Soupy made his name on television in Detroit, then got national exposure as a temporary replacement for Kukla, Fran and Ollie in 1955. His career took him to California and New York, which begat a novelty record and craze called "The Mouse," then into syndicated television with a kids show, and then on the panel of the Wally Bruner/Larry Blyden version of What’s My Line?, with other game shows to follow.
A feature story was devoted to him in the Detroit Free Press on Nov. 22, 1953.
HE ENJOYS TV SUCCESS
Show Business Is Soupy’s Life
BY BETTELOU PETERSON
Free Press Radio-TV Writer
“If you're doing something you like to do, you're a success regardless of how much money you make." So says Soupy Sales.
By his own measuring stick, Soupy must be the most successful man in Detroit. As the proprietor of WXYZ-TV's 12 O'Clock Comics and Soupy's On, he is knee deep in the things he likes best: Kids, singing, dancing and, above all, show business.
• • •
BACK IN HIS HIGH school days in Huntington, W. Vs., when he first felt the lure of entertainment world, Soupy's dad used to say "Go into a profession, go into a profession."
Soupy had three fine examples: his three older brothers, Richard, the eldest, is dentist in Bethesda, Md.; Leonard is a doctor in Kingston, Pa., and Jack, who is next to Soupy in age, is a lawyer in Lancaster, Pa.
But the show business bug bit hard and Soupy has never considered anything else for his life's work. In Huntington, be dipped into radio on a 15-minute local talent show.
In high school, too, he picked up his nickname, Soupy. He was born Milton Hines (on Jan. 8, 1926 in Franklinton, N. C., so that southern accent to genuine). Although the spelling of his last name differed from that of the gentleman with 57 Varieties, the kids thought the coincidence of pronunciation was too good to miss.
• • •
SOUPY GOT in one year of college at Marshall College in Huntington, before the Navy tapped him in 1944. He served 26 months, 12 of them is the Pacific.
Then back to college, where be started a show called Man on the Campus for Huntington's radio station WHTN. He doubled as continuity writer and announcer. After graduation in 1949, he turned to radio full time, but a disagreement with the station manager bounced him out of a job.
In rapid succession, he worked in nightclubs, went back to radio briefly in Huntington, moved to Cincinnati's TV station WKRC, transferred to Cleveland doing both radio and TV work.
• • •
IT WAS ONLY eight months ago he walked into WXYZ for an audition, anxious to try his talent before a larger audience than Cleveland offered.
John Pival of WXYZ had an idea for a noontime show for children, and, impressed with Soupy's work with teenagers in Cincinnati, thought he was the ideal person of the show.
Pival decided a new last name was necessary. After much thought, a run through two telephone books, Pival said, "Chic Sales was a fine old comedian. Your name is Soupy Sales."
Last March 16, Soupy was introduced to Detroit's young fry. In no time he'd changed their lives and they'd changed his.
Stacks of mail from happy mothers tell how youngsters have learned to like the foods Soupy puts on his daily lunch menu; how sick children will eat only for Soupy.
And Soupy and his director Jack Schwartz have learned something about nutrition thinking up their daily menus. Soupy, in fact, finds he has to order only the most balanced and healthful meals when dining out. Too many times, he's found a small fan watching with interest as be tackles his food.
• • •
HIS DAYS ARE bounded in the morning by the Comics show and in the evening by the variety show. An hour's rehearsal before each comic session is followed by a long session in the screening room after the show to select the next day's films.
“You've got to be careful,” says Soupy, "those old movies are full of stuff that a child should never see. Sometimes it takes hours before we have enough footage for the program."
That finished, he goes home for a rest and a romp with young son Tony, 2, and the family Great Dane. Mrs. Sales is a Huntington girl Soupy married before he went to Cincinnati. They worked together in TV there, but she has retired now to be just Mrs. Sales.
• • •
THE SALES HOME is a mecca for youngsters. They just like to watch Soupy as he comes and goes. Occasionally one will push the doorbell and ask for an autograph.
Not so long ago, Soupy recognized one little boy as a steady customer for autographs. “What are you doing with them,” he wanted to know. "I'm selling 'em for five cents apiece,' the enterprising young man told him. After supper Soupy beads back to WXYZ-TV's Maccabees studios and begins preparations for his evening show. It’s long after midnight before he gets home again.
As we indicated above, Soupy went on to a pretty good career. But as time went on, he got resentful. He told Susan Holmes of the Free Press in a story published July 11, 1971. “I realize I’ve done 20 times better and I’m making 20 times more than an awful lot of people who have been in this business as long as I have. I also know there are lots more people making far more money than I am.”
In a string of interviews, he practically obsessed about Laugh-In. Mary Wood of the Cincinnati Post got this opinion out of him (published Oct. 20, 1971): “I’ve always thought that Steve Allen, Ernie Kovacs and I were ahead of our time. A lot of people put me down for my comedy, but they stole a lot of my ideas—the pie throwing and I noticed the bare wound up on Andy Williams show. I started ‘You Bet Your Sweet Bippy’ which Laugh-In took over.
To columnist Roger Doughty in the Poughkeepsie Journal on Aug. 16, 1970, he added. “Since I practically invented it, it seems funny to me that I was never invited to appear on “Laugh-In.’” He continued: “I don’t want to knock anybody, but look at Tim Conway. He did a special last year and it went over well so the brass gave him his own show. It bombed. So what happens? They give him another show. He’ll be doing a variety thing in the fall.”
Several times in that interview, he repeated “Nobody likes me except the people,” adding, “I made it in Detroit. I made it in Los Angeles and I made it in New York. So what happened? Nothing.”
The interviews were supposed to plug a CBS special put together by Ed Sullivan’s production company. Evidently he was more quotable on other things, such as a special ABC had shelved six years earlier.
Still, Doughty pointed out Soupy was being stopped by loving fans along New York’s Fifth Avenue. And Bob Talbert of the Free Press wrote on May 19, 1973: “Life needs more people like Soupy Sales, particularly the uptight world around us today. I’ve been in the private company of many commedians [sic] and comics: Jack Benny, Milton Berle, Bill Cosby, Flip Wilson, etc. None of them, and I mean none, is as totally funny as Soupy Sales. Soupy generally loves making people laugh and works at it. Most comedians will sit around and shoot lines and do pat reactions or takes, but Soupy put himself totally into being entertaining to you. A truly benevolent man.”
"Entertaining" may be the best way to remember Soupy Sales. That's what he was for millions of people. And, we should add, a mouse.
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