To follow is my report from the Stooges co-star reunion. WARNING....this is a detailed report....read on only if you are a die-hard fan!
Day 1
Frank, Brent, Jim P. and myself arrived in Burbank on Monday night for a week of Stooging, to be highlighted by this weekend’s reunion of the Stooges’ supporting actresses.
On Tuesday morning we made our first stop the Valhalla Cemetary since it’s close to the hotel. After paying our respects to Joe DeRita, we visited the gravesite of supporting players Gino Corrado and Symona Boniface. Both had been in unmarked graves until the fan club paid for grave markers for them a few years back. When we got to Symona’s grave, the sprinkler system was running full blast which prevented us from taking photos. So Jim and Brent took turns being “successful corks” just long enough so the rest of us could get our graveside photos taken.
While at Valhalla, we also found the gravesite for supporting actor Frank Lackteen, and attempted to find Fred Kelsey, but we determined that Kelsey’s grave must be unmarked. Many other celebrities are buried there, and while wandering around we came across the graves of Oliver Hardy and Arthur Q. Bryan (the voice of Elmer Fudd).
From Valhalla we headed to Larchmont Boulevard where many Stooges shorts were shot. On the ride over we stopped at the Warner Bros. Ranch which was formerly the Columbia ranch. The public is not allowed on the lot, but from the street we could see the buildings that appear in the marching sequences of “Boobs in Arms” as well as the brownstone buildings that appear in “Termites of 1938.” We also passed “Gower Gulch” where the original Columbia Studios were located.
Upon arriving at Larchmont Boulevard, we saw the shooting locations used in False Alarms, Punch Drunks, and Pop Goes the Easel. It was really exciting to see the locations in person and imagine the Stooges filming there some 70+ years ago.We also got a great view of the famous “Hollywood” sign. Then we took a ride over to the nearby “Mutts to You” house which looks almost identical to its 1938 appearance. Jim and Brent had been there before of course, but this time Jim wanted to knock on the door and see if we could find out who owned the house back then (we suspected it might be director Charley Chase). The woman who answered the door was surprised to learn that her house had been used in a Stooges film. Although she thought we were a bit nuts, she took my email address and promised to email me an ownership history of the house which she could get from the title papers.
Our evening activity was a cocktail party at the house of Jill Howard (Shemp’s granddaughter). Jill is a warm & lovely lady and wonderful hostess who made us feel quite welcome in her home. Other guests included Joan Maurer, supporting actress Diana Darrin and her son, filmmaker Evan Richards, Shemp’s daughter-in-law Geri (Jill’s Mom), as well as fan club member Bill Major and about 10-12 other people. The highlight of the evening was when Jill brought out a binder of photos and clippings to look at. It was filled with many great shots, most of which we had never seen before, including rarely seen photos of Shemp’s son Mort (Jill’s Dad) and other fascinating items including Shemp’s address book, Mort’s wedding invitation and on and on. Trying not to wear out our welcome, we salivated over the binder for as long as we could, then thanked Jill for her hospitality and hit the road.
Day 2
Today, the four of us were joined by James Scott who came in from Chicago last night. We started out with a stop at the Stooges Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. While there, we also visited the star for supporting actor Chester Conklin and producer/director Jules White.
Our next scheduled stop was the famous “Ache in Every Stake” steps. On the drive over there, we passed by the “Los Arms” hospital from “Men in Black”, as well as the “Calling All Curs” street. Jim warned us about the steepness of the street leading up to the steps, but we really couldn’t appreciate it until we arrived. We climbed to the top and admired the panoramic view below. We spent a good amount of time there taking pics of each other and clowning around. We noticed that a home at the base of the steps was for sale so Frank called the real estate agent to get a price on the house, thinking that maybe some Stooges fan might want to relocate to this “holy grail” of Stooges locations….he’s still waiting for a call back.
From there we headed to the intersection where the barrels created chaos in “Three Little Beers”, took some pictures, then went back to Larchmont Blvd. for a quick lunch.
After lunch we went to DeLongpre Park to see the Hoi Polloi statue. After some more picture taking, we then headed for Home of Peace Cemetery to pay our respects to Curly and Shemp. Many of the graves there have a small pebble or two left on them by friends or relatives who had come to visit. When we got to Curly’s grave, it was covered with dozens of stones and other mementos that fans had left there, including an old stogie cigar.
Across the street from Home of Peace is Calvary Cemetery where Ted Healy and his sister Marcia are buried, so we stopped over there for a bit, before heading to Forest Lawn in Glendale to visit the gravesites of Larry Fine and Joe Besser. After a few problems with our GPS navigation system which seemingly had a mind of its own, we found our way out there. Larry is in a mausoleum with his wife Mabel and son John, while Besser is just outside the mausoleum with his wife Ernie. We tried to find director Charley Chase but it was starting to get dark so we gave up.
After a quick pit stop back at the hotel to powder our noses, Frank, Brent and I took a ride out to Sherman Oaks to have dinner with supporting actress Adrian Booth Brian (Lorna Gray), our good friend from her several appearances at our fan club get-togethers. Adrian will turn 90 later this year, but is still in great shape and mentally sharp. We kept her out way past her bedtime listening to her many stories which will hopefully translate into a future article in the Journal
Day 3
Last night, after dinner with Adrian Booth Brian, we wound up at the hotel bar for a few drinks and met up with club member Bob Kotsopoulos from Canada who will be setting up as a dealer at the show this weekend. We also bumped into club members Trent and Mar-Jean, each of whom had arrived on Wednesday. Poor Mar-Jean’s luggage was lost by Delta Airlines so she was doing the best she could without any of her stuff.
Today was research day. Frank, Brent & I went to the Margaret Herrick Library of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences and spent almost the entire day there. While Brent was checking out Jules White’s scripts, I poured through Jules White’s photo collection and Frank did research on lost and missing Stooges supporting players. Each of us made some interesting discoveries which will hopefully turn up in future issues of the Journal.
Meanwhile, Jim was very busy preparing for Saturday’s reunion of the Stooges’ supporting actresses. He also did an interview for a company engaged by Columbia to produce bonus elements for some of their upcoming DVD releases. This company will interview the Stooges ladies on Saturday and also interviewed yours truly on our way back from the library. Also on our way back, we drove past the Trocadero, which is the night club where Ted Healy got into the fight that preceeded his death.
While we were doing all this, James, Trent and Mar-Jean visited some of the gravesites that we had stopped at on day 1. Mar-Jean’s luggage still had not been located, but trooper that she is, she carried on without complaint.
Tonight was the Collectors Show “pre-show” which was open for early birds to peruse the dealer tables. We all scoped out the tables for a couple hours. Jim was invited by one of his local police buddies to take a patrol ride in a police helicopter for a few hours and since the rest of us weren’t invited, we had to settle for dinner and drinks at the hotel.
Day 4
Today was the first day of the collectors show. Although the reunion of the Stooges actresses won’t take place until tomorrow, there were numerous celebrity autograph signers on hand. Adrian Booth Brian came by for a brief time today as well. While the rest of the guys hit the show, I chose to return to the Margaret Herrick Library to look at some more of Jules White’s photos ( his collection includes about 5,000 stills from over 500 Columbia films).
At lunchtime I headed back to the hotel to pick up Frank, Brent, Jim, and James because we were invited over to Joan Maurer’s house for the afternoon. As we were heading out, we ran into Gary Owens, radio personality and best-known as the announcer on the TV show “Laugh-In”. Gary was instrumental in getting the Stooges their star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. We thanked him on behalf of Stooge fans everywhere for his hard work in making the star a reality. Gary told us about his frequent lunches with Moe Howard at the Smokehouse, the restaurant we were planning to go to for dinner. We showed him the interview with him that appeared in the Journal recently and I informed him that he was immortalized at the Stoogeum where a photo of the Stooges clowning with Gary hangs on the wall. He was flattered and thanked us for helping to keep the Stooges legacy alive.
We fought some brutal LA traffic and finally made it out to Joan’s. Also on hand there was supporting actress Beverly Warren and her husband, along with Geri & Jill Howard and Bill Major. We spent a few hours there and wanted to stay longer, but we had a group dinner planned for that night and had to get going. Before we hit the road, we made sure to get some pictures of the famous Stooges weather vane which sits atop her garage.
We headed over to the Smokehouse which is one of those Hollywood institution-type restaurants. On the way, we passed the street that the fire truck went down in “False Alarms” and saw the tall building that appears in the background.
Once we got to the restaurant, we were joined by Joe Mitch, Bob K. and author Steve Cox along with Beverly Warren and her husband, Trent and Mar-Jean (by the way, Mar-Jean’s luggage finally arrived today, about a day and a half after she did). After several hours of eating, drinking and Stooging we returned to the hotel to get rested up for tomorrow’s reunion.
Day 5
After 4 days of Stooging, the highlight of the week was the planned Saturday “reunion” of the Stooges supporting actresses at the Hollywood Collectors Show. I put “reunion” in quotes because even though all of the ladies worked with the Stooges at Columbia, many of them had never met each other before. Our game plan was to get the women to arrive about a half hour before the opening of the show, gather them in the hospitality suite, get a group shot of them all together, then quickly send the shot out to a photo lab (that we had scoped out earlier in the week) to have copies made for all the girls to take home with them. We had to make elaborate logistical plans to accomplish this since all the ladies were arriving separately. Of course the best laid plans often go astray, and sure enough, we had gotten a call from Adrian Brian saying she wasn’t feeling up to attending. Jim called her back and somehow managed to sweet-talk her into changing her mind, but at that point she wasn’t going to make it in time for the group shot.
Anyway, as the girls arrived one-by-one, Frank Brent and Jim located them and escorted them to the hospitality suite. I was stationed in the suite and given the job of schmoozing with the girls, getting them coffee and introducing them to each other. The highlight of this portion of the day was when Gloria Patrice and Nita Bieber first saw each other. They had been Jack Cole Dancers together for several years in the mid-1940s and worked in “Rhythm & Weep” together, but had not seen each other in 61 years. They had a tearful embrace and were overjoyed to see each other again. The other girls in attendance were Beverly Warren, Arline Hunter, Nancy Saunders, Patricia Wright, Diana Darrin, Sylvia Lewis, Virginia Hunter and Joan Maurer. Also on hand were Geri & Jill Howard and Saxon Sitka, and as I mentioned, Adrian Brian who arrived later.
After a bunch of picture-taking, we escorted the girls out to the autograph tables. They were thrilled by all the attention they received. They signed photos, posed for pictures and told stories to fans who had come to the show. They also reconnected with some of the other celebrities at the show that they had known from their earlier days as actresses. For many of them it was their first show so they were a bit overwhelmed by it all, but in a very positive way. They were amazed that people still had an interest in them after all these years.
Also at the show were a slew of other Stooge-related performers that we met and talked Stooges with including: Adam West (“The Outlaws is Coming”), Margaret Kerry (“The New Three Stooges”), Julie Newmar (publicity shoot with the Stooges in May 1961), Bill Dana (worked with the Stooges on “The Steve Allen Show”), Brian Forster (son of Peter Forster from “Stooges Go Around the World in a Daze”), Janet Ann Gallow (from Shemp solo film “Butch Minds the Baby”), Erin Moran (photo of her as a child on Joe Besser’s lap appears in “Scrapbook”) and Gary Owens who I mentioned in a previous installment of our chronicles.
Throughout the day, the girls went one-by-one up to a hotel suite to do interviews for upcoming Stooges DVDs that I also mentioned earlier in the week. When the show ended, six of the ladies stuck around to have dinner with us. Since it was Virginia Hunter’s 87th birthday that day, we ordered a cake with candles to surprise her with. She had no idea that we knew it was her birthday, but as Stooges researchers we always go the extra mile to find out these important details. She was touched that we were making such a fuss over her, and we serenaded her with a chorus of “Happy Birthday”. We said our good-byes to the girls and we were totally exhausted, but the night was still young.
From there, Brent, Frank, Jim and I made the trip out to Camarillo, about an hour’s drive, to visit Saxon Sitka and view his collection of Emil Sitkabilia. Emil was the ultimate saver, as he kept multiple mint condition copies of anything related to his lengthy career. Saxon has it meticulously maintained and organized, and it takes up several rooms in his house. He showed us piece after piece that we had never seen before, then asked us if there was anything special we’d like to see. We told him we’d basically have to pitch a tent in his backyard to accomplish that and since it was approaching midnight, we thanked him for his hospitality and regretfully headed back to the hotel.
This marked the end of the trip for Brent, Frank & I who headed home this morning. Jim and James will carry on without us until Wednesday and perhaps they will report on their exploits.
Gary
