General Boards > Questions and Answers
Stooges sets: An update (A look at Woman Haters)
archiezappa:
Cool! I didn't know that Gary had so much to do with saving that film. That's one very important movie for us Stooge fans. Thanks Gary!
I haven't seen the interview with Larry. I wonder if they would include some of that footage on some of the Stooges DVD sets. It would be nice to see interviews with the actual Stooges, as well as new interviews with surviving co-stars.
I had not heard anything about Ted Healy II. I wonder where he is, now. I wonder what he thinks about his dad's contributions to the Three Stooges. I guess he thinks something of it, since he went to that screening of "Soup To Nuts" ya'll talked about.
I never cease to learn more, every time I get on this website!
busybuddy:
I had not heard anything about Ted Healy II. I wonder where he is, now. I wonder what he thinks about his dad's contributions to the Three Stooges.
In Three Stooges:Men Behind the Mayhem, he talks about how if there was no Ted Healy, there would be no Stooges, which is obviously very true. But, if there were no Three Stooges, a lot less people would have heard of Ted Healy.
garystooge:
--- Quote --- So, I really believe that without Gary, we probably wouldn't have a Soup to Nuts DVD. Not to sing Gary's praise too much, but I really feel Stooges fans owe him a great deal of thanks. Who knows? Without his initial work, Soup to Nuts could have ended up lost, much like Hello Pop and Jailbirds of Paradise.
--- End quote ---
Thanks for your kind words Hammond....while I can take some of the credit for Soup to Nuts, I certainly can't take all of it. Much of the leg work was done by a fan club member named Jim Shemansky. I'm sure the old-timers have heard the story before, but I'll repost the details for the benefit of the newcomers.
When I took over the fan club in 1986, “Soup to Nuts” was presumed to be a “lost” film. No Stooges fans had ever seen it and no one could locate it in any form. In the late 1980’s, the club undertook a concerted effort to try and locate the film. We got a tip from our friend, Entertainment Tonite film critic Leonard Maltin, that the UCLA Film & TV Archive might actually have a print of the film. The UCLA archive is a huge depository of films, kinescopes, etc, second only to the Library of Congress in Washington.
In 1990, Jim Shemansky started making some calls and ultimately was able to make contact with Eddie Richmond, the curator at UCLA who told us that Fox had given UCLA the only remaining print of the film some time in the late 1960s. This was a nitrate print, which was the type of film stock used by the motion picture industry until the 1950s. Unfortunately, nitrate film is highly volatile and over time eventually turns to dust. Proper storage techniques can prolong the life of nitrate film, but eventually it will disintegrate, even when properly stored
Anyway, Eddie told us that the nitrate film had actually been screened in UCLA’s own theater once or twice during the early 1970’s. However the film was beginning to deteriorate, so in 1977 the Archive wisely made a preservation negative (on modern acetate stock) from the nitrate print. By the time we got in touch with Eddie in 1990, the nitrate print was completely shot. The good news was that they had this preservation negative, but the bad news was that you can’t watch a negative. Fox did not see any commercial viability in striking a positive print from this negative (there were no DVDs at this time, and even VHS was still in its infancy), especially since they viewed this as a “cult” film without any mass appeal. So essentially the film was still “lost”.
At this point, I submitted a proposal to executives at Fox (who still owned the legal rights to the film): I would pick up the cost of making a positive print and in return, the fan club would get the exclusive right to screen it first, and then be able to borrow the print for use at our annual conventions. My hope was that once the print was made, down the road they’d release it on VHS so that those who couldn’t come to the conventions could get to see it.
Anyway, the proposal was accepted, the print was made, and in 1991 we showed the film at our convention. It was really exciting watching that first screening and there were many surprises such as cameo appearances by Rube Goldberg and Billy Barty, Moe being billed as “Harry Howard” and 2 minutes of “exit music” at the end of the film (music played over a dark screen as patrons were to be leaving the theater). This may have been the first truly public showing of the film since the 1930s, but we don’t know for sure. We’ve screened it at several conventions since then. But more importantly, the existence of this print has enabled fans around the world to finally view the film. Although it was never released on VHS, it did air on AMC which enabled fans to view and tape it, and of course it was officially released on DVD a while back.
So that’s the soup to nuts on “Soup to Nuts”.
locoboymakesgood:
I remember when AMC first originally aired it. I think it was part of the Preservation Film Festival, but I could be wrong. I remember the promo had a brief shot from the elevator dance routine. I taped it then and bought the DVD the day it was released.
I had no idea you were that involved with making the film available happen, Gary! That's insane that well I mean if it wasn't for you, I wouldn't have this wonderful piece of Stooge history in my DVD library. Props to you!
stooged and confused:
I'm pretty sure that the same train set in "Woman Haters" was reused for "A Pain In The Pullman." Yes?
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
[*] Previous page
Go to full version