When I was a very little girl, I wanted a dog desperately. Not even a whole dog -- just a couple of big, expressively funny paws. Because that's what Soupy had. I wanted to be hit in the face with pies, and sing silly songs to make people laugh on live TV. Because that's what Soupy did.
Soupy Sales was my favorite funny man when I came into comic consciousness in the late 50's. Pinky Lee's pace put me off. Clowns kind of scared me. Sandy Becker talked to babies like we were babies. Ernie Kovacs' comedy was too heady. Silly Steve Allen was on too late at night. Soupy slayed me because on his afternoon kids' show, he was a childlike man who brought out the kid in my parents. He made my house happy. His loosey goosey style of anti-timing on his live, one man, half-hour television show's kitsch-studded set inspired Pee Wee Herman's Playhouse.
His show had a big demographic. The hip and silly of all ages were his people. Frank Sinatra was one of his biggest fans, and many famous jazz artists wanted to be hit by his pies and pawed by his puppets. His daring double entendres snuck past the censors, delighting America's adults until, in a rebellion against some ABC dictates, he asked the kids in the audience to mail him some green pieces of paper from their parents' wallets one afternoon, and some grown ups stopped laughing. He was unceremoniously removed from the network. Then, as a hip, leading edge fan of jazz and rock and roll, he hosted a teen dance and music show, but a network head said, "Who wants to watch a bunch of kids dancing around?!" It, too, was quickly cancelled, then ripped off two years later by Dick Clark's never ending "American Bandstand."
When I was first flown out to Los Angeles in 1978 and invited to sign with the William Morris Agency, they asked me if there was any big star I was dying to meet. "Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, Carol Burnett...We've got everybody!" But I wanted Soupy, so my reps surprised me by setting up a Polo Lounge lunch with him. Being with the William Morris Agency was like having rich parents.
Two of my agents and I met him in the old Beverly Hills Hotel lobby. I was awed seeing this handsome, now middle-aged man in a gray suit approach. He gave a slight shrug of humility and a hello, and I looked more closely and was Jewbilant! (from the New Jewish Dictionary—"delight in realizing one's favorite celebrity is Jewish.") Now he really felt like family! I suddenly wondered if all us Jewish folks are destined to look and act more Jewish as we age, if a shrug and inflection suddenly set in at the stroke of forty to deem us undeniably Jewish.
I wondered if all us Jewish folks are destined to look and act more Jewish as we age.
What had thrown me was that he had a strong Southern accent, and I, being raised in the North East U.S. Tri State area, thought all us Jews everywhere sounded exactly the same. Having been born Milton Supman in North Carolina, raised in Virginia, he had been both brissed and bar mitzfahed like good Jewish boys everywhere, but had said his haftorah with a Southern Twang. He also had that rebellious questioning of authority thing going on like many of us, and the authorities had slapped Soupy unsilly.
I told him I had wanted to be just like him when and if I grew up to be funny, and asked him about his influences. He said he'd played Peter Rabbit, was always the class clown in grade school, had a radio show in the Navy, but apparently the Ritz Brothers and Milton Berle had piqued his drive to be a professional. His late mother, Sadie, had been a very funny woman, maybe to cope with the death of his father when Soup was only five years old and she had three sons to rear.
But he was still an ingenuous juvenile in adult clothing and I was still a sucker for silly. After lunch, during which we spoke quite seriously about comedy, he took a trip to the men's room, and came back with his suit jacket tucked billowing into his trousers to shake my hand goodbye. The guy still had it!
Following in his footsteps, I got myself hit in the face with a pie whilst playing a goofy ingenue in a silly film a few years later, and got to be on a daringly live, rebellious ABC comedy show just like my idol Soup.
A few years later, Soupy's old show was being resurrected for a run on a local station and my agents invited me to the first taping. I was his happy, lone, live laugh track that day. All the old earmarks were there -- the old fashioned radio, Pookie the lip synching puppet, Frank Nastasio, the voice and arms of White Fang and Black Tooth, who would drag Soupy by the neck off camera to give him wet, noisy smooches. "Don't kiss!" he'd grimace, wiping imaginary dog drool off his cheek. To see him was to love him.
But the show was short-lived. Audiences, now primed by edgy new live shows like "That was the Week That Was" and "Saturday Night Live" and "Fridays" for hard hitting political satire and big casts of comically charismatic performers, had evolved. And Soupy slipped away to talk and music show hosting on NBC radio in New York. He still lives happily with his ex Rockette wife, Trudy, who was a plant on the Ed Sullivan Show in the sixties, brought up to do the "Soupy Shuffle" with him. They're still shufflin' together to Jazz Clubs in Manhattan from their home on the Lower East Side.
I can't possibly explain how this childlike man could once reduce my parents, baby sister and me to childish, helpless giggles with his goofy, freewheeling schtick. So I'll send you to a Soupy site so you can take a peek and become Soupy groupies, too: http://www.tvparty.com/soupy.html
(12) Marcy, August 12, 2008 7:33 PM
Frank Nastasi
Yes, it was Frank NASTASI, who took over for Clyde Adler. I was at many, many tapings at channel 5 in NY. I used to cut school,(more times than I would like to admit) I sure do miss Frank.
(11) Moshe Chertoff, October 14, 2007 5:29 PM
Great Memories, Great Article
I can still do almost all my imitations of the voices on the show. "ble o'ble, o'ble o'ble!" I still do the Soupy Shuffle once in a while. Kids can't get enough of it.
(10) Gary Katz, October 12, 2007 2:24 PM
Good article!
Interesting stuff. Finally I have a name ("Jewbilant") to assign to that satisfaction and pride in discovering a well-liked celebrity is one of the tribe.
(9) Steven Kalka, October 11, 2007 7:47 PM
Re: Correction
The puppeteer on The Soupy Sales Show was named Frank Nastasi.
(8) Mrs. D., October 10, 2007 8:53 PM
about those "green papers"
AS the story actually goes (according to his first-hand re-account of this on a late-nite radio talk show interview a few years back): The ever-clever Soupy had a brainstorm for his show the day after New Year's eve,i.e. Jan 1, that would work since the kids would all be watching and the parents would be out cold...he conspiratorially whispered to all the kids out there in TV land to follow his directions: "Go to mommy and Daddy's bedroom and open the door VERRRY QUIETLY - they'll be sleeping and we wouldn't want to wake Daddy up, now, would we? THen go over to the floor near the bed. You'll see his pants lying there. Now, VERRY QUIETLY - I want you to find his wallet in the pocket. Have you found it? Good! Now look inside, and you'll see lots of pieces of green paper with numbers on them. Take one paper out, and then put the wallet back so you won't disturb your parents. Now go look in Daddy's desk drawer for an envelope and a stamp. Put the green paper with the numbers on it inside and put the stamp on the outside like this. Then write on the envelope"SOUPY SALES C/O channel ---, NY, NY" and quickly run out and put it in the mailbox. Good kid!"
Honestly, Soupy said he was having some fun and would never have expected what resulted: in the next few days, thousands of envelopes arrived addressed to him from all over, with those "Green Papers" enclosed. Naturally he could have celebrated, but of course his station wasn't to enamored of his joke this time. As far as I recall, I think he said he returned all the dough (though I assume there were plenty of envelopes that came without return addresses....)
(7) Rich, October 10, 2007 2:01 PM
A lot of us Boomers loved Soupy!
What a delightful memory, almost forgotten. Soupy ranked only below a couple of cowboy shows and the World Series for me. Thanks, Melanie, for causing me to remember! Nicely done.
(6) Abe, October 9, 2007 11:29 PM
A kid in Detroit watching Soupy...
Melanie's story brought tears to my eyes thinking about Soupy and the dogs. Those memories are priceless. Does anyone remember Johnny Ginger?
(5) janet, October 9, 2007 8:30 PM
Frank's last name was Nastasi
I enjoyed the article. I enjoyed Soupy Sale to the point that a friend and i used to regularly cut junior high school and take a subway to wnew studios and sit in the informal audience. We lied about our age, if anyone asked, saying we were studnts from nearby Hunter College, and had the high heels to prove it (and worked on toning the Bronx out of our diction). Soupy and Frank Nastasi (no O on the end) were kind and charming to us as they were to the other girls who reguented the studio and lied abut their ages too (overheard in the sound booth one day:"Hey Joanie, get your school supplies yet?" Haha! knew it!)Ginnie the nurse used to stop by before or after her shift too. Soupy used to kid around with cameraman Ralph Spaniardi "from the Bronx". Gerri, another friend and i ran away from home one hot summers day. We got tossed from one place when our families came looking for us. Then we remembered Ralph lived in the Bronx, and he was listed. We showed up on his doorstep, but he wasn't home. His brother Richard, however, was a really nice fellow who lived in the same house, different apartment. We lied, of course, saying we were close friends of Richard, and that the husband of one of us threw us, her friends out, so she left too. This very sweet man invited us in, let us shower (we three squeezed in at once, approriate for the 14&15 year olds we actually were, not common behavior in the mature women we pretended to be) and then crowded in his large bachelor-style bed while he slept on the couch. We giggled the entire night, excited to be at the home of the brother of Soupy Sale's camera man and proud to be undeservedly treated like adults. In retrospect, i realize now he probably figured why Fran's ficticious husband threw us all out. the next morning Ralph wasn't back yet and Richie offered to drive us anywhere, but he didn't want us there because he was, uh, expecting company. We said, "Oh we don't mind company" but he insisted. so we four(including him) managed to somehow squeeze into his 2 seater MG. we were sitting on their shoulders practically, and had to hunch over when we got on the highway because he feared it was illegally over-passengered, so he put the top up and we had to hunch over. Did i mention we had suitcases as well? Anyway. we then went to Frank Nastasi's apartment. His wife Ruth asnwered the door and said sorry, but Frank was busy, they had company. I am sure the sight of us with suitcases was not a welcome one. We wandered about NY, , our eye makeup streaked from the heat.A young man hanging out at a corner store, named Ronnie felt sorry for us and gave us all his change, which was kind to the bizarre sight of 3 girls in high heels with suitcases strolling through Harlem at midnight. The next day we went to the studio, figuring maybe Soupy would take us in (this rationale coming from three bright Yiddishe girls, we were not short on chutzpah, that's for sure). Well, the good news was we were going to be down in the studio (vs. up in the dam sound booth). Suddenely, an arm goes around my shoulder, and anotehr arounds Frans'. i look up and say hi to familiar, but out of context face: It is Fran's father. "Ready to go home girls?" he says. At that moment fran processes who he is and runs out of th studio and up the street. Gerri whispers to me,"Oh great! Now they'll know we're runaways", or some such thing. In fact, i doubt anyone else noticed a thing. We quietly got into the waiting car, were deposited back to our homes thus ending what could have been(yeah right!) our moment with the Handsome Soupy Sales. He and Frank had birthdays a day apart (I believe it was Jan 8&9). I always think of them on those days. I read Frank passed away a few years back. Sorry for taking up so much space, i felt inspired.
(4) Jeff, October 9, 2007 5:13 PM
What did he say?
If Melanie is a souper friend and admirer, I want to be the kreplach in her soup!
Do I EVER remember Fang, Pies in the face, jokes that my dad rolling on the floor laughing. At what, I was clueless, but it must have been funny.
One of my favorite "Soupy" skits went something like this:
(Phone ringing; Soupy picks it up)
"Hello?"
"You don't say. You don't say. You DON'T SAY! Well, Goodbye!"
(Fang) "Uh-uh-UHH-uhhh?"
(Soupy) "What did he say? HE DIDN'T SAY"!
Absolutely hilarious.
(3) yael, October 8, 2007 2:09 PM
Loved Soupy
Thanks for a great story, I grew up watching him with my parents, and I still make references to things he used to do and say on the show-
(2) TYBIE ABRAMS, October 8, 2007 11:55 AM
MY MOTHER MADE 'GRIBENES' FOR SOUPY
MY BROTHER, ART SEIDEL WORKED WITH SOUPY ON CHANNEL 5 (AND SANDY BECKER AND ARTIE FORREST). SOMEHOW THE WORD 'GRIBINES' CAME UP AND SOUPY SAID HE HADN'T HAD GRIBENES IN YEARS. MY MOTHER MADE A BATCH AND I BROUGHT THEM IN TO THE STUDIO (I LIVED IN NJ). HE TOLD MY BROTHER AFTERWARDS SOMETHING ABOUT NOT HAVING HEARTBURN LIKE THAT FOR YEARS. I DON'T REMEMBER EXACTLY WHAT HE SAID BUT IT WAS ALONG THOSE LINES.
YOUR 'SOUPY SPECIAL' BROUGHT ME BACK TO BEING A YOUNG WOMAN WITH YOUNG CHILDREN.
THANK YOU...
TYBIE (ARLENE) SEIDEL ABRAMS
(1) Stu Shiffman, October 8, 2007 11:15 AM
I Love Soupy (more than Lucy)
Thanks, Melanie! I loved Soupy, watching him on TV in New York, and was a devoted fan. How cool that you got to meet him.