Sadly, Soupy Sales passed away yesterday at the age of 83 (obituary in the New York Times today). As my previous post about him noted, Soupy became an icon of children's TV in the 1950's and 1960's. Soupy was the master of pie-throwing (or should I say pie-receiving), and by his own count some 20,000 pies were thrown at Soupy's face or those of his guests on Soupy's shows (incuding Frank Sinatra, Tony Curtis, and Jerry Lewis). But Soupy was much more than a slapstick artist. He combined and transmogrified the standard elements of previous children's shows -- puppets, music, clowning, and vaudeville antics -- into a zany, largely unscripted new blend that appealed to children, teens, college students, and adults alike. Lunch with Soupy Sales wasn't just a TV show but more like a hip club that made viewers feel as if they were insiders to something very cool and crazy. In the words of one 13-year-old Soupy fan, as quoted in the New York Times, "He's great, he's a nut like us."
The Soupy Sales show was a unique kids’ show with lots of adult appeal that made us all feel like little hipsters.Soupy, a multi- talented performer, hosted several local, national, and syndicated children’s shows from the 1950’s through the 1970’s, with broadcasts originating from Detroit, Los Angeles, and New York. He reached the height of his popularity with the syndicated show produced in New York City beginning in 1964.
Soupy’s show was a kind of ironic twist on the standard conventions of earlier kids’ TV shows, combining vaudeville antics (primarily in the form of frequent pies in the face, which became Soupy’s trademark), puppets, Laugh-In-style comedy sketches, musical numbers that made use of Soupy’s extensive jazz record collection, and guest appearances by major stars of the day, like Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis, Jr., and singing groups like the Shangri-Las and the Supremes. Much of the show was ad-libbed, which gave it a loose and slightly dangerous feeling – you knew that anything could happen on the show, and it often did.
The puppets on the show were pretty strange.White Fang, billed as “The Biggest and Meanest Dog in the USA,” appeared only as a giant white shaggy paw at the edge of the TV screen.Fang spoke only in grunts and growls, which Soupy hilariously translated for the viewers.Fang threw pies at Soupy when Soupy’s jokes bombed.There was also Black Tooth, “The Biggest and Sweetest Dog in the USA,” whoappeared as a giant furry black paw and spoke with similarly unintelligible but somewhat more feminine doggy sounds, and would pull Soupy off-camera to give him loud wet kisses.
Pookie the Lion was a little hand-puppet who appeared on a puppet stage behind Soupy.Despite his cuddly appearance, Pookie was a hipster who engaged in rapid-fire repartee with Soupy.He often greeted Soupy with, “Hey bubby, want a kiss?”Pookie would mouth the words to jazz, soul, or pop recordings while he and Soupy bopped around to the music.
Soupy’s show also featured a number of live characters, including Peaches, Soupy’s girlfriend, played by Soupy in drag; Philo Kvetch, a private detective played by Soupy; The Mask, Philo’s evil nemesis, also played by Soupy and later revealed to be deposed USSR leader Nikita Khrushchev; and Onions Oregano, The Mask’s henchman, played by actor Frank Nastasi, who was always eating onions.Every time he breathed in Philo’s direction, Philo would choke and make faces, spray air freshener around, and exclaim, “Get those onions out of here!”
There are a couple of notorious incidents that took place on the show that illustrate how unpredictable and edgy the live show could be.One occurred on New Year’s Day in 1965, when Soupy was apparently annoyed about having to do the show on a holiday.At the end of the broadcast, Soupy urged his young viewers to tiptoe into their still-sleeping parents’ bedrooms and remove the “funny green pieces of paper with pictures of US presidents” from their parents’ wallets.Soupy told the kids to put the bills in an envelope and mail them to him, promising to send them back a postcard from Puerto Rico.Then he got hit in the face by a pie.
When Soupy began receiving envelopes with cash in the mail, he was forced to explain on his show that he had only been kidding and would donate the unreturnable money to charity.But complaints by parents poured into WNEW, the New York City station that produced Soupy’s show, and the station’s management suspended Soupy’s show for two weeks to try to appease the public.Of course, this only generated a backlash by Soupy’s outraged fans, and even led to children picketing the station’s offices.When Soupy returned to the air, he was more popular than ever.
Another time, Soupy’s studio crew played a joke on Soupy on his birthday.The show supposedly took place in Soupy’s living room, and a continuing skit involved someone knocking on Soupy’s door and Soupy opening the door to find a guest celebrity or an off-screen character that the home audience couldn’t see, that Soupy would comically interact with.On Soupy’s birthday, Soupy opened the door to encounter an off-screen stripper who proceeded to perform her act to the tune of “The Stripper,” a popular musical number at the time.Though the home viewers only saw the beach ball that the “stripper” used strategically as part of her act, Soupy saw the entire number and thought that the home audience could see her, too.Soupy and the crew cracked up, but Soupy seemed a little worried about audience complaints.Sure enough, though nothing explicit was broadcast, controversy ensued, which only enhanced the delight that Soupy’s outlaw behavior generated among his young fans.
Shari Lewis and her puppets Lamb Chop, Hush Puppy, and Charlie Horse, entertained and delighted several generations of children during the five decades that they appeared on television.Unlike other kids’ show hosts who worked with puppets, Shari Lewis was a talented ventriloquist who manipulated and provided the voices for her puppets as she interacted with them on the air.
Though many of us were first introduced to Shari and her puppets on the nationally telecast Shari Lewis Show, which ran on NBC from 1960-1963, Shari Lewis had previously hosted two local kids’ shows in New York in the 1950’s, The Kartoon Club and Shari and Her Friends. On The Kartoon Club, Shari played the role of the Mayoress of the mythical kingdom of Kartoonia.The show featured a live studio audience, whom Shari entertained with cartoons, games, songs, stories, arts and crafts, magic tricks, informational segments, and skits with puppet characters Taffy Twinkle, Randy Rocket, and Pip Squeak.
The national Shari Lewis Show debuted in 1960, when it replaced The Howdy Doody Show on NBC.Starring the effervescent and multitalented Ms. Lewis with her flaming red hair, the show also featured a set of hand-puppets that Shari brought to hilarious life.Lamb Chop was essentially a sock puppet whose character was that of a shy, soft-spoken, but mischievous and wise-cracking 6-year-old little lamb, who seemed to serve as a sassy alter-ego for Shari. Hush Puppy was a sweet 7-year-old country bumpkin, and Charlie Horse was a cocky, buck-toothed 10-year-old.In addition to her skits with the puppets, Shari also exhibited her song and dance talents on the show, often teaching moral lessons through her performances.
Some 15 years later, Shari starred in a new version of The Shari Lewis Show that aired on NBC and in syndication from 1975-1977.This show focused on pro-social storylines and featured a cast of twenty-five animal puppets including Lamb Chop and a kangaroo named Captain Person, who worked for Bearly Broadcasting Studios (BBS).
In the 1990s, Shari Lewis hosted Lamb Chop’s Play-Along on PBS, a half-hour interactive show that encouraged children to participate by acting out stories, songs, stunts, games and activities. She also starred in another hit PBS series The Charlie Horse Music Pizza show, which was one of her last projects before her death in 1998.
Though Shari Lewis modernized and adapted her shows to suit the pace and sophistication of each successive generation of young viewers, she never deviated from her essential philosophy and format of actively engaging and educating her audience as she entertained them.With her vivacious personality and childlike excitement, she often seemed like a kid herself rather than a teacher or mother-figure.Together with the wonderful hand-puppets she created, I think that’s what made her show so special.
There probably isn’t an adult in the US today who hasn’t watched some version of Bozo the Clown when they were growing up.In one form or another, Bozo was one of the longest-running kids’ shows in TV history.The earliest version of the Bozo show began airing in 1949 in Los Angeles, and the show continued to air around the country until 2001.Like Romper Room before it, Bozo’s show was both syndicated and franchised, which means that many local TV stations produced their own version of the show.Each show was hosted by an actor made up as Bozo the Clown, a circus clown with typical white-face make-up, red clown nose, and brightly-colored clown suit with a large frilly collar.What made Bozo special was his hair – a huge bright red-orange mass that stuck out and up about a foot from the sides of his white bald head.
Like many children’s shows in the early days of TV, the show at first had a fairly simple format in which the host just introduced and transitioned among a series of cartoon segments, including a cartoon that featured an animated Bozo.Later, the Bozo the Clown show (sometimes called Bozo’s Circus or Bozo’s Big Top) took on more of a circus or vaudeville format, with many of the local shows seeming to take place inside a circus tent, with a live studio audience of children (sometimes mixed with parents), and offering a variety of circus acts, comedy routines, cartoons, and segments that featured other recurring characters and often local children engaging in games and contests.
The most successful and probably best-known local version of the Bozo franchise was the show produced in Chicago by WGN-TV, which featured Bob Bell as Bozo.It evolved into Bozo’s Circus, a live hour-long show with a 13-piece orchestra, 200-member live studio audience, and multiple cast of characters, including Ringmaster Ned, Oliver O. Oliver, Sandy the Clown, Mr. Bob the Bandleader, and Cooky the Cook .At one point, there was a ten-year wait for tickets to be part of the show’s studio audience.The Chicago show was also syndicated to stations around the country which didn’t or couldn’t produce their own version of the show.
The Boston version of the Bozo the Clown show was also very popular locally and syndicated nationwide for several years.Hosted by Bob Avruch as Bozo, the show at one time featured actor/puppeteer Caroll Spinney as “Mr. Lion” and “Kookie the Boxing Kangaroo.”Spinney later went on to portray Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch on Sesame Street.
In New York, WPIX was the first station to produce a local version of the Bozo the Clown show in 1959, starring Bill Britten as Bozo.In 1964, WOR created and produced its own Bozo Show, featuring singer/actor Gordon Ramsey as Bozo, together with a cast of characters that included Grandma Nelly, Professor Tweetiefoofer, Slimjim, Snappy Pappy, and the Circus Boss.
Before he became the TODAY Show’s weatherman, Willard Scott starred as Bozo in the Washington D.C. version of the Bozo show.Scott went on to portray the Bozo-inspired “Ronald McDonald” clown character in McDonald’s commercials.
Over the years, stories have circulated about children on the Bozo show who used profanity or said something nasty to Bozo on the air, or about Bozo himself saying something nasty back to one of the kids when he didn’t think the microphone was on.Though it’s clear that Bozo was the inspiration for the curmudgeonly Krusty the Klown character on the Simpsons, I guess we’ll never know if any of these stories about bad behavior on the Bozo show are actually true.
During its five decades on the air, Romper Room gave millions of young children their first exposure to a preschool/kindergarten environment.The show featured a hostess who would lead a group of 7-8 children in various educational and play activities.The children were about 4-5 years old, and were rotated every couple of months.Running from 1953-1994, Romper Room was originally filmed in Baltimore, later moved to Chicago, and then returned to Baltimore in 1981.The show was franchised and syndicated, which means that local stations could opt to produce their own versions of the show instead of airing a national telecast.So if you watched the show when you were little, chances are that you saw a different hostess and different kids on the set than viewers in other parts of the country did.
Just like real schoolrooms in those days, each show would begin with the hostess leading the kids in reciting the Pledge of Allegiance.Then the hostess would read books to the kids, teach them the alphabet, and direct them in playing games, doing exercises, singing songs, and learning moral lessons and polite behavior, all accompanied by background music.
Consistent with the show's schoolroom ethos, many of the Romper Room hostesses were former kindergarten teachers who knew how to deal with young children, and they were always addressed as “Miss” by the children on the show, as real teachers were addressed by their students in those days.When Romper Room debuted in Baltimore, its first hostess was Nancy Claster (“Miss Nancy”), who helped produce the series together with her husband.She was later replaced by her daughter, “Miss Sally.”In New York City, Romper Room was hosted by “Miss Louise,” followed by “Miss Mary Ann” and then “Miss Nancy” (Nancy Terrell).
The show also featured Do-Bee, a recurring character in a bumblebee costume, whose role on the show was to teach the children manners and proper behavior.He would always start his sentences with “Do Bee…” and then add a statement about how children should behave (e.g., “Do Bee polite to your parents!”).
One of the show’s features that I remember well would come at the end of the show, when the hostess would hold a “magic mirror” up to her face (actually just an open hand mirror frame, minus the mirror) and look through it to see all the viewers out in “televisionland.” She would then recite this rhyme:“Romper, bomper, stomper, boo!Tell me, tell me, tell me do.Magic Mirror, tell me today, have all my friends had fun at play?”Then she would start naming some of the children that she could “see” watching at home:“I can see Scotty and Kimberly and Julie and Jimmy and Kelly and all of you boys and girls out there!”Parents would mail in their kids’ names, so that they would be read out loud on the show.Of course it was quite a thrill if you heard your name called out (and if you had a fairly common name, chances were good that you would hear it at some point)!
