Soupy Sales, comedian, dead at 83

NEW YORK, Oct. 23 (UPI) -- U.S. comedian Soupy Sales, who was suffering from numerous ailments, has died at New York's Calvary Hospital, his friend said. He was 83.

Kathy O'Connell, a longtime friend, confirmed his death Thursday to the Los Angeles Times.

Sales was a stand-up comedian who established a "first" on television by throwing a gooey custard pie into the face of Frank Sinatra.

The slapstick act happened on the premiere of a weekly TV series in 1960 starring Sales. At the time Sinatra was at the top of his popularity and was regarded by his following as something of a

demigod. However, Sinatra was a fan of Sales and agreed to submit to the pie-in-the-face gimmick to get Soupy's show off to a good start. Among others who followed Sinatra in the pie-face sequence were Jerry Lewis, Burt Lancaster, Mickey Rooney and Tony Curtis.

Sales emerged as a television comedian during a period when some monologists used puppets to win laughs. In his desire to exaggerate, Sales performed with a grunting white dog puppet called "White Fang," that was so monstrous only a paw was shown on camera.

After he was established as a first-rate TV comedian, Sales appeared as a regular on "What's My Line," taking part in 1,500 shows over a seven-year period.

Sales was born Morton Supman on Jan. 8, 1926 in Wake Forest, N.C. He received his elementary school and high school education in Huntington, W.Va., where he first became interested in dramatics. He entered

Marshall University and received a bachelor of arts degree in journalism and remained in Huntington after graduation and took a job on a local radio station as a script writer for $20 a week. He also performed in area nightclubs.

"I remember driving 80 miles to perform at these clubs for $15 a night," Sales told an interviewer. "The money wasn't much, but the experience was invaluable."

Sales then took a job as a disc jockey in Huntington. Shortly afterward, he went to Cincinnati to begin his career in television in 1950 as host of a dance program, "Soupy's Soda Shop." He later appeared

in Cincinnati on "Club Nothing," a talk show which gave him a chance to try some of his routines.

In 1963, he took his act to Detroit where he became a dominating television personality for seven years, winning a Saturday morning spot on the ABC-TV network with "Lunch With Soupy Sales," the first kiddie

show to win a good rating without the use of cartoons.

Sales moved to California in 1960 to launch the "Soupy Sales Show" for ABC-TV and earn top ratings. Four years later he moved the show to New York as a local offering, but in two years it became a nationwide hit.

He appeared on Broadway in "Come Live With Me," which was rapped by the critics. In St. Louis, he played the role of Nathan Detroit in a revival of "Guys and Dolls," which won critical acclaim.

During the 1970s, he appeared in nightclubs and had a regular spot for three years on TV on the "Sha Na Na" show.

He was still in demand on TV, summer stock, and in nightclubs in the 1980s and 1990s, serving as host of a radio show on WNBC in New York in the mid-1980s and playing Moses in the 1993 cult comedy film "...And God Spoke."

Sales is survived by his wife of 29 years, Trudy Carson Sales; sons Tony and Hunt from a previous marriage; a brother; and four grandchildren, the Times said.