[Whilst the tea cools and the email comes up…]
There’s nothing like a good pie fight sequence. And this is nothing like a good pie fight sequence. No, that’s not right.
Many of you know that I like good children’s television from the 1950s and 1960s. One of the best hosts of that time was a fellow out of Detroit called Soupy Sales. This was an incredibly funny show, with humor and slapstick aimed at both adults and children. Stories are often told about the New Years Day incident, when Soupy supposedly told children to tiptoe into their still-sleeping parents’ bedrooms and remove those “funny green pieces of paper” from their pants and pocketbooks. “Put them in an envelope and mail them to me,” Soupy allegedly instructed the children. “And you know what I’m going to send you? A post card from Puerto Rico!”
Soupy was known for a rapid-fire stream of sketches, gags, and puns, almost all resulting in Soupy receiving a pie in the face, which became his trademark. Not much of Soupy is available on video, but there is one collection available.
Why am I mentioning all this? This morning, mark_evanier posted a link to a Soupy Sales YouTube video featuring a pie fight between Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis, Trini Lopez, and disc jockey William B. Williams. The annoying kid is played by Frank Nastasi, who was Soupy’s sidekick-puppeteer on his New York shows. This originally aired September 10, 1965. The beginning of the video shows Soupy’s punning style.
It’s not the best pie fight around (I do prefer the one in the Great Race), but it’s pretty good. Did you say you wanted pie?
