I ENTERTAINMENT
sophisticated town. Everybody dress-
ed up and that's what I liked, when
everybody went out, everybody dress-
ed up. Nobody wore jeans and Levis.
It's all right if you're taking out the
trash, but that wasn't the uniform of
the day. I miss all the stores, Hughes
and Hatcher, gone. Kroger's and all
those places. And those great pastries
at Sanders. Oh God!"
But there were bigger things
waiting for Sales, and he left Detroit
Now in his 60s,
comedian Soupy
Sales' words of
wisdom take a
more serious
tone.
cD
Sales once had a popular lunch-time TV show in Detroit.
Soupy Sez
HEIDI PRESS
News Editor
H e's not the same Soupy
Sales I remember from
my youth, the one I had
"lunch with" each day.
Gone are the floppy,
oversized bow tie and tattered top hat.
Gone is the Soupy Shuffle. Gone are
Pookie, White Fang, Black Tooth,
cream pies and the famous
blackboard dispensing Soupy advice.
Gone are the jokes. Soupy is serious,
business-like. I have grown up, and so
has Soupy.
In Detroit recently to appear at
Mark Ridley's Comedy Castle and
Northwood Inn, Sales took time out
to talk about his old Detroit TV show
and his work. Despite the serious tone
he takes in a face-to-face interview,
he's still funnyman Soupy in his
nightclub act, complete with gags and
shtick — but without the cream pies.
Long gone from the Detroit TV
scene — he appeared on Channel 7 in
Lunch With Soupy from 1953 until
1960 — Sales said what he misses
most of all about Detroit are
Lafayette Coney Island hot dogs and
the Detroit Tigers. But he has other
fond memories of the Motor City.
"I loved Detroit; it was great. I
miss the live TV, all the night clubs
and jazz places they had here. Detroit
was a very sophisticated town. It still
is, but in the 1950s it was a very
for Los Angeles, where his Soupy
Sales Show became that city's top TV
show. From there, Sales took his show
to New York, where it, too, topped the
charts, became a winner. In 1966, the
show went national and
international.
Born Milton Supman in Franklin-
ton, N.C., Sales was raised in Hun-
tington, W Va., where he was a
member of the local AZA organiza-
tion. In West Virginia, he got his first
taste of anti-Semitism. He recalled
working for wholesale houses whose
non-Jewish owners seemed prejudic-
ed against Jews. However, since going
into show business, he has not ex-
perienced any bias. "You cannot be
prejudiced in this business and sur-
vive," he asserts.
From a stint in dramatics in high
school, Sales pursued journalism at
Marshall University, where he earn-
ed a B.A. degree. He got a job as a
radio script writer, which led to book-
ings as a stand-up comedian in local
night clubs. He landed a disc jockey
job in Huntington, and later moved to
Cincinnati, where he got his first TV
show, Soupy Soda Shop, America's
first teenage dance program. Soon,
this was followed by Club Nothing, a
45-minute talk show featuring Soupy
humor, guests and music. Just prior
to coming to Detroit, Sales perform-
ed on both radio and TV in Cleveland.
As a kid, people joked about his
name, turning Supman into "Soup-
man" and finally into "Soupy". For a
time, he was Soupy Hines, and final-
ly got the name that made him
famous — Soupy Sales.
The comedian has no particular
causes, Jewish or otherwise, with
which he affiliates. Because he is on
the road with club dates, he just
doesn't have the time to make ap-
pearances for them. Instead, he
-
I GOING PLACES
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