Web Site Logo

This website is made possible, in part, by displaying a few online advertisements to our visitors.
Please consider supporting us by disabling your ad blocker for this site.
[ Trading Cards Home ]

The Three Stooges Collector Cards

Publisher Year(s) Issued Set Type
DuoCards 1997 Base Set

  • 72 card set.
  • Images come from the short subjects, features, promotional & portrait shots, television, comic book covers and more, featuring all of the Stooges... Moe Howard, Larry Fine, Shemp Howard, Curly Howard, Joe Besser and Joe DeRita, as well as Ted Healy and supporting players.
  • The backs of the cards present Stooge historical information, biographies and trivia related to the front image.  In many cases the information is wrong or misleading, and card comments addressing these errors are provided.
  • In spite of the superior card stock quality, and foil-stamped Three Stooges logo on each card, many of the images are poorly reproduced and some appear to be photographs taken from some Stooges books like Moe Howard & The Three Stooges and The Three Stooges Scrapbook.  Overall, the card backs are more attractive-looking than the fronts.


Card No. 1 The Three Stooges

Slightly misleading, the count of 400 would include not only The Three Stooges, but solo fim projects of each member of the comedy team.

Card No. 2 Moe

Vitagraph Studios, not theater.

Card No. 3 Moe Meets Ted

Tabloid myth.  Ted Healy did not die from the bruises and a cut he received in that fight at the Trocadero.  His celebratory drinking binge exacerbated his kidney and liver disease, causing him to lapse into a coma and die of heart failure.

Card No. 4 Family Moe

Card No. 5 Middleman Larry

Card No. 6 Larry

  • Larry first joined as one of Ted Healy's stooges in late March 1928 in Chicago, replacing a [temporarily] departing Shemp in the Shuberts' touring Broadway musical-comedy revue A NIGHT IN SPAIN.
  • Moe and Larry did not meet until February 1929, when both comics (with Shemp) joined Ted Healy for the Shuberts' new Broadway revue A NIGHT IN VENICE.

Card No. 7 "Soitenly" Curly

The correct spelling of the brothers' last name is Horwitz.

Card No. 8 N-Yuk N-Yuk Curly

Card No. 9 Curly

Curly's strokes began in late 1944 / early 1945.  He retired due to health in May 1946.

Card No. 10 Shemp

Card No. 11 Joe Besser

Moe approved Joe Besser joining the team, but the choosing is more accurately described as a "team" decision of Moe, Jules White and Columbia executives.  Joe left the Stooges in early 1958.

Card No. 12 Joe DeRita

Card No. 13 The Racketeers

  • Ted Healy utilized comics as stooges through most of the 1920s, but the act that evolved into the Three Stooges did not really begin until late 1928.  Ted's solo act with wife Betty ended when they broke up.  Moe, Larry and Shemp first came together as a trio in early 1929 in support of Ted in the Shuberts' A NIGHT IN VENICE, and that was when Healy conceived the idea to spotlight his stooges as his new vaudeville act.
  • The billing of Ted Healy and His Racketeers was first used in late 1929.

Card No. 14 Sabbatical

  • Moe left Healy's act immediately after his marriage to Helen in June 1925, and spent more than three years in real estate and sales.  He returned in December 1928.
  • Larry married in 1926.  He did not become a stooge until late March 1928.  After joining with Healy, he remained with the comedy team until retiring in 1970.

Card No. 15 Reunited

The "short" split was actually 2 years, August 1930 thru July 1932.  The primary reason they rejoined Ted was, in those 2 years as "Howard, Fine & Howard" (aka "Three Lost Soles"), they worked consistently but did not enjoy the top venue billings Ted Healy provided and they did not earn as much as Healy paid.

Card No. 16 Starring With

Card No. 17 Curly Joins

Card No. 18 Split With Healy

The Stooges leaving did not create a "financial plight" for Ted, who was enjoying a successful run with MGM.  An overlooked fact is, MGM was not a good comedy studio and it had no coherent plan for the Stooges in its films.  Ted was guaranteed a 1934 contract renewal with MGM, but the Stooges were not.

Card No. 19 Columbia Signing

Card No. 20 First Film

Card No. 21 Women Haters

  • The correct title spelling is WOMAN HATERS
  • Walter Brennan had numerous film credits before this, going back to the late 1920s in silent films.

Card No. 22 Punch Drunks

Card No. 23 Men in Black

Card No. 24 Stooges' Popularity

Card No. 25 George White Scandals

The Stooges left GEORGE WHITE SCANDALS on October 28, 1939, five weeks before it closed.  They appeared in 2/3 of those 120 performances.

Card No. 26 Curly's Contrast

Card No. 27 Story Lines

Card No. 28 Curly's Ills

Card No. 29 Half-Wit's Holiday

Curly's stroke was on May 6, 1946.

Card No. 30 Shemp Joins

Card No. 31 Changes

  • Key personnel leaving can be pinpointed earlier, with Del Lord in the mid-1940s and Hugh McCollum & Edward Bernds in 1952.  The era of film shorts had actually ended by this time, with Columbia keeping its production unit going several years longer than financially sensible.
  • Moe, Larry & Shemp completed only 73 shorts... the last 4 were produced after Shemp's death, with just Moe & Larry and Joe Palma doubling for Shemp in a handful of new scenes.

Card No. 32 Shemp's Passing

Shemp died on November 22.

Card No. 33 Joe Besser Era

Card No. 34 TV Stooges

The package of 78 shorts premiered in syndication in September 1958.  It was offered to stations in April 1958 at the National Association of Broadcasters convention.

Card No. 35 Curly Joe DeRita

Card No. 36 Personal Appearances

The fee received for the Rochester NY shopping center appearance, on June 25, 1960, was $6500, not $25,000.

Card No. 37 Have Rocket Will Travel

Card No. 38 "Tamed" Stooges

Card No. 39 Outlaws Is Coming

Card No. 40 Retirement

Card No. 41 Moe and Larry's Passing

Card No. 42 Comic Book Stooges

Card No. 43 1st Issue

Card No. 44 Final Jubilee Issue

Card No. 45 1953 Comic

Card No. 46 Series End

Card No. 47 Western / Dell Comics

Card No. 48 Publishing Success

Card No. 49 Little Stooges Comic

Card No. 50 Final Comic Book

Card No. 51 Normandy Productions

The card image is from THE NEW 3 STOOGES (1965), but the text refers to 1960's THE THREE STOOGES SCRAPBOOK.

Card No. 52 Three Stooges Scrapbook

Card No. 53 Animation Success

Card No. 54 Stoogey Merchandise

Card No. 55 Fan Club

Card No. 56 Lunch

Card No. 57 Oops

Card No. 58 Zany Marriages

Card No. 59 "You Nazty Spy"

"Three Blind Mice" was in use for 1939's releases, prior to YOU NAZTY SPY!.

Card No. 60 Dudley Dickerson

The actor in the picture is Joe Palma, not Dudley Dickerson.

Card No. 61 Bud Jamison

  • The actor pictured is Ben Welden, not Bud Jamison.
  • The photo is from THREE DARK HORSES (1952), not DISORDER IN THE COURT (1936).

Card No. 62 Question & Answer I

Card No. 63 Question & Answer II

Card No. 64 Question & Answer III

Card No. 65 Question & Answer IV

Card No. 66 Question & Answer V

Curly Howard does not appear in FRIGHT NIGHT (1947).

Card No. 67 Question & Answer VI

A NIGHT IN VENICE was Moe Howard's return to Healy's stooges after a 3-year absence.  Larry had been a member of the group since late March 1928, except for a 2-months stay in Atlantic City, NJ in January and February 1929 awaiting the birth of his daughter Phyllis.

Card No. 68 Question & Answer VII

Not because it was felt offensive to the Japanese, but because it was felt to be insensitive to American citizens of Japanese descent who had been interred in Relocation Centers during the war.  The characters in the film are not Japanese POW's, they are refugees from a Relocation Center.

Card No. 69 Question & Answer VIII

Solomon Horwitz appears in 6 Three Stooges shorts.

Card No. 70 Question & Answer IX

This was the 3rd Three Stooges short directed by Edward Bernds, but it was the first one released.

Card No. 71 The Stooges Live On

After a "lull" in the late 1960s, the Stooges' second rebirth from TV syndication began in the early and mid-1970s.  The Stooge films' first national exposure, via WTBS in the 1980s, was an extension of that rebirth.

Card No. 72 Checklist

Wrapper

Box





FAIR USE NOTICE: This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We make such material available in an effort to advance awareness and understanding of the issues involved. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information please visit: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission directly from the copyright owner.