People who know me have often asked me over the years, why in the daylights did I spend 40 years... years that could've been put to a productive and worthwhile cause acting like a moron on the radio?
Two reasons... Soupy Sales and Buffalo Bob.
Yup, they're to blame for a wasted life of idiotic jokes and moronic publicity stunts. I belong in REHAB!!!
As kids growing up near Detroit, Soupy was the closest thing we had to Uncle Miltie. He was a fruitcake, but he was OUR fruitcake!
At least we thought he was. There were always those goofy grins, and offstage chuckles that occurred on his show right after he'd made some remark that none of us quite "got." Oh well, he was after all an adult. Sort of anyway.
Inevitably, on his show, he'd be talking to the "birdbaths" at home... that's how he referred to his viewers... when a blood curdling scream would rattle the speaker. He'd look quizzically at the camera, go to the door and WHAM, get a face full of whipped cream pie. There was a hole on the wall with a cork in it, and a sign that said "DO NOT TOUCH." Naturally he'd pull out the cork, peek into the hole and get a face full of seltzer water.
His dog White Fang ("BLEWWWWW, Reh-O-Reh-Oh-Reh-Oh”) was the "meanest dog in all of Deeee-troit." His pal Willie the Worm was ("HAAAAAH-CHOOOO") "the sickest worm in all of Deeee-troit," and Pookie the lion used to love to sit on the window sill and sing "C-O-W spells a coooooooww." I have no idea why.
REALLY sophisticated stuff to a 6 year old!
He died a couple of years ago, but I did get to know him a little. He did a radio show downstairs at 30 Rock when I worked in NY, and guess what... he was just the same in real life as he was on TV, a total FRUITCAKE! I was THRILLED!!!
That's a major facet of how I became a... well... a fruitcake!
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