Topic: The Three Stooges Biography by Michael Fleming

[Hollister]

The Three Stooges Biography by Michael Fleming.

Has anyone purchased this book?  If so would you recommend it?

How about the two listed below?

The Complete Three Stooges Book

The Three Stooges Official Encyclopedia

http://www.soitenlystooges.com/search.asp?type=subcategory&category=16

Thanks,

Ed

[porcupinefan87]

To be honest, I don't much care for the Fleming one. Some of it's written in a witty way, but other bits are just sort of bland. I think I was 13 when I got the book and even then I had mixed feelings on it because it seems there are some things that are quite inacurate. The fact that it is "authorized" is sinful in my view. However, in other areas it makes up for it by having a short-by-short summary at the end. People have praised it though. I have it. I just don't think it's the greatest thing on the stooges ever written. It's obvious that this is the book that inspired that TV movie on them in 2000, so I guess that sort of speaks for itself. The book, like the movie, almost seems to over-dramatize and exaggerate certain things for effect, and at times it seems the author's opinion is getting in the way. Some of it is worth it, other bits not so much.

"The Three Stooges Encyclopedia".  When I first got it at 13 years old...I thought it was "ehhh". But I recently looked through it again and thought it was actually quite creative. It's more based on their "personas" than their real lives. In other words, it sort of analyzes the role that each of them played in the trio, citing various shorts for examples, etc. There's some minor biographical info as well though.  I believe this book also does a short-by-short analysis. This one's more for entertainment, not for biographical info...but it's interesting.

And sorry, I'm not sure about the other one.

[BeAStooge]

The Complete Three Stooges

Highly recommended.


BIBLIOGRAPHY
1970 - present; includes Amazon.com links.

Also recommended (listed in the Bibliography)...
 - The Columbia Comedy Shorts by Ted Okuda & Ed Watz
 - Curly: An Illustrated Biography of the Superstooge by Joan Howard Maurer
 - Mr. Bernds Goes to Hollywood by Edward Bernds
 - Moe Howard and The Three Stooges by Moe Howard
 - One Fine Stooge by Steve Cox & Jim Terry
 - The Three Stooges Scrapbook by Jeff Lenburg, Greg Lenburg & Joan Howard Maurer

[Pat The Stooge]

I read Flemming's book. It was released in 1999. The only inacuracy I found is that he says that Shemp died at the age of 59 when we know that he died at age 60. So if you got it at 13, that would make you 21 right?
I was introduced into the Three Stooges in late 1994, I was 11 then and I'm 24 now.
I just got C3's "Three Stooges Filmogrpahy" booklet by Jon Solomon published in early 2002. I defenitly recommend this one.

[busybuddy]

The Complete Three Stooges is in my opinion the best book about the Stooges film-wise. This book is like a Stooges perfect stooge reference guide if you're watching a short and forget the name of one of the bit players or something. It's also good if you're playing the Three Stooges Trivia board game and you want to prove that the answer card is wrong. For their personal lives, I think One Fine Stooge gives some great insights. Michael Fleming's book is okay for a short history of the team but not the best one in my opinion.

[porcupinefan87]

Ha! Good to know I'm not the only one who saw that a lot of the supposed right answers on that Trivia Board Game are, in fact...wrong haha!

"The Three Stooges Scrapbook" is quite decent as well, as I think a few of you also mentioned.

Yeah the Fleming one's got the Shemp thing wrong, it gives the wrong year for Larry Fine's birth, etc. Maybe I felt it was too "casually" written or to sort of general...it made the boys look more like "stereotypes", and the movie based on it does that too. I think it takes personality traits to extremes, or makes random observations. I don't know. It's alright, in places. But in some spots I'm like...this book isn't acurate haha.

[Justin T]

Highly recommended.


BIBLIOGRAPHY
1970 - present; includes Amazon.com links.

Also recommended (listed in the Bibliography)...
 - The Columbia Comedy Shorts by Ted Okuda & Ed Watz
 - Curly: An Illustrated Biography of the Superstooge by Joan Howard Maurer
 - Mr. Bernds Goes to Hollywood by Edward Bernds
 - Moe Howard and The Three Stooges by Moe Howard
 - One Fine Stooge by Steve Cox & Jim Terry
 - The Three Stooges Scrapbook by Jeff Lenburg, Greg Lenburg & Joan Howard Maurer

 Of the ones BeAStooge listed here, I own Moe Howard and the Three Stooges, The Three Stooges Scrapbook and One Fine Stooge.
I strongly recomend you get all 3 of them. Each one has something special to offer, Scrapbook is good for a overview of their career
and of their merchandise with a good filmography in the back. Moe's book and Larry's book both offer alot of the best information about
their personal lives.

The Complete Stooges sounds nice, I may have to seek that one out.

[porcupinefan87]

Right. They all have something interesting to offer,  just some books have MORE interesting things to offer than others, and of course it really all depends on the reader as well. The reader has a lot of say in many ways...depending on which aspects of the Stooges' career they are interested in (or which Stooge, and so on...).

I was sort of trying to allude to it earlier, and I don't mean it as offensive to any one stooge or anything like that, but I think each book  does sort of tend to praise some of them and knock others etc, depending on the author haha. Not all the books though, just a few, like the Fleming book, seem to have that tone. Other books I've read do a pretty good job of being fair and objective though. Of course it's hard.  What I mean by this is, you'll get a book that will be like "Curly and Larry were such goof offs - Moe did all the work!" haha. "Curly and Larry forgot their lines, but for Curly it was okay because he was...Curly". You'll get books, "Moe worried endlessly, Larry didn't care and spent his money" haha. "Moe was really very serious and mean...just like his on screen persona" and visa versa, you'll get "Moe was really just so sweet and it's unfair to think of him as mean" and a million and one other things depending on which stooge(s) the author seems to be trying to "sell", so to speak. That's how I feel about a few stooge books. They'll exaggerate certain facts or leave out certain things depending on the tone. Then you'll read another book that will say that what the one exaggerated really wasn't a huge deal, but that book will highlight something else. Like with anything written on celebrities, stuff should always be looked at as relative and there's some stuff that is always more true than other stuff or the difference between fact and folklore, etc.

But I digress and ramble, but you catch my drift. 

[ericcraddock]

The only Stooge book I have is The Official Three Stooges Encyclopedia. As a book just to read, it is ok, as a reference it is awesome. It is especially helpful in finding which short you may be looking for based on a one liner, character name or place.

[Dan the Damned]

I'd like to get a good biography on the Stooges -- not about the films, but about their personal lives and behind-the-scenes stories.  I'm wary of bios written by relatives that might gloss over some of the negative stuff, but I also don't want to read a book that is filled with made-up scandals, etc.

What do you all recommend as the best book(s)?

Like, is "One Fine Stooge" better (in your opinion) than "Larry the Stooge in the Middle"?

I was thinking of buying "Moe Howard and the Three Stooges" plus one other, but not sure which is the best bet.  Maybe one of these Larry Fine books?

[BeAStooge]

I'd like to get a good biography on the Stooges -- not about the films, but about their personal lives and behind-the-scenes stories. 

BIBLIOGRAPHY, 1970 - present; includes Amazon.com links...
 - Curly: An Illustrated Biography of the Superstooge by Joan Howard Maurer
 - Moe Howard and The Three Stooges by Moe Howard
 - One Fine Stooge by Steve Cox & Jim Terry
 - The Three Stooges Scrapbook by Jeff Lenburg, Greg Lenburg & Joan Howard Maurer

A subscription to The Three Stooges Journal

[falsealarms]

All good choices. I'd also recommend STOOGES AMONG US.

The Cox book on Larry > the Feinberg book on Larry

The Fleming book was mediocre. The Scrapbook is much better.

[curlysdame]

Oh man, Biography of the Superstooge is by far, my favorite (not much of a surprise there).  I'd recommend any of the books written by Joan.  As mentioned in previous posts, "Scrapbook" is a must-read.  And Book of Scripts Vols. 1 and 2 are great, too, for further reading.

I agree False', the Fleming book was mediocre.  Too bad, out of all the books written on The Boys, that that was the one they based the ABC TV movie on.   

[Dan the Damned]

Very cool -- thanks for your recommendations!  I was going to skip the Curly book based on a seemingly bad review on Amazon, but I just went back and the review didn't seem as negative as I thought.  So I'll definitely get it as well.

Thanks again!