The Three Stooges were an American vaudeville and comedy team active from 1922 until 1970, best remembered for their 190 short subject films by Columbia Pictures.
Unsuccessful attempts were made to revive the Stooges with longtime supporting actor Emil Sitka in Fine's role in 1970 and again in 1975, but this attempt was cut short by Moe Howard's death on May 4, 1975. == History == === Ted Healy and His Stooges (1922–1934) === The Three Stooges began in 1922 as part of a raucous vaudeville act called "Ted Healy and His Stooges" (also known as "Ted Healy and His Southern Gentlemen" and "Ted Healy and His Racketeers").
Moe Howard (born Moses Harry Horwitz) joined Healy's act in 1922, and his brother Shemp Howard (Samuel Horwitz) came aboard a few months later.
After several shifts and changes in the Stooges membership, sometime between 1925 and 1928, violinist-comedian Larry Fine (Louis Feinberg) also joined the group.
After several shifts and changes in the Stooges membership, sometime between 1925 and 1928, violinist-comedian Larry Fine (Louis Feinberg) also joined the group.
Mitchell had also replaced Shemp as the "third stooge" in a 1929 Broadway play and appeared in two of the Stooges' short subjects in 1953.
The shorts themselves were built around recycled Technicolor film footage of production numbers cut from MGM musicals, such as Children of Pleasure, Lord Byron of Broadway and the unfinished March of Time (all 1930).
They also appeared in an extremely brief cameo as firemen (a role that Larry, Moe, and Shemp had also played in the pre-"Three Stooges" film Soup to Nuts in 1930) in the film It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963), and in a larger capacity that same year in 4 for Texas starring Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin.
He was replaced by his and Moe's younger brother, Jerome "Curly" Howard, in 1932.
Healy reached a new agreement with his former Stooges in 1932, with Moe now acting as business manager, and they were booked in a production of Jacob J.
Shubert's The Passing Show of 1932.
Shemp, fed up with Healy's abrasiveness, bad temper, and heavy drinking, decided to quit the act and toured in his own comedy revue for several months, and then landed at Vitaphone Studios in May 1933, appearing in movie comedies produced in Brooklyn, New York, for the next four years. With Shemp gone, Healy and the two remaining stooges (Moe and Larry) needed a replacement, so Moe suggested his younger brother Jerry Howard.
(There are varying accounts as to how the Curly character actually came about.) Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) signed Healy and his Stooges to a movie contract in 1933.
From 1934 to 1946, Moe, Larry and Curly produced over 90 short films for Columbia.
Healy and the Stooges also appeared together in Myrt and Marge for Universal Pictures. In 1934, the team's contract expired with MGM, and the Stooges professional association with Healy came to an end.
Both Healy and the Stooges went on to separate successes, with Healy dying under mysterious circumstances in 1937. === Columbia years (1934–1958) === ==== Moe, Larry, and Curly (1934–1946) ==== In 1934, the trio—now officially named "The Three Stooges"—contracted to Columbia Pictures for a series of two-reel comedy short subjects.
Silent film star Charley Chase also shared directorial responsibilities with Lord and White. The Stooge films made between 1935 and 1941 captured the team at their peak, according to film historians Ted Okuda and Edward Watz, authors of The Columbia Comedy Shorts.
In 1935, Columbia proposed to star them in their own full-length feature, but Moe rejected the idea saying, "It's a hard job inventing, rewriting, or stealing gags for our two-reel comedies for Columbia Pictures without having to make a seven-reeler (feature film).
Other entries of the era are considered among the team's finest work, including Uncivil Warriors (1935), A Pain in the Pullman and False Alarms (both 1936), Grips, Grunts and Groans, The Sitter Downers, Dizzy Doctors (all 1937), Tassels in the Air (1938), We Want Our Mummy (1939), Nutty but Nice (1940), and An Ache in Every Stake and In the Sweet Pie and Pie (both 1941). With the onset of World War II, the Stooges released several entries that poked fun at the rising Axis powers.
Both Healy and the Stooges went on to separate successes, with Healy dying under mysterious circumstances in 1937. === Columbia years (1934–1958) === ==== Moe, Larry, and Curly (1934–1946) ==== In 1934, the trio—now officially named "The Three Stooges"—contracted to Columbia Pictures for a series of two-reel comedy short subjects.
Other entries of the era are considered among the team's finest work, including Uncivil Warriors (1935), A Pain in the Pullman and False Alarms (both 1936), Grips, Grunts and Groans, The Sitter Downers, Dizzy Doctors (all 1937), Tassels in the Air (1938), We Want Our Mummy (1939), Nutty but Nice (1940), and An Ache in Every Stake and In the Sweet Pie and Pie (both 1941). With the onset of World War II, the Stooges released several entries that poked fun at the rising Axis powers.
His weight ballooned in the 1940s, and his blood pressure became dangerously high.
Silent film star Charley Chase also shared directorial responsibilities with Lord and White. The Stooge films made between 1935 and 1941 captured the team at their peak, according to film historians Ted Okuda and Edward Watz, authors of The Columbia Comedy Shorts.
Other entries of the era are considered among the team's finest work, including Uncivil Warriors (1935), A Pain in the Pullman and False Alarms (both 1936), Grips, Grunts and Groans, The Sitter Downers, Dizzy Doctors (all 1937), Tassels in the Air (1938), We Want Our Mummy (1939), Nutty but Nice (1940), and An Ache in Every Stake and In the Sweet Pie and Pie (both 1941). With the onset of World War II, the Stooges released several entries that poked fun at the rising Axis powers.
The highlight of the film features the Stooges engaging in nonsensical gymnastics (the real spies are renowned acrobats) for a skeptical group of enemy agents. The World War II era also brought on rising production costs that resulted in a reduced number of elaborate gags and outdoor sequences, Del Lord's stock in trade; as such, the quality of the team's films (particularly those directed by Lord) began to slip after 1942.
According to Okuda and Watz, entries such as Loco Boy Makes Good, What's the Matador?, Sock-A-Bye Baby (all 1942), I Can Hardly Wait and A Gem of a Jam (both 1943) are considered to be lesser quality works than previous films.
Yet, these efforts indulged in a deliberately formless, non-sequitur style of verbal humor that was not the Stooges' forte, according to Okuda and Watz. Other wartime entries have their moments, such as They Stooge to Conga (considered the most violent Stooge short), Higher Than a Kite, Back From the Front (all 1943), Gents Without Cents (1944) and the anti-Japanese The Yoke's on Me (also 1944).
According to Okuda and Watz, entries such as Loco Boy Makes Good, What's the Matador?, Sock-A-Bye Baby (all 1942), I Can Hardly Wait and A Gem of a Jam (both 1943) are considered to be lesser quality works than previous films.
Yet, these efforts indulged in a deliberately formless, non-sequitur style of verbal humor that was not the Stooges' forte, according to Okuda and Watz. Other wartime entries have their moments, such as They Stooge to Conga (considered the most violent Stooge short), Higher Than a Kite, Back From the Front (all 1943), Gents Without Cents (1944) and the anti-Japanese The Yoke's on Me (also 1944).
Curly's wild lifestyle and constant drinking eventually caught up with him in 1945, and his performances suffered. During a five-month hiatus from August 1945 through January 1946, the trio committed themselves to making a feature film at Monogram, followed by a two-month-long live appearance gig in New York City, with performances seven days a week.
Curly also entered a disastrous third marriage in October 1945, leading to a separation in January 1946 and divorce in July 1946.
Upon the Stooges' return to Los Angeles in late November 1945, Curly was a shell of his former self.
New director Edward Bernds, who joined the team in 1945 when Curly was failing, sensed that routines and plotlines that worked well with Curly as the comic focus did not fit Shemp's persona, and allowed the comedian to develop his own Stooge character.
From 1934 to 1946, Moe, Larry and Curly produced over 90 short films for Columbia.
It was during this period that the three were at their peak popularity. Curly suffered a debilitating stroke in May 1946, and Shemp returned, reconstituting the original lineup, until his death of a heart attack on November 22, 1955, three years after Curly's death of a cerebral hemorrhage on January 18, 1952.
Curly's wild lifestyle and constant drinking eventually caught up with him in 1945, and his performances suffered. During a five-month hiatus from August 1945 through January 1946, the trio committed themselves to making a feature film at Monogram, followed by a two-month-long live appearance gig in New York City, with performances seven days a week.
Curly also entered a disastrous third marriage in October 1945, leading to a separation in January 1946 and divorce in July 1946.
They had two months to rest before reporting back to Columbia in late January 1946, but Curly's condition was irreversible.
In those last six shorts, ranging from Monkey Businessmen (1946) through Half-Wits Holiday (1947), Curly was seriously ill, struggling to get through even the most basic scenes. During the final day of filming Half-Wits Holiday (1947) on May 6, 1946, Curly suffered a debilitating stroke on the set, ending his 14-year career.
From 1947 to 1952, Bernds hit a string of successes, including Fright Night (1947), The Hot Scots, Mummy's Dummies, Crime on Their Hands (all 1948), A Snitch in Time (1950), Three Arabian Nuts (1951) and Gents in a Jam (1952).
From 1947 to 1952, Bernds hit a string of successes, including Fright Night (1947), The Hot Scots, Mummy's Dummies, Crime on Their Hands (all 1948), A Snitch in Time (1950), Three Arabian Nuts (1951) and Gents in a Jam (1952).
In 1948, they guest-starred on Milton Berle's popular Texaco Star Theater and Morey Amsterdam's The Morey Amsterdam Show.
(Curly's cameo appearance was recycled in the remake Booty and the Beast, 1953.) In 1949, Curly filmed a brief scene for Malice in the Palace (1949) as the restaurant's cook, but it was not used.
By 1949, the team filmed a pilot for ABC-TV for their own weekly television series, titled Jerks of All Trades.
Besser had been starring in his own short-subject comedies for the studio since 1949 and appeared in supporting roles in a variety of movies, making his persona sufficiently well known. Besser had observed how one side of Larry Fine's face appeared "calloused", so he had a clause in his contract specifically prohibiting him from being hit beyond an infrequent tap (though this restriction was later lifted).
ABC had even expressed interest as far back as 1949, purchasing exclusive rights to 30 of the trio's shorts and commissioning a pilot for a potential series, Jerks of All Trades.
Like Jerks of All Trades in 1949, the pilot did not sell.
However, the success of television revivals for such names as Laurel and Hardy, Woody Woodpecker, Popeye, Tom and Jerry and the Our Gang series in the late 1950s led Columbia to cash in again on the Stooges.
It was during this period that the three were at their peak popularity. Curly suffered a debilitating stroke in May 1946, and Shemp returned, reconstituting the original lineup, until his death of a heart attack on November 22, 1955, three years after Curly's death of a cerebral hemorrhage on January 18, 1952.
Curly remained ill until his death of a cerebral hemorrhage from additional strokes on January 18, 1952. Shemp appeared with the Stooges in 76 shorts and a low-budget Western comedy feature titled Gold Raiders (1951) in which the screen time was evenly divided with B-picture cowboy hero George O'Brien.
From 1947 to 1952, Bernds hit a string of successes, including Fright Night (1947), The Hot Scots, Mummy's Dummies, Crime on Their Hands (all 1948), A Snitch in Time (1950), Three Arabian Nuts (1951) and Gents in a Jam (1952).
White also contributed a few fair entries, such as Hold That Lion! (1947), Hokus Pokus (1949), Scrambled Brains (1951), A Missed Fortune and Corny Casanovas (both 1952). Another benefit from the Shemp era was that Larry was given more time on screen.
The team went on to appear on Camel Comedy Caravan (also known as The Ed Wynn Show), The Kate Smith Hour, The Colgate Comedy Hour, The Frank Sinatra Show and The Eddie Cantor Comedy Theatre, among others. In 1952, the Stooges lost some key players at Columbia Pictures.
Shemp, in particular, disliked working with White after 1952. Three years after Curly's death, Shemp died of a heart attack at age 60 on November 22, 1955, during a taxi ride home with a friend after attending a boxing match.
(Curly's cameo appearance was recycled in the remake Booty and the Beast, 1953.) In 1949, Curly filmed a brief scene for Malice in the Palace (1949) as the restaurant's cook, but it was not used.
Mitchell had also replaced Shemp as the "third stooge" in a 1929 Broadway play and appeared in two of the Stooges' short subjects in 1953.
It was during this period that the three were at their peak popularity. Curly suffered a debilitating stroke in May 1946, and Shemp returned, reconstituting the original lineup, until his death of a heart attack on November 22, 1955, three years after Curly's death of a cerebral hemorrhage on January 18, 1952.
Shemp, in particular, disliked working with White after 1952. Three years after Curly's death, Shemp died of a heart attack at age 60 on November 22, 1955, during a taxi ride home with a friend after attending a boxing match.
Recycled footage, combined with new footage utilizing Columbia supporting player Joe Palma (see also Fake Shemp) as Shemp's double, filmed from behind, was used to complete the last four films originally planned with Shemp: Rumpus in the Harem, Hot Stuff, Scheming Schemers and Commotion on the Ocean (all released in 1956). ==== Joe Besser replaces Shemp (1956–1958) ==== After Shemp's death, Moe and Larry were again in need of a third Stooge.
The American space craze also led to three entries focusing on space travel: Space Ship Sappy, Outer Space Jitters (both 1957) and Flying Saucer Daffy (1958). Columbia was the last studio still producing live-action two-reel short films (other studios were still making animated one-reelers well into the 1960s, but the Stooges' last live-action competition, one-reel series Joe McDoakes, had ended its run in 1956), and the market for such films had all but ceased.
It was not until after they stopped making the shorts in December 1957 that Moe learned of Cohn's tactics, what a valuable commodity the Stooges had been for the studio and how many millions more the act could have earned.
In contrast, Hoofs and Goofs, Horsing Around and Muscle Up a Little Closer (all 1957) mostly resembled the sitcoms of the era.
A Merry Mix Up (also 1957) and Oil's Well That Ends Well (1958) are also amusing, while the musical Sweet and Hot (1958) deserves some credit for straying from the norm.
The American space craze also led to three entries focusing on space travel: Space Ship Sappy, Outer Space Jitters (both 1957) and Flying Saucer Daffy (1958). Columbia was the last studio still producing live-action two-reel short films (other studios were still making animated one-reelers well into the 1960s, but the Stooges' last live-action competition, one-reel series Joe McDoakes, had ended its run in 1956), and the market for such films had all but ceased.
As a result, the studio opted not to renew the Stooges' contract when it expired in December 1957.
The final comedy produced was Flying Saucer Daffy, filmed on December 19–20, 1957.
Columbia contract player Joe Besser joined as the third Stooge for two years (1956–57), departing in 1958 to nurse his ill wife after Columbia terminated its shorts division.
Screen Gems then syndicated the shorts to television, whereupon the Stooges became one of the most popular comedy acts of the early 1960s. Comic actor Joe DeRita became "Curly Joe" in 1958, replacing Besser for a new series of full-length theatrical films.
In general, the remakes had the traditional Stooges knockabout look and feel, such as 1958's Pies and Guys (a scene-for-scene remake of Half-Wits Holiday, which itself was a reworking of the earlier Hoi Polloi), Guns a Poppin (1957), Rusty Romeos (1957) and Triple Crossed (1959).
In September 1958, Columbia's television subsidiary Screen Gems offered a package consisting of 78 Stooge shorts (primarily from the Curly era), which were well received.
Garner had worked with Ted Healy as one of his "replacement stooges" decades earlier and was briefly considered as Joe Besser's replacement in 1958.
Their films have never left American television since first appearing in 1958, and they continue to delight old fans while attracting new viewers.
The final Stooge release, Sappy Bull Fighters, did not reach theaters until June 4, 1959.
An additional 40 shorts hit the market in April 1959; by September 1959, all 190 Stooge shorts were airing regularly.
He adopted first a crew cut and later a completely shaven head, thus becoming "Curly Joe". This lineup, now frequently referred to as "Larry, Moe and Curly Joe," starred in six full-length feature films from 1959 to 1965: Have Rocket, Will Travel (1959), Snow White and the Three Stooges (1961), The Three Stooges Meet Hercules (1962), The Three Stooges in Orbit (1962), The Three Stooges Go Around the World in a Daze (1963) and The Outlaws IS Coming! (1965).
Screen Gems then syndicated the shorts to television, whereupon the Stooges became one of the most popular comedy acts of the early 1960s. Comic actor Joe DeRita became "Curly Joe" in 1958, replacing Besser for a new series of full-length theatrical films.
With intense television exposure in the United States, the act regained momentum throughout the 1960s as popular kids' fare, until Larry's paralyzing stroke in the midst of filming a pilot for a Three Stooges TV series in January 1970.
The American space craze also led to three entries focusing on space travel: Space Ship Sappy, Outer Space Jitters (both 1957) and Flying Saucer Daffy (1958). Columbia was the last studio still producing live-action two-reel short films (other studios were still making animated one-reelers well into the 1960s, but the Stooges' last live-action competition, one-reel series Joe McDoakes, had ended its run in 1956), and the market for such films had all but ceased.
Throughout the early 1960s, the Stooges were one of the most popular and highest-paid live acts in America.
In 1968, they toured Hawaii where they starred in the International 3-Ring Circus at the Honolulu International Center. The Stooges also tried their hand at another weekly television series in 1960 titled The Three Stooges Scrapbook, filmed in color and with a laugh track.
He adopted first a crew cut and later a completely shaven head, thus becoming "Curly Joe". This lineup, now frequently referred to as "Larry, Moe and Curly Joe," starred in six full-length feature films from 1959 to 1965: Have Rocket, Will Travel (1959), Snow White and the Three Stooges (1961), The Three Stooges Meet Hercules (1962), The Three Stooges in Orbit (1962), The Three Stooges Go Around the World in a Daze (1963) and The Outlaws IS Coming! (1965).
However, Norman Maurer was able to reuse the footage (reprocessed in black and white) for the first ten minutes of The Three Stooges in Orbit. The trio also filmed 41 short comedy skits for The New Three Stooges in 1965, which features a series of 156 animated cartoons produced for television.
In 1968, they toured Hawaii where they starred in the International 3-Ring Circus at the Honolulu International Center. The Stooges also tried their hand at another weekly television series in 1960 titled The Three Stooges Scrapbook, filmed in color and with a laugh track.
The Three Stooges were an American vaudeville and comedy team active from 1922 until 1970, best remembered for their 190 short subject films by Columbia Pictures.
With intense television exposure in the United States, the act regained momentum throughout the 1960s as popular kids' fare, until Larry's paralyzing stroke in the midst of filming a pilot for a Three Stooges TV series in January 1970.
Unsuccessful attempts were made to revive the Stooges with longtime supporting actor Emil Sitka in Fine's role in 1970 and again in 1975, but this attempt was cut short by Moe Howard's death on May 4, 1975. == History == === Ted Healy and His Stooges (1922–1934) === The Three Stooges began in 1922 as part of a raucous vaudeville act called "Ted Healy and His Stooges" (also known as "Ted Healy and His Southern Gentlemen" and "Ted Healy and His Racketeers").
On January 9, 1970, during production of the pilot, Larry suffered a paralyzing stroke, ending his acting career along with plans for the television series.
The film would have been a departure from typical Stooge fare, with dark-edged humor and scenes of war violence, but insufficient funding prevented production from advancing beyond the script stage. Also in 1970, Joe DeRita recruited vaudeville veterans Frank Mitchell and Mousie Garner to tour as The New Three Stooges.
The pilot was unfinished and several key shots were missing, but producer Norman Maurer edited the available footage and made the pilot a 52-minute special that was released to the Cartrivision videocassette home video market in 1973.
For the next several years, Moe appeared regularly on talk shows and did speaking engagements at colleges, while DeRita quietly retired. Larry suffered another stroke in mid-December 1974, and four weeks later an even more massive one.
Larry Fine died in January 1975 after a further series of strokes.
Unsuccessful attempts were made to revive the Stooges with longtime supporting actor Emil Sitka in Fine's role in 1970 and again in 1975, but this attempt was cut short by Moe Howard's death on May 4, 1975. == History == === Ted Healy and His Stooges (1922–1934) === The Three Stooges began in 1922 as part of a raucous vaudeville act called "Ted Healy and His Stooges" (also known as "Ted Healy and His Southern Gentlemen" and "Ted Healy and His Racketeers").
After slipping into a coma, he died a week later from a cerebral hemorrhage on January 24, 1975. Before Larry's death, the Stooges were scheduled to co-star in the R-rated film Blazing Stewardesses, featuring Moe and Curly Joe with Emil Sitka in the middle spot as Harry, Larry's brother.
The team was signed and publicity shots were taken, but one week prior to March's filming date, Moe was diagnosed with lung cancer and the Stooges had to back out; he died on May 4, 1975.
The Stooges would not have lasted as long as they did as a unit without Moe Howard's guiding hand. The Ted Okuda and Edward Watz book The Columbia Comedy Shorts puts the Stooges' legacy in critical perspective: Beginning in the 1980s, the Stooges finally began to receive critical recognition.
The surviving Ritz Brothers replaced the Stooges and performed much of their act's schtick, including the precision dance routine first seen in Sing, Baby, Sing (1936), co-starring original Stooge leader Ted Healy. As for the remaining original replacement stooges, Joe Besser died of [failure] on March 1, 1988, followed by Joe DeRita of pneumonia on July 3, 1993.
The surviving Ritz Brothers replaced the Stooges and performed much of their act's schtick, including the precision dance routine first seen in Sing, Baby, Sing (1936), co-starring original Stooge leader Ted Healy. As for the remaining original replacement stooges, Joe Besser died of [failure] on March 1, 1988, followed by Joe DeRita of pneumonia on July 3, 1993.
Emil Sitka was announced as a Stooge but never performed as such; he died on January 16, 1998, six months after being disabled by a stroke. == Legacy and perspective == Over sixty years since their last short film was released, the Three Stooges remain popular with audiences.
The release of nearly all their films on DVD by 2010 allowed critics of Joe Besser and Joe DeRita – often the recipients of significant fan backlash – to appreciate the unique style of comedy that both men brought to the Stooges.
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