I am quite devastated to hear of the death of Soupy Sales (pictured above with our dog Klonoa).Almost every week for several years now, Klonoa has been making the trip by subway from Brooklyn to the Manhattan neighborhood where we used to live, passing the whole day roaming various apartments in a building on East 35th Street and visiting with Darryl, a former roommate from years past, and with Marlin Swing (a former producer for the late Walter Cronkite's CBS show). Darryl and Marlin would also take care of Klonoa when we left town for any period of time.
During many of those visits Klonoa spent a few hours with Marlin's neighbor and friend Soupy Sales and his wife Trudy Carson. I had the good fortune to meet with Soupy on a few of those occasions; the comedic spark was ever-present, and both he and Trudy genuinely seemed to love having our dog around--sometimes prompting Soupy to recall one of his White Fang routines. [For those too young to remember: The Soupy Sales Show featured "puppets White Fang (the meanest dog in the United States) and Black Tooth (the nicest dog in the United States)." I was never certain whether to be pleased or worried that our dog reminded Soupy of White Fang rather than Black Tooth.]
My thoughts and good wishes are with Trudy and Marlin and all of Soupy's friends, neighbors, and fellow comedians.
