[78-L] Soupy Sales:

[Cary Ginell]

For me, the more velocity a pie has when it hits its target, the funnier it is. It has to be a sudden explosion. It has to shatter upon impact. Those times when you see baseball players sneak up behind someone who is being interviewed and give them a pie-in-the-face, they only push it. It's just not as funny. Pies thrown at Soupy Sales were like grenades. No forewarning, no mincing about. BLAM!! Even funnier was when a flurry of pies came hurtling in from all directions and they all hit successively, like a Tommy gun. Blake Edwards knew how to do that. The pie throwing scene in "The Great Race" was one of the funniest ever. (And of course Henry Mancini has a wonderful piece he wrote for that scene called "Pie-in-the-Face Polka.") 

 

But nobody threw pies like they did on The Soupy Sales Show. 

 

Cary Ginell
 
> Date: Mon, 26 Oct 2009 21:36:50 -0500
> From: ampex354 at gmail.com
> To: 78-l at klickitat.78online.com
> Subject: Re: [78-L] Soupy Sales: One of jazz's best friends is gone
> 
> 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
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > 78-L mailing list
> > 78-L at klickitat.78online.com
> > http://klickitat.78online.com/mailman/listinfo/78-l
> >
> _______________________________________________
> 78-L mailing list
> 78-L at klickitat.78online.com
> http://klickitat.78online.com/mailman/listinfo/78-l
 		 	   		  
_________________________________________________________________
Windows 7: It works the way you want. Learn more.
http://www.microsoft.com/Windows/windows-7/default.aspx?ocid=PID24727::T:WLMTAGL:ON:WL:en-US:WWL_WIN_evergreen2:102009