Super Duper Souper

He's a pop culture footnote today but back in the mid 1960's, Soupy Sales was the king of children's TV for a couple of fun-filled years. Following fifteen years of TV hosting experience that ran through Cincinnati, Detroit and Los Angeles, ol' Soup (born Milton Supman) eventually moved to New York when his LA show came off life support and in 1964 launched a new Soupy Sales Show on WNEW-TV (Channel 5 to us natives).  This version lasted for two wacky and cream pie filled seasons and was syndicated nationally by 1965.  On New Year’s Day 1965, quite unhappy that he had to work after what sounds like a typical New Year's Eve of the time, he instructed his audience to go into their mom's purses and dad's billfolds and send him “those little green pieces of paper.”  

While the story has been conflated over the years to Soupy being summarily fired over this bit, it only resulted in his suspension from January 12-15, 1965. The Soupy Sales Show then resumed, presumably after airing a short spate of reruns, until the end of its syndicated and local runs on September 2, 1966.

Topps issued a set of 66 Soupy Sales cards in the midst of Soupy-mania.  Pumped and dumped, these were standard sized, black and white affairs with a facsimile autograph of Soupy in blue ink.  They are largely forgotten today and do not seem to have sold particularly well when issued and the cards may not have been marketed much beyond the Northeast. 

The backs, which are also black and white, used “Soupy Sez” graphics from the television show and featured copyrights for “Soupy Sales-WMC” and “T.C.G.” (Topps Chewing Gum).  This is a typical gag from the show (and set):

It appears that one batch of 66 cards was released with the reverses rotated 180 degree and then another batch was released the same way but with entirely different fronts. It therefore appears likely a master set would be 264 cards, two backs for each front, one of which is also then flipped 180 degrees. Some discussion and dissection can be fount over at the Vintage Non-Sports Forum.

Topps Vault, the major grading services and much of the collecting community thinks they were issued in 1967 (and the Vault even has at least one COA that says 1963!) but that date is impossible for several reasons.

For starters, the wrapper has no commodity code. 

These codes began appearing on Topps wrappers and display boxes in early 1966, tied to Topps moving their manufacturing and packing plant to Duryea, Pennsylvania while their executives, business and creative staffs remained in Brooklyn at Bush Terminal.  My determination that the set came out in 1965, which was the peak of Soupy-mania, is buoyed by this lack of a code. We'll revisit the set dating in a bit.

Color versions of a handful cards were produced, which are possibly unique and appear to be proofs made for internal use at Topps as they are blank backed. Who wouldn't want a shot of Soupy relaxing with a cigarette in his dressing room:

There are not many color proofs known and they are one of the great rarities produced by Topps. 

(UPDATE 2/27/22: Keith Olbermann advises he owns a color proof sheet, and also offers this eye-opening commentary from the front lines back in the 60's:

"My Dad and I went to see him at a Korvette's...and the throng was so great he got pushed through a plate glass window...the crowd pushed him against the window, which buckled and cracked and kind of folded outwards without fully breaking. So he didn't go completely through it, but at that point he, understandably, went home. As did we.")

Yikes!!

There is also a paper version that suffers from a paucity of published information.  Details on this latter issue are hard to come by but it is clear now that they came as an insert in a Soupy Sales wallet that obviously was meant to capitalize on the “little green pieces of paper” incident. I've covered the wallet previously but it's worth another peek:

There is also a gray version.  Here's the thing though, there is a facsimile card reverse on the other side of the wallet that still has Topps indicia:

Hold that thought...

Meanwhile, the wallets originally came with paper Soupy Sales "photos" in the photo window insert; when I acquired my yellow one two paper cards were hiding out within.  There are four differences between the Topps cards sold in packs and the wallet inserts.  

1) The wallet version are made of paper and have no gloss at all.

  

2) Soupy's "autograph" is also different as it was changed from blue to red.  

3) While the wallet photos have the same backs and copyrights as the regular issue cards, they use red accents on the reverse.

4) The wallet photos measure 2 3/8" x 3 9/16" which is close but not identical to a standard sized Topps card (like Soupy's) that measured 2 1/2" x 3 1/2":

As a neat tie-in the regular issue cards have a prominent “Wallet Size Photos” tagline on the wrappers and retail box lid.  There is no checklist known for the paper issue and it's unclear if all 66 cards were reproduced this way.

The wallets were churned out by Standard Plastics, who made various things out of vinyl you may remember if you are of a certain age, such as die-cast car cases. A vinyl Soupy lunchbox was also produced along with a pencil case and what looks like a photo album or maybe a notebook: 

Now check these out, clockwise from top left: wallets, pencil case, photo album (or notebook), lunchbox in a salesman's book page:

Here are similar products made by Standard Plastics, from their stationery division as it turns out, which makes me think these were sold in stores that didn't necessarily just sell toys:

Mattel bought Standard Plastics in 1966 and then made it their parent company at some point. I have no idea why but Mattel also bought the Ringling Brothers & Barnum & Bailey Circus in 1971 so who knows what was going on in their boardroom?!  Soupy may not have moved much product given the arc of his mid-60's "fad-dom" and the wallets can be found with a little patience.

There was more though and in 1965 Topps produced a Fan Magazine of Soupy (the first of two issues for this short-lived publication) and a publisher called Wonder Books put out a series of books with Soupy stories, at least one of which was written by children of Topps executives Woody Gelman (his daughter Barbara, who was a magazine art editor) and Abram Shorin (Robert Shorin). 

The Topps Fan Magazine has images of some of the cards reproduced within, which further nails the card sets as being from ’65. In addition, the retail box bottom uses the old “Brooklyn 32” address for Topps and not a ZIP Code (introduced mid-1963). The Topps pre-ZIP code address on their retail materials was not used on any post-1965 product and the wax wrapper drops the “32” so it would not surprise me if this is the last Topps box that used it. 

I've covered the magazines before, you can click over for a look.

Soupy resurfaced a couple of times as a host of his own show on the tube after 1966 and was a steady guest panelist on game shows in the 60's and 70's.  He was in a bunch of movies, had a radio show for a spell, cut some albums here and there and was one of those guys that was around show business seemingly forever.  His two sons with his first wife Barbara Fox, Hunt (on bass) and Tony (on drums) became rock musicians and were in bands with David Bowie (as part of Tin Machine), Todd Rundgren (Runt) and Iggy Pop among others (if you ever heard that cruise ship commercial with "Lust For Life" they comprised the rhythm section). Soupy died in 2009 but his memory certainly lives on among some of us, although he seems like one of those performers who could be lost to time once we Baby Boomers turn the keys over to the kids.

Smile For The Camera

Friend o'the Archive Scott Gaynor passed along a scan of an old publicity photo that he will have up for auction the other day that I had never seen before and it is, in a word, stupendous:

(Courtesy http://www.scgaynor.com/)

Brown (left) and Gelman, are clearly on the set of the Soupy Sales show as Topps was doing their thing to promote the 1965 upcoming card set. This was not the actual shot used, or at least I don't think it was as one clearly taken within seconds of this one has been uploaded over at http://www.nsu-magazine.com/ for some time now and seems to be the money shot, although I only know this since I started researching the above picture:

Kind of a dour look from the Topps boys, no? That Mars Attacks logo pegs the second scan to Topps proper methinks. I also have to think this shot was the one used officially. I tend to be in the 1965 camp for the Soupy set, although most sources cite 1967.  Either is possible but there seems to be more evidence for the earlier date, at least to my mind, as Soupy-mania was in full swing in 1965.

Len Brown was a protege of Woody's and perhaps his most successful one. Brown succeeded Gelman as Creative Director of Topps, having been hired by Woody as a 17 year old.  Brown worked on such things as the 1960 Baseball set, Mars Attacks, Civil War News and obviously Soupy Sales before ascending to Woody's old position upon the latter's retirement (which I think was in 1972).

Souperman

Wistful, wonderful wallet words today kids! Friend o'the Archive Gary A. has sent along some truly wondrous pictures and has done the nearly impossible-adding a set to the Master Topps List!

A flea market find, this yellow version of the Soupy Sales Wallet, first discussed here, looks to be designed for a girl to use.  The one I found previously looks more like a boys wallet but I'm not 100% certain.  In any event, here is the new one in glorious yellow:

It's a landscape orientation this time, with Soupy doing "The Mouse"! The font is the same as seen on the blue version and the back is similar too, with the reverse of a Soupy Sales card shown, along with the Topps copyright indicia:

The big news though, is what's inside.  These look like two Soupy Sales Topps cards in the clear photo holders:

Here's another view; they packed coin slots and a zippered coin pouch inside, plus some slots for a comb or something similar:

Guess what?  They are not the regular issue cards-these are made of paper and have a red autograph on front, not a blue one like on the cards:

Chris Benjamin's Sport-Americana Price Guide to the Non-Sports Cards No. 4 does mention these paper versions came with wallets but nothing further.

So we have an uncatalogued Topps set of unknown length.  And technically speaking, the wallets are uncatalogued as well.  It would not surprise me if more of these are out there, in different styles and colors. Right now we have blue, yellow and (as noted previously but unseen by me) gray.

This Soupy's Nuts!

For as long as I have been aware of the cards, there has been a persistent bit of conventional hobby wisdom that states the circa 1965 Topps Soupy Sales cards also came in a thin paper version that were wallet inserts. I've always thought that was a bit of an odd thing for Topps to do but recently an eBay auction appeared that gave me pause.

There is indeed a vinyl Soupy Sales wallet from the 1960's:

In its own right that is one awesome piece of 60's kiddie memorabilia but it gets better.  Check this out:

That is a colorized reverse of a Soupy card sans numbering and the T.C.G. indicia is easily seen to the bottom right! Here is a normal Soupy reverse:

There are 66 cards in the set but I have no idea how many Soupy Sez phrases made it to the wallets. The "card" on the wallet is smaller by a quarter inch in each dimension than a standard Topps card at 2 1/4" x 3 1/4" and the entire wallet measures 8 1/2" x 3 1/2" when opened. Here's the front of a regular card in case you are curious:

Even though the current pricing of them does not support it, Soupy Sales cards have always seemed to me to be a bit harder to find than your average card of the mid 60's.  I suspect they sold poorly and were subject to heavy returns from the jobbers.

There are also some very scarce color Topps Soupy cards that are believed to be from 1967 (I think they are a little earlier) but all known versions of those come with blank backs.  I wonder if Topps prepared color backs for those and then when production was abandoned, was able to repurpose them for the wallets.  Stranger things have happened at Topps but I admit it's a bit of a farfetched theory.

Here is the inside of the wallet:

There is no manufacturing information on or in the wallet other than on the "card".  Apparently a gray version is also known and I suspect there could be a couple of other colors as well.But wait, there is another Topps-Soupy connection:

A 1965 book of short, Soupy themed Children's stories, part of a series from a series called Wonder Books has a pretty neat Topps connection as well:

This particular book...

 ...was written by these two people:

Barbara Gelman was Topps Creative Director Woody Gelman's daughter and Robert Shorin the son of Topps co-founder Abram Shorin.  So far as I can determine, other Soupy-themed Wonder Books were not the product of these two author's pens.

But wait, there's more.  From January 1965 comes this little gem:

The comic is dated January 1965 (which just reinforces to my mind the 1965 date for the Topps Soupy Sales cards) and there is a connection between Topps and Archie, namely a series of Blony gum comics a few years prior.  

And still, there is more...check out this #1 issue of the Topps Fan Magazine featuring ol' Soup. I confess I had never heard of this until a posting on the Net54 Vintage Non Sports board alerted me to it:

That scan was posted by David Davis over at the forum. I don't know what lurks within but am told there are replicas of some of the Topps Soupy Sales cards shown.  I'm not sure what to make of all this love for Soupy by Topps but it's pretty neat stuff.

There was even a second issue of this little known rag, which is enroute to me as I type:

I'll post the insides when my copy comes in the post; hopefully I can find a No. 1 somewhere or get scans.

Test Pattern-The Mid 60's Black and WhiteTV Cards From Topps (Part 3)

We ended with a spy spoof last time out so today will pick up with a serious spy show sort of by way of a cheesy doctors show from '62 before moving on to other realms. As everybody over the age of 40 knows, the 60's were a great time for spy and adventure flicks, primarily due to the tensions of the Cold War. A lot of TV shows tried to cash in on the James Bond phenomenon but The Man From U.N.C.L.E. was the only one aided by Ian Fleming, who penned the Bond novels. Do you know what U.N.C.L.E. stands for? Answer below!

While first season, 1964-65 was shot in black and white, the pilot was produced in color. The card set has a 1965 copyright date but was issued in 1966, after the show had switched to color. Why this was a black and white set is puzzling to me unless it was somehow delayed prior to issue. We will get to scans of these momentarily but first let's hit the wayback machine.

The U.N.C.L.E. cards are readily available and use a stylized front that as far as I can tell originated with the Dr. Casey & Kildare cards in 1962 but was really ramped up with the issuance of the three Black and White Beatles sets that were rushed out in post-invasion 1964. The common thread in these sets is a B&W photo, usually glossier than a normal card (but not always) and adorned with a facsimile autograph in blue.

Here is a fine example of the front style referred to above, which I fondly call Topps Black and Blue":



The reverse is also very typical of these style cards:



My operating theory is that the design used here originally was created to mimic a standard Hollywood portrait or group photo but once the Beatles hit the Ed Sullivan Show it was found to be perfect for pumping out a lot of product very quickly without worrying about any real design other than what was being shown on the wrapper.

Man from U.N.C.L.E. used the same style front as the Casey and Kildare cards:



But the back was decidedly different, albeit a simple puzzle piece:



We also see this front on the Soupy Sales cards issued circa 1965 (there is some confusion on the date, I'll address that momentarily):



Another simple back for ol' Soup:



Now there is a color Soupy Sales set as well, that is quite scarce:



Yes, Soupy is smoking a cigarette on a bubble gum card! The backs of the color cards are blank and indicate they were only early proofs:



Some sources have the color cards being from the end of Soupy's second national run in 1967 (he had a show in the late fifties and early sixties and would even manage to star in yet a third nationally broadcast show in the late 70's) and this date has turned up a couple of times in my research for the B&W issue but I believe the latter to be from 1965. The Soupy Saga will be looked at in detail here sometime as there is a lot more to it than what I want to get into here.

1968 brings us for some bizarre reason, a B&W set commemorating the show Julia, which I remember very well but it still disappeared very quickly after three seasons, much like these cards which are scarce:



Once again, the simple tried and true information block back presents itself:



Why this style of card and why a B&W set was issued in 1968 is curious. However, 1969 brought yet another B& W set!

Room 222 had a solid run on ABC, premiering in 1969 and eventually becoming part of ABC;s powerhouse Friday Night block of programming, which was de rigueur kid viewing in our household in the early 70's. There is a twist though, blue has turned to black in our autograph:



The back is partly puzzling:



Topps did come up with an identical color version though:



And I mean identical:






U.N.C.L.E is an acronym for United Network Command for Law and Enforcement by the way!

Our look at the B&W 60s cards will conclude next time out-see you then!