"Frank McMenimen, Soupy Sales and Tiger Michiels, Pie in Your Face! Hollywood, California 1962"

     In 1975 the "Our Gang from Hollywood" left Hollywood and headed north to the San Joaquin Valley town of Visalia, California, for an antique motorcycle meet.  Bud Ekins, Betty Ekins, Susie Ekins, Donna Ekins, Steve McQueen, Chad McQueen, Ali MacGraw, Josh Evans, Darby Collins, Dewitt Burdick, Chris Burdick, Urban Hursch, and Tiger Michiels, what a crew! We had a great time riding antique motorcycles and high wheelers. (More stories to tell here, high wheeler and auto almost meet, flat tire, Steve using my old auto engine air pump on my 1950 Chevy Suburban). 

     Saturday evening I went out and bought 5 pizzas, 5 buckets of chicken, several hamburgers, fries, sodas, beer, and two large cream pies. I loaded up the old suburban and headed back to Steve & Ali's room. All thirteen of us ended up having a party in Steve & Ali's small hotel room. No one knew I had the pies. I snuck one pie to Steve and said, "Nail Ali". Then I snuck another pie to Ali and said, "Nail Steve". When they both stood up and walked toward each other the pies flew, and the food fight had begun! I have a picture in my mind of Steve and me lying on his bed with pie and food all over us. The actual photo did not turn out, camera malfunction. Wish I had a photo of that hotel room!

     Slapstick TV Comedian Soupy Sales Dead At Age 83

     Considered by many to be a comedic genius, Soupy Sales has died of cancer at the age of 83. Born Milton Supman, Soupy Sales became one of the enduring comic faces of 1950s and '60s television. His show, first in Detroit then in Los Angeles, was a hit with kids. This passage from the New York Daily News kind of sums up the appeal:

     No true fan can forget the New Year's Day 1965 live broadcast on WNEW. Sales, miffed at having to work the holiday, signed off by encouraging his young viewers to tiptoe into their still-sleeping parents' bedrooms and remove those "funny green pieces of paper with pictures of U.S. Presidents" from their pants and pocketbooks.

     "Put them in an envelope and mail them to me," Sales instructed. "And I'll send you a postcard from Puerto Rico!"

     Soupy Sales was a beloved pie-in-the-face type of comic that was beloved by the Baby Boomer generation. Soupy's friend, Dave Usher, said the comic died of cancer at Calvary Hospice in the Bronx. The comedian was born Milton Supman in North Carolina. He was most well-known for his children's show "Lunch with Soupy Sales."The show's silly sketches had crazy characters like White Fang, Pookie the Lion, Peaches, Philo Kvetch, The Mask, "Onions" Oregano".

     Most of his shows ended with Soupy Sales getting a pie smashed in his face, and it became his trademark. Celebrities such as Frank Sinatra, Tony Curtis and Shirley Maclaine appeared to throw the pies at Soupy.

     Soupy said he was hit with about 20,000 pies during his career. Later in the eighties, Soupy Sales had a radio show in New York and appeared in the comedy "Birds Do It." Soupy was also a regular on " What's My Line?" from 1968 to 1975.

     After Sales retired, he lived in New York. Soupy Sales is survived by his wife Trudy and their two sons, Hunt and Tony. 

Soupy Sales Death: Comedian Was Known For Throwing Pies

Submitted by K.R. Gomez on October 23, 2009

HOLLYWOOD, Calif. - The entertainment industry is mourning the death of legendary comedian Soupy Sales, who died Thursday in New York following a lengthy illness. He was 83. Sales died at Calvary Hospice in the Bronx, his former manager and longtime friend, Dave Usher, told the Associated Press.

Sales was born Milton Supman on Jan. 8, 1926, in Franklinton, N.C. He began his television career in Cincinnati and Cleveland before heading to Detroit in 1953, where he hosted "Lunch with Soupy," a half-hour show that featured a cast of imagined characters. Sales moved to Los Angeles in 1961 and eventually became a fill-in host on "The Tonight Show."While his greatest success most likely came in New York with the children's program "The Soupy Sales Show," the comic's pie-throwing schtick was his trademark, with celebrities like Frank Sinatra and Tony Curtis among the stars lining up to take one on the chin."I'll probably be remembered for the pies, and that's all right," Sales said in a 1985 interview.

The comedian is survived by his wife, Trudy, and two sons, Hunt and Tony.