Prime-Time Pie Thrower

Soupy Sales is a short-haired fellow with a kumquat nose, a moron-the-merrier expression, a crushed stovepipe hat, buttoned collar and huge bow tie. His metier is sick slapstick. He gets laughs by biting off a neighbor's hangnail or hitting an old lady with a custard pie--not in the face, but up under her arm, as if the pie were a small bucket of Ban.

Actually, it is an ordinary pie crust full of shaving cream, and 36-year-old Soupy Sales (born Milton Hines) makes about $150,000 a year largely for his exploitation of this antic vaudeville wheeze. He can fill up five minutes of TV air time simply getting schlopped with pie after pie. Who likes the act? Hordes of juvenile and juvenile-minded viewers--also, it appears, Frank Sinatra. And what Sinatra likes, the Clan likes and loyally supports.

Heretofore a local attraction in Detroit and Los Angeles, Soupy reached the big time last week: ABC put him on its network schedule in prime evening time. Soupy flung around countless pies on opening night, mostly directed at a dear old lady hobbling on a stick. But to make sure the show was boffo in the ratings race, Sinatra himself turned up. Knowing what was coming, Frankie had prudently dispensed with his toupee, leaving him barely recognizable to a large segment of his fans. Gallantly, on cue--schlopp--he took a pie in the face. Last week, following the leader, Clansman Tony Curtis showed up to get creamed.

The Clan has obviously picked a new court jester, and television had something else to explain away.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.