MGM Story, The (Films of MGM Described and Illustrated in Color and Black & White)
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[About this Site] [About Team Stooge]
An Overview
From their debut film feature Soup to Nuts in 1930, to their swan song Kook's Tour in 1970, The Three Stooges enthralled the viewing public with their unusual brand of slapstick comedic mayhem and off-the-wall verbal antics. In all, the Three Stooges as a team made over 200 appearances in short films and full-length feature films, not counting many television appearances. During their heyday in the 1930s and 1940s, The Three Stooges, including the beloved Curly, were the kings of the comedy short. The Three Stooges brand of comedy is as timeless and funny now as it was when it was first shown to theater-going patrons of the Depression Era.
There Must be Something Moe
Moses Horwitz was born in Brooklyn, New York, on June 19, 1897. "Moe" was the fourth of five sons born to Solomon and Jennie Horwitz. Growing up, Moe and his older brother Shemp spent much of their time on the beach at Coney Island performing and clowning around with their friends. Moe knew at an early age that he wanted a life in show business and got his start in 1909 running errands for actors at New York's Vitagraph Movie Company. He even recalled being cast in a few short films for Vitagraph in the early 1910s. Mid-1910s, Moe left home for a couple years and worked on a Mississippi showboat and in mid-western vaudeville shows. By the end of the decade, Moe and Shemp had taken their act to vaudeville, laying the groundwork for a successful career to follow.
Fine and Dandy
Louis Feinberg was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on October 5, 1902. Like Moe, he too began performing at an early age, and his first love was the violin which he learned to play as a child to strengthen his arm after burning it with acid in his father's jewelry shop. As he was growing up, he performed in a number of amateur night competitions and began to take an interest in comedy. Louis adopted the stage name Larry Fine and made the jump to the vaudeville stage in 1921, later forming an act with his future wife Mabel.
The Youngest One in Curls
Jerome Lester "Curly" Horwitz was born in Brooklyn, New York on October 22, 1903. Because he was the baby of the family, Curly was actually known as "Babe" while growing up. Babe idolized his older brothers Moe and Shemp for the way they could attract attention and excitement with their jokes, gags and unparalleled humor. It seems hard to believe now, but as a youngster, Babe was actually quite shy and didn't appear to have the same yearning to live in the spotlight that his brothers did. Babe was also the Romeo of the family, as his wavy brown hair and demure personality made him the object of many a girl's attention.
Shempagne
Samuel Horwitz was born in Brooklyn, New York, on March 11, 1895, the 3rd eldest of the five Horwitz brothers, known as 'Shemp' due his mother Jennie's thick Lithuanian accent. While his younger brother Moe early channeled his energy into a love of the movies and stage, Shemp was the brother who was frequently getting himself into devilment, exasperating his parents when not joining Moe for good times at Coney Island. Equally adept at performing like Moe, Shemp came later to that realization and joined his brother in the late 1910s for a vaudeville act, and a few years later they found a path to success by joining the act of their friend Ted Healy.
The Ted Healy Days
While Ted Healy was appearing in New York in 1923, Moe ran into his childhood friend who, with wife Betty, was wowing audiences on the vaudeville circuit with the stage revue Syncopated Toes. Moe and later Shemp joined Healy's act as stooges for a couple sketches, but each left by mid-1925 for married life. Ted & Betty graduated to Broadway for The Earl Carroll Vanities in 1925, but after several months they relaunched their own show with stooge Lou Warren, and then were rejoined by Shemp. Hitting the Broadway stage again, first in 1926 for the Shuberts' Passing Show, the Healys co-starred with Phil Baker in A Night in Spain in early 1927 for a 2-year run which included a national tour. Ted expanded his stooge roster for Spain to include Shemp, Lou, Moody Braun and Bobby Pinkus. Larry entered the story in March 1928 during Spain's 4-month run in Chicago when Ted and Shemp caught his nightclub act and were instantly impressed by his dancing, and most importantly, his humor. By Spain's closing in December 1928, Shemp and Larry were Ted's top stooges. During Spain, Ted & Betty also continued to work a solo act in nightclubs, but the couple split in late 1928, setting the stage for another evolution in the stooges. Ted signed to co-star in the Shuberts' 1929 Broadway show A Night in Venice. Shemp and Larry rejoined, plus newcomer Fred Sanborn... and Moe Howard returned after a 3+ year absence! With Betty gone, Ted revised his solo act to spotlight his stooges, and "Ted Healy & His Southern Gentlemen," aka "Ted Healy & His Racketeers," worked vaudeville, nightclubs and even radio during Venice's run. After drawing rave reviews and Venice's closure, the group was signed by Fox Films in spring 1930 to do their first motion picture, Soup to Nuts. The Stooges stole the show and left Healy to go solo for the next two years.
The Stooges Are Born
Moe, Larry & Shemp toured on the Publix and RKO theater circuits as "Howard, Fine & Howard," aka "Three Lost Soles," from August 1930 to July 1932 to busy but mixed results. In 1931 they brought on Jack Walsh as a straightman, allowing them to rework some of the routines they had done earlier with Healy. Ted remained busy on Broadway and touring co-starring in Billy Rose's Crazy Quilt with Fanny Brice, Phil Baker, and assisted by three new stooges, Mousie Garner, Jack Wolf & Dick Hakins. Healy missed the chemistry he had with the Howards and Fine, and convinced our three boys to rejoin him in August 1932. Shemp left after only a couple weeks for solo stage opportunities due to issues with Ted Healy, and would later go on to appear in a number of films and shorts in the next 14 years, notably his 1930s work at Brooklyn's Vitaphone Studios, and 1940s work at Universal and Columbia Studios. The immediate replacement for Shemp was his and Moe's younger brother Jerome who had been tagging along with "Howard, Fine & Howard" for some time, and knew the act inside and out. However, Healy wasn't impressed, saying that the handsome young man with thick, brown hair wasn't visually funny. In response, Jerome went to a local barber shop and shaved every last hair off of his head. The newly named "Curly" was thus welcomed to the group. Only a week after Shemp's departure, the revised line-up of Healy with Moe, Larry & Curly premiered at Cleveland's RKO Palace on August 27, 1932, and the road to stardom suddenly became much clearer.
Out of the Shadows and into the Spotlight
"Ted Healy with Howard, Fine & Howard" continued in stage performances until the spring of 1933, when Hollywood and MGM came calling. The group made a number of films in 1933 - early 1934. Among them were Dancing Lady with Joan Crawford and Clark Gable, Hollywood Party with Jimmy Durante and Laurel & Hardy, Meet the Baron with Durante, Jack Pearl and Edna May Oliver, and starring in several shorts like Beer and Pretzels and Hello Pop. It was during this time that "Stooges" and "Three Stooges" became part of the act's official name, and "Howard, Fine & Howard" was phased out. However, even though the Stooges were working steadily on both stage and screen, it was evident that they were ready to break from the shadow of Ted Healy and take their place in the spotlight. Thus, in March 1934 the two parties made an amicable decision to part ways, paving the way for the Three Stooges to attain headline status. Shortly afterward, the group was signed by Columbia Pictures to star in a number of two-reel comedies (approximately 16-18 minutes long). Their hard work had paid off; the Three Stooges were now the main attraction.
The Stooge Arrive on the Scene
The very first Three Stooges short for Columbia was entitled Woman Haters and was shot in March of 1934. The short was one in a series of "Musical Novelties" and was not originally written specifically for the Stooges. The group's contract called for them to be signed to a long-term deal if the Columbia executives liked the first two-reeler. The Columbia executives were initially indifferent, but after making Punch Drunks the Stooges were signed to a seven year deal worth a total of $60,000 per year. Under the agreement, the group was to film 8 two-reel comedies every year. During their days with Healy, each made only about $5,000 a year.
The Golden Age
Together, Moe, Larry and Curly made 97 shorts for Columbia Pictures in the years 1934 to 1946. During this period, the Three Stooges became one of the best loved comedy teams of all time. Among the highlights of this period are 1934's Punch Drunks, in which Curly becomes a champion prize-fighter whenever he hears the tune "Pop Goes the Weasel." Also, there's 1940's You Nazty Spy!, a takeoff on the German Third Reich that features Moe (in his all-time favorite role) as the dictator of Moronica. Other well-loved shorts include Hoi Polloi, A Plumbing We Will Go, Violent Is the Word For Curly, Micro-Phonies, Three Little Beers, Disorder in the Court, They Stooge to Conga, An Ache in Every Stake and many more. In addition to their film work, the group continued to work on stage during their off weeks and actually made a great deal of their income during these months. As it worked out, their film workload was a cumulative total of 6 to 7 weeks per year, with each short given a production period of 4 days plus some limited pre-production participation. Stage appearances took up the majority of their time, with an average of 20 weeks per year. 1939 and 1940 were high marks, with six and seven months respectively spent touring for the stage. 1939 is notable for including five weeks in England, Ireland and Scotland, plus three months co-starring on Broadway in The George White Scandals.
The End of an Era
By the mid 1940's, Curly's health began to deteriorate due to years of drinking, overeating and late nights; bad habits that accelerated when he and wife Elaine divorced in 1940. In early 1945, he suffered the first of a string of strokes that robbed him of his energy. After some time off, the Stooges restarted their work at Columbia, and they were able to limit their work to only 22 days before the Columbia cameras in 1945. Through it all, Curly continued to take on outside projects like Swing Parade of 1946 for Monogram Studios, and a grueling two-month personal appearance tour in late 1945 that turned a sick man into a deathly ill man. That tour also included an ill-advised, short-lived marriage to a golddigger who turned him into an emotional wreck. When the Stooges returned home in mid-November 1945, Curly's health was irrevocably ruined. Resuming production at Columbia in late January 1946, it became apparent that he lacked the strength to perform much of the physical comedy that had been his specialty. Although the three did not tour at this time, they continued to book personal appearances in the L.A. area, e.g., a week at the Orpheum Theater in February. In May 1946, during the filming of Half-Wits Holiday, Curly suffered a major stroke on the set, effectively ending his tenure with the Three Stooges. Unable to continue, Curly retired to live with his fourth wife Valerie (m. July 1947) and his daughter Janie (b. 1948). He lived peacefully in retirement for approximately 3 years. Late in 1949 he suffered another serious stroke, and his health progressively worsened until he passed away on January 18, 1952.
The Final Curtain? Nope!
After Curly left the group, his brother Shemp returned to the act. Shemp appeared in 77 shorts with the Stooges, starting with 1947's Fright Night. The Shemp era was often dismissed in prior years, but time and comedy gems like Brideless Groom, Squareheads of the Round Table, Three Arabian Nuts, Studio Stoops and Goof on the Roof have earned this period the respect it deserves. Shemp provided the team with a new spark that had been missing with Curly's illness. Curly did return for a cameo with Moe, Larry & Shemp, as a snoring train passenger in 1947's Hold That Lion! The Stooges also came to TV at this time, with appearances on Milton Berle's Texaco Star Theater, The Frank Sinatra Show, and Ed Wynn's Camel Comedy Caravan. The first few years with Shemp also remained busy with personal appearances, but that venue dried up quickly as the movie palaces closed one after another in the post-war economy. A Vegas attempt in 1953 failed, and the act found itself largely unemployed save for a shortened filming schedule at Columbia due to stock footage remakes... in 1955, the boys worked only 9 days at the studio. Shemp died unexpectedly on November 22, 1955.
After losing his second brother, Moe seriously considered retiring from the act. However, a couple years still remained on their contract with Columbia. The group decided to enlist comedy veteran Joe Besser as the third Stooge, and he appeared with the team in 16 shorts until their contract was abruptly terminated in December 1957. Passing on Moe's idea to do some personal appearances, Besser left the team a few weeks later to remain home and care for his ill wife. Joe kept busy with his own film work like 1959's Say One For Me with Bing Crosby, Robert Wagner and Debbie Reynolds, 1960s TV popularity as co-star of The Joey Bishop Show, guest shots on other series, and a new career in the 1970s doing animation voiceovers. Joe retired in the early 1980s.
Buoyed by the September 1958 television release of 78 Three Stooges shorts, the group enjoyed a resurgence in popularity, mostly with kids due to the films appearing on childrens programs. By the end of 1959 all 190 shorts were distributed for TV. With burlesque veteran Joe DeRita (as "Curly Joe") now in place as the third Stooge, the group also found itself TV darlings in prime-time with appearances on programs like The Steve Allen Show and The Ed Sullivan Show. They signed with Columbia in 1959 to star in Have Rocket -- Will Travel, and starred in four more features for Columbia through 1965, plus 20th Century-Fox's Technicolor Snow White and the Three Stooges in 1961. In 1960 Columbia produced a compilation feature entitled Stop! Look! and Laugh!, which utilized scenes from several of the Curly Howard shorts. For 1965's The Outlaws Is Coming, many of the TV hosts that screened their films were rewarded with roles as the "outlaws." 1965 also saw the TV release of their cartoon series The New 3 Stooges. The team formed its own company in 1959, which oversaw an explosion of licensed Three Stooges merchandise with a wide range of toys and games, plus trading cards, coloring books and comic books. The latter half of the 1960s things slowed down considerably with changes in social attitudes, new fads, the boys' kid audience growing up, and the trio's ages. Yet, the Stooges remained active with various television and personal appearances until Larry's stroke during the filming of Kook's Tour in early January 1970. Moe and Larry both died in 1975. Joe Besser passed away in 1988, and Joe DeRita, the last surviving Stooge, died in 1993.
The Rest of Ted's Story
Ted Healy had a successful film career after he and Stooges split in 1934, appearing in a number of films for MGM as well as being loaned to both Warner Brothers and 20th Century Fox. Some of his prominent films include Operator 13 (1934) with Gary Cooper & Marion Davies, Mad Love (1935) with Peter Lorre, San Francisco (1936) with Clark Gable, Jeanette MacDonald & Spencer Tracy, Reckless (1935) with Jean Harlow & William Powell, It's in the Air (1935) with Jack Benny, Speed (1936) with Jimmy Stewart, Man of the People (1937) with Thomas Mitchell & Joseph Calleia, Love Is a Headache (1938) with Mickey Rooney & Franchot Tone, and Hollywood Hotel (1938) with Dick Powell & Benny Goodman. Ted didn't leave stooge-ing entirely, putting together a new trio for scenes in San Francisco, which were unfortunately cut in the editing room. In 1937, he reunited with former stooges Paul 'Mousie' Garner and Dick Hakins, along with Sammy Glasser (aka Sammy Wolfe) for some well-received radio appearances. This lineup was scheduled to take over radio hosting duties on the MGM/Maxwell House variety series Good News, and they were cast for the Warner Bros.' musical Golddiggers in Paris. But tragically, Ted's life was cut short at the age of 41 in December 1937. Ted didn't know he was ill with kidney nephritis and cirhossis of the liver when he went on a celebratory drinking binge after the birth of his son. After a couple nightclub fights, he returned home the next morning, lapsed into a coma when his kidneys shut down, and Ted died hours later from heart failure. Contrary to legend, his fight injuries of a cut over his eye and a few bruises did not contribute to his death, they were just fuel for tabloid stories. His career was going very well, and years of future entertaining were sadly lost.
The Legacy Lives On
The popularity of the Three Stooges lives on to this day. Although they never received the critical acceptance that other comics of their day enjoyed, few images from the 1930s and 1940s have stood the test of time as well as the classic "nyuk-nyuk-nyuks" and "woob-woob-woobs" of the Three Stooges. Reruns are now seen all across the country, allowing more and more younger fans to experience the wackiness of Stoogemania. The Three Stooges will forever be remembered as one of the true pioneering groups in the field of comedy.
Written by Giff me dat fill-em!, August 30, 2009; additional text by "Team Stooge" July 2018
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