serious stroke, but his mind was
> > completely undamaged so it must have been frustrating to him. But he
> > loved being at FOTR and every once in a while was able to put in a
> > zinger to top his old-time buddies. The video they showed to end the
> > tribute was not the usual -- we've seen all those before -- but rather
> > his Ed Sullivan Show performance of "Do the Mouse" where he pranced
> > around Ed's audience and coincidentally danced with and met for the
> > first time his future wife, who remained devoted to him. That simple
> > video, no jokes and no pies, was strangely moving to me, and it took
> > about 15 seconds before I was able to talk after it, and I don't think I
> > was fully fluent till several minutes after. There is a picture of a
> > tribute that has been placed at Soupy's star: a pie.
> > http://www.newsfromme.com/images11/soupystar.jpg The pie appears to be
> > in a tin, something that Soupy did not allow. His colleagues told us
> > that his theory was that the person's face must be immediately visible
> > as the pie hits and falls away, something that a tin will inhibit. So a
> > pie throwing hint: filling and crust only.
> >
> >
> > Mike Biel mbiel at mbiel.com
>
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