Soupy Sales

“Milton Supman (January 8, 1926 – October 22, 2009), known professionally as Soupy Sales, was an American comedian, actor, radio/television personality, and jazz aficionado. He was best known for his local and network children’s television show Lunch with Soupy Sales (1953–1966), a series of comedy sketches frequently ending with Sales receiving a pie in the face, which became his trademark. … Improvised and slapstick in nature, Lunch with Soupy Sales was a rapid-fire stream of comedy sketches, gags, and puns, almost all of which resulted in Sales receiving a pie in the face, which became his trademark. Sales developed pie-throwing into an art form: straight to the face, on top of the head, a pie to both ears from behind, moving into a stationary pie, and countless other variations. He claimed that he and his visitors had been hit by more than 20,000 pies during his career. … This show marked the height of Sales’ popularity. It featured guest appearances by stars such as Frank Sinatra, Tony Curtis, Jerry Lewis, Judy Garland and Sammy Davis Jr., as well as musical groups like the Shangri-Las, The Supremes and The Temptations. … The puppets were: White Fang, ‘The Biggest and Meanest Dog in the USA’, who appeared only as a giant white shaggy paw with black triangular felt ‘claws’, jutting out from the corner of the screen. Fang spoke with unintelligible short grunts and growls, which Soupy repeated back in English, for comic effect. White Fang was often the pie thrower when Soupy’s jokes bombed. Black Tooth, ‘The Biggest and Sweetest Dog in the USA’, also seen only as a giant black paw with white triangular felt claws, and with more feminine, but similarly unintelligible, dialogue. … New Year’s Day incident.  On January 1, 1965, miffed at having to work on the holiday, Sales ended his live broadcast by encouraging his young viewers to tiptoe into their still-sleeping parents’ bedrooms and remove those ‘funny green pieces of paper with pictures of U.S. Presidents’ from their pants and pocketbooks. ‘Put them in an envelope and mail them to me’, Soupy instructed the children. Several days later, substantial amounts of money had begun arriving in the mail; Sales stated that the total amount received was in the thousands of dollars but qualified that by stating that much of that was in play money. Sales said he had been joking and that whatever real money had been sent would be donated to charity, but as parents’ complaints increased, WNEW’s management suspended Sales for two weeks. …”
Wikipedia
NY Times: Soupy Sales, Slapstick Comedian, Dies at 83
YouTube: Soupy Sales (w/ early White Fang and Black Tooth): Knock-Knock joked, Original White Fang stole a steak, Soupy Sales: The Best of Soupy Sales