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

Tue Oct 27 21:36:17 PDT 2009

I remembered Sandy Becker mainly from his hosting of the Looney Tunes
program afternoons on Channel 5.  I was never into his other characters
on other shows.  He also did radio announcing and was Young Doctor
Malone on radio soaps.  A nice clean cut boy that nice girls could take
home to introduce to their mothers.  However, this weekend his widow
Cherie participated in a panel chaired by Joe Franklin at the Friends of
Old Time Radio.  I was busy settling up with some of the vendors who had
put things aside for me, so I left Leah alone to run our broadcast of
the session.  I never knew that nice, clean-cut Sandy Becker had such a
foul mouth that he made Dayton Allen appear to be as pure as the Pope. 
Cherie brought along some outtakes and poor Leah was beside herself
trying to reduce the nastiest of his phrases for our conservative
YesterdayUSA audience!  Who would have guessed????  Out at the front
desk, Jay Hickerson was saying, I don't believe Cherie is playing these
things!" as I was casually returning to help out Leah, and I was greeted
with a blast of profanity from the screen when I opened the door.  Sandy
Becker???!!!  Who would have guessed!!!  Part of that outtake reel is
actually on YouTube, so you can see and hear it for yourself, although
Leah says some of the best parts aren't there, and she is still looking
for them.  Maybe Chuck McCann has them.  Another madman.  At about 2 in
the morning he performed the lost final reel of King Kong, and we are
still laughing.  (It starts with him miming a cop slowly taking out his
ticket pad, looking over the scene, putting up his leg like he is
putting his foot on the bumper of a car -- but it isn't -- and then he
says:  "This your ape?"  And that's just the start.)

Mike Biel   mbiel at mbiel.com  

-------- Original Message --------
From: Jeff Sultanof <jeffsultanof at gmail.com>

Becker was a madman. He had a group of weird characters named Geeba
Geeba
(who worked in a sauerkraut factory), K. Lastima, Hambone (who would
dance
on the stage to the tune "Hambone" and usually write a crazy message).

There is a DVD (some of it is not is such great shape) from
mediastation.comwhich is a good representation of some of what Becker
was up to.

Jeff Sultanof

On Tue, Oct 27, 2009 at 12:46 AM, Cary Ginell <soundthink at live.com>
wrote:

>
> Growing up in L.A., I only got to see Sandy Becker's show one time - during
> a visit to my grandparents' house in Brooklyn in the summer of 1964. I
> remember only one thing about Becker's show: the theme song, which, as I
> later found out, was "The Happy Trumpet" by Bert Kaempfert. I tried to
> figure that out for years. Can anyone describe his show? I know we're
> getting off-topic, but it's an irresistible topic.
>
>
>
> Cary Ginell
>
> > Date: Mon, 26 Oct 2009 23:45:09 -0400
> > From: jeffsultanof at gmail.com
> > To: 78-l at klickitat.78online.com
> > Subject: Re: [78-L] Soupy Sales: One of jazz's best friends is gone
> >
> > Soupy, Chuck McCann and Sandy Becker were my TV heroes growing up in New
> > York. Brilliant does not begin to describe the sheer creativity of the
> shows
> > they hosted; Sandy was so off-the-wall and surreal. I've managed to get
> DVDs
> > of the little that is out there from these shows, specifically to share
> them
> > with my son when he is old enough to understand them (he is only 14
> months
> > now).
> >
> > I remember so clearly Soupy's serial "Philo Kvetch," where he ran around
> New
> > York like a maniac. His face was rubber, his expressions would make me
> laugh
> > for days. It's such a pity that most of his show is now gone. He was a
> true
> > star as far as I'm concerned.
> >
> > Jeff Sultanof
> >
> > On Mon, Oct 26, 2009 at 10:36 PM, Royal Pemberton <ampex354 at gmail.com
> >wrote:
> >
> > > 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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