The Memory Train is traveling back to the early 1950s when a future star would begin his career. We are now arriving in Franklinton, N.C., where Milton Supman was born. He would grow up in Huntington, W. Va., where he attended Marshal University, earning his B.A. in journalism.

He would land a job as a radio scriptwriter at WHTN, a small station in Huntington. In the evenings he honed his comedic skills at various nightclubs.

“I remember driving 80 miles to play at these clubs for $15 a night,” recalled the man now known professionally as Soupy Sales. “The money wasn’t much but the experience was invaluable.”

Even more, his high-energy gift for gab led to a spot on the air and soon he was the top-rated disc jockey in the area.

In 1950, Soupy moved to Cincinnati and chose television as his new livelihood. The show would be called “Soupy’s Soda Shop” that would eventually become America’s first teenage dance program on television. This would lead to another show called “Club Nothing,” a 45-minute talk show spiced with Soupy’s zany comedy routines, guests and music.

In 1953, Soupy moved to Detroit and that would be the beginning of a rapid rise that made him Detroit’s top-rated television personality for seven years. He worked an unbelievable 11 hours of television time each week, including his noontime “Lunch With Soupy Sales,” which was the first non-cartoon Saturday morning programs on the ABC-TV network. He would become an inspiration for many children’s shows to come.

Soupy Sales moved to the West Coast in 1960 and by the following year, his “Soupy Sales Show” was L.A.’s number-one show, pulling in more fan mail than all of ABC-TV’s network shows combined. His initial Friday night show will long be remembered for the quality of the stars it attracted and the shows with Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis Jr. getting pies thrown in their faces. His show was the first to beat the long-running, top-rated “Rawhide.”

In September 1964 Soupy took his show to New York where it soon became the biggest show of its kind in local television. Two years later the show was seen throughout the U.S. as well as in Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

When he recorded his zany dance creation, “The Mouse,” the record sold well as did another Soupy Sales record, “Spy With A Pie.” In the mid 1960s, Ed Sullivan, Dean Martin, Bob Hope and Carol Burnett were just a few of the stars who had Soupy on their prime-time shows.

During that time there was virtually no arena that Soupy didn’t play. Broadway dinner theatre, comedy clubs and television all used Soupy’s talents. By 1968 he had joined the panel of “What’s My Line?” as a regular and appeared on countless other programs as well.

In 1978 he began his three-year co-starring role on “Sha Na Na.” As the 1980s arrived, so did more Soupy Sales fans. He would continue standing-room-only nightclub performances, panel shows, and “Bloopers and Practical Jokes,” on which he was a semi-regular.

I had the pleasure of performing with the Detroit Police Blue Pigs band on his annual national telethon and also the personal pleasure to really get to know him. The Blue Pigs became fixtures on his telethons.

It is unfortunate that Soupy is not in the best of health, but he will always be remembered, and his funny friends, White Fang, Black Tooth, Pooky, Willie the Worm and Clyde Adler, who was the guy who always knocked on the door and said, “Hey, buddy.”

Words of Wisdom: “Be true to your teeth and they won’t be false to you.” – Soupy Sales

To all readers from all over the country, thank you for all of the calls and letters. I sincerely hope you will continue to be passengers on the Memory Train.

Until next time, I’ll plant U now and dig U later. Peace and chicken grease!

Hugh Burrell can be reached at (313) 872-3437 and hughburrell@aol.com.