He'd make pie-throwing an art form. Soupy Sales pioneered slapstick television, turning daytime comedy into a messy, anarchic playground where custard pies flew with surgical precision. Before kids' TV got sanitized, Sales was getting smacked in the face by everyone from Frank Sinatra to Mickey Mantle—and making millions laugh. His Detroit-based show turned absurdist humor into mainstream comedy, proving that getting hit with a pie could be both high art and pure joy.
January 8, 1926
100 years ago
What Else Happened on January 8
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