Soupy Sales’ Brother in Flagstaff?
I actually worked with Soupy on my film Palmer’s Pick-up: An American Roadshow Odyssey. Soupy, like Frank Gorshin, was purposely understated yet possessed that great old school showmanship combination of gentleness and wickedness that I so dearly admire. Think of the Wizard in “The Wizard of Oz.” Currently, I’m travelling via car to New Mexico for the new year. I stopped in Flagstaff, AZ for dinner and cocktails. The man at the piano looked an awful lot like Soupy Sales. He had a great touch and performed one of the best interpretations of “Poor Butterfly” I have heard recently. He slipped out before I could ask him about Soupy. Actually, I wouldn’t have asked him any way. I get sick of it when people always ask me if I am related to so and so…though I understand the temptation. I liked the idea of Soupy Sales’ brother living in Flagstaff tickling the ivories, then hitting the bars all thru the cold, dark night. Suddenly, I seriously had the urge to disappear. Maybe getting a job flipping burgers at the Fosters Freeze/Dairy Queen in Holbrook, AZ or something. Obviously, I would make the best burger possible. Every once in awhile, a customer would drive up and ask the window clerk if the burger guy was related to so and so…they would just smile and say, “I highly doubt it, but he makes a great burger.”
December 30th, 2005 at 9:40 am
This reminds me of when Andy Kaufman got a job as a bus boy at Jerry’s Deli. I admire him very much.
December 31st, 2005 at 12:56 am
Two people have told me recently that I look like Ashlee Simpson. Their bodies are buried at an undisclosed location.
December 31st, 2005 at 4:22 am
Talk about synchronistic — I am the younger sister of a ‘famous personality’ and we sound so similar, people always think I’m “her” on the phone. I may not be famous and recognizable by hundreds of thousands of people, but I never felt badly about that because I had my own little bag of tricks, giftings, talents and callings (like we all do) until — just tonight… when someone put 2+2 together and said “ARE YOU SURE YOU’RE THE SISTER OF SO-AND-SO???” (like I couldn’t possibly aspire to her looks or league) and… I felt so totally deflated by that comment, that now I know how my brother’s girlfriend feels — the younger sister of one of Hollywood’s highest paid actressess — she felt she has lived ‘in the shadow’ of her sister all her life. It never occurred to me to feel lesser-than because I wasn’t in the media or industry –until that deflating comment was made in a ‘you’ve got to be kidding me, YOU??? Are you sure you’re biological sisters?” manner. I know, I know “A person can’t make you feel inferior without your permission” — but the moment really filled me with self doubt, am I all that much more unattractive or whatever that it shouldn’t even be genetically POSSIBLE??? Dang.
January 1st, 2006 at 3:05 am
Oh man Beth, don’t let one person bring you down like that! I don’t think it matters who anyone is related to, they are their own person. You are who you’ve made yourself to be, and you should be proud of it.
Have a happy new year!