Pie-In-The-Face King Soupy Sales Dies at 83
The TV comic has died, but his legacy of pies in the face will live on forever.
Soupy Sales, whose career was basically built on giving, or taking, pies to the face, has died in New York at 83.
He had many health problems and entered a hospice last week, said his long-time manager and friend, David Usher.
"In the 50's and 60's, Sales was one of the best-known faces in the nation," Usher said. "If President Eisenhower would have walked down the street, no one would have recognized him as much as Soupy."
Sales began his TV career in Cincinnati and Cleveland, then moved to Detroit. He moved to Los Angeles in 1961.
His pie-throwing schtick became his trademark, and celebrities all but lined-up to get one in their faces, or to stand there while a whipped-cream pie came hurling out of nowhere to smack Sales square on the nose. TV viewers from that golden age generally found it absolutely hilarious.
"I'll probably be remembered for the pies, and that's all right," Sales said in a 1985 interview.
