See Inside the House Where Soupy Sales Lived During the 1950s: Detroit, Michigan

I remember coming home for lunch from elementary school, flippin' on the TV and watching Lunch With Soupy. Aimed at the kids, Soupy would do his signature dance, the “Soupy Shuffle,” give us some 'words of wisdom' and settle in for lunch. So while we were eating our lunch, Soupy was also eating his, right there in front of us. So we indeed were having Lunch with Soupy.

Soupy's show aired on WXYZ-TV Channel 7 out of Detroit beginning in 1953. The original name of the show was 12 O'Clock Comics. Characters on the show were his dog White Fang, ”the biggest and meanest dog in the world” and Black Tooth, “the sweetest dog in the world”. The dogs consisted of just seeing their leg and paw on the TV screen, and the growls were provided by Clyde Adler. At the end of many skits with White Fang, Soupy was hit in the face with a cream pie.

Other characters were the puppets Pookie the Lion and Hippy the Hippo who popped up in the window behind Soupy as he finished his lunch.

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Soupy also had a late-night program aimed at adults, called Soupy's On. He featured top jazz musicians like Miles Davis, Duke Ellington, and Charlie Parker and also infused lots of comedy.

Soupy was a huge hit in Michigan – then he left the state in 1960 and had more mega-successful kid shows in Los Angeles and New York City. Celebrities were some of his biggest fans; Frank Sinatra insisted to be a guest on the show under one condition: that he was to be hit with a pie. And he was.

Soupy may have been living in Michigan for only seven years, but it was here where his career really got rolling – and he never forgot that. The gallery below features photos of the house Soupy lived in on Renfrew Road in Detroit, inside and out...plus a few classic images of Soupy himself.

Soupy passed away in 2009 at the age of 83.