which couple would you recommend the most? I'm probably most intrigued by the Book of Scripts, but who knows. That Beyond the Laughter book sounds like a pile of garbage to me.
Books I haven't read/seen
1. Three Stooges Book of Scripts (both volumes)
2. Stroke of Luck (way too pricey)
3. Joe Besser's autobiography
4. Complete Three Stooges (Solomon)
5. Three Stooges Encyclopedia
6. Beyond the Laughter, Curly's Post-Stooge years
7. The Stoogephile Trivia Book
8. The Stooges' Lost Episodes
9. My Friend Moe (Sanner)
I can help ya out... I highly recommend both volumes of 'Book of Scripts.' There's so many great pics, and a great deal of it is written from Joan's point of view, as she was growing up as the shorts discussed in these two books were filmed. It's got more of a personal feel to it, I think. I personally recommend all the books Joan has put her name on.
Stroke of Luck: I was lucky in getting a copy in good condition a couple of Christmases ago. It really is
full of errors. In the first few pages, it's written that Moe's real name is 'Maurice' ...wtf. Actually, I was fortunate enough to be invited to Joan Maurer's house when I was vacationing in LA a few years back. I had asked a question about 'Stroke of Luck' and she pulled out Moe's personal copy. Apparently, he had underlined and highlighted all the errors in the book. Needless to say, there were a lot of highlighted pages, haha. ...One of the only good things is that there are a ton of rare photos that I hadn't seen before. The only reason it's so expensive is probably because there was only a certain number printed.
Besser's Bio: Have it, but haven't gotten around to reading it, nyuk nyuk.
The Complete Three Stooges: Oh man, this book is great! I find myself consulting it alll the time. Who directed which film, the history behind the pop culture reference of the day, all the yiddish slang, etc. It starts with 'Soup to Nuts' and ends with 'Kooks Tour;' basically everything is in there. If this isn't the Stooges bible, then I dunno what it.
Three Stooges Encyclopedia: This one's OK. It's got all the character names, destinations, businesses, etc, from the shorts.
Beyond the Laughter: Haha... I can't believe this was actually printed. The basic plot is this: Curly Howard actually didn't die in 1952 (??!) It turns out he
wasn't Jewish and was an Italian American with mob ties (
![[rotfl]](https://threestooges.net/forums/Smileys/default/rotfl.gif "Rolling on the Floor Laughing")
). He falls in love with this 13 year old girl; they wait until she's like 20, and then they elope. They have a daughter, and he says he can't stay married to his wife because it's 'not safe.' The rest of the story revolves around the wife and the daughter. The only times Curly shows up in the plot is to come back and have sex with the woman who used to be his wife (and I gotta say, it gets blue). The daughter grows up and wants to know who her father is. She eventually finds Curly... in Canada (through a weird ass line of events). When she does finally meet him, he's this sick old guy in a bathrobe. She lives with him for a while, they forge a relationship. Then she goes home and he dies.... at like 75. This was the worst piece of crap I've ever read. Not to mention it's littered with grammatical and punctuation errors. When Joan Maurer found out about this she was pretty pissed off, and I'm surprised Curly's family didn't sue the author.
Trivia Book: It's kinda cute. It's from the 80s when the Stooge craze was in full swing. It's got quick little bios of the Stooges, shows you how to do certain Stooge-isms (Curly Shuffle, eye poke, etc), and of course it's got trivia questions...
Lost Episodes: This one I thought was pretty good. It's got some 'lost anecdotes,' funny stories about the Stooges on a more personal level. Talks about the films they did with Healy, some of the features the Stooges appeared in during the 40s, some Shemp solos, a little bit about the later years, with Curly Joe. I like it because it doesn't focus on the 190 the Stooges did with Columbia. I've seen the early stuff, but after reading this, I'm more familiar with it.
My Friend Moe: Funny you mention that one, too. I came across that on Amazon a few days ago and I had never heard of it. Has anyone here read it?
