50 Years of American Comedy
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Featuring Moe, Larry and Curly
2.5 min. (Short Subject)
Columbia, in partnership with Pillsbury's Farina cereal, produced this featurette to promote The Three Stooges Moving Picture Machine, a toy. A 35mm print of this promotional spot was discovered circa 2009 in the Library of Congress, after years of thinking that no prints survived. Moe, Larry & Curly appear on stage, demonstrating the projector to the children in the audience.
The projector was a toy, given away at grocery stores with the purchase of two boxes of Farina. Made of cardboard, when folded and assembled it displayed images of the Stooges from several of their shorts; turning a crank flipped the images to create a "moving" picture viewed thru an opening in the projector.
In addition to this film, Pillsbury's advertising campaign included 5x8 photo giveaways for theater attendees, a one-sheet and other posters, radio spots, stills featuring the Stooges with child actress Edith Fellows, and color newspaper ads that ran in Sunday comics sections. A detailed report on the toy projector and its promotional campaign appeared in two parts, in The Three Stooges Journal # 84 (Winter 1997) and # 85 (Spring 1998).
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