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Banned shows????
Blystone:
The Sacramento Bee, reliable? I dunno, I've never understood why a newspaper should be named after an insect. How about the Cincinnati Cockroach, or the Baltimore Bedbug? The Seattle Spider? The Tampa Tarantula?
Seriously, though, it doesn't seem likely that Hitler or his minions ever saw a Stooges short, since they came to power (by fraud) in 1933, and the persecution of the Jews was one of the first items on their agenda. Harpo Marx, on a solo European-Russian tour in that same year, reported that he already saw Jewish shops in Hamburg with their windows splattered with anti-Semitic graffiti. He later said, "I got across Germany as fast as I could." Obviously, not stopping to give any performances!
So if the Nazis had known that Columbia Pictures was a Jewish-owned business (they probably did, the name Harry Cohn being a dead giveaway), they would have banned any and all Columbia films mach schnell, and not only those starring the Stooges. All American films were under a Nazi ban by 1939-1940, which caused a lot of trouble for every Hollywood studio, but especially for Walt Disney's. The Disney brothers had been relying on the European markets to help them finance their increasingly expensive animated features, and now that money was cut off. As a result, both Pinocchio and Fantasia lost money, in spite of their excellence.
And the Disneys were about as Gentile as you can get, but it didn't matter.
A bad, bad time that I wouldn't have wanted to live in.
BeAStooge:
--- Quote from: RICO987 on July 24, 2010, 12:41:18 AM ---Moe’s depiction of Hitler earned him a spot on Hitler’s “Death List”.
--- End quote ---
A tale.
RICO987:
--- Quote from: Blystone on July 24, 2010, 01:01:53 AM ---The Sacramento Bee, reliable? I dunno, I've never understood why a newspaper should be named after an insect. How about the Cincinnati Cockroach, or the Baltimore Bedbug? The Seattle Spider? The Tampa Tarantula?
Seriously, though, it doesn't seem likely that Hitler or his minions ever saw a Stooges short, since they came to power (by fraud) in 1933, and the persecution of the Jews was one of the first items on their agenda. Harpo Marx, on a solo European-Russian tour in that same year, reported that he already saw Jewish shops in Hamburg with their windows splattered with anti-Semitic graffiti. He later said, "I got across Germany as fast as I could." Obviously, not stopping to give any performances!
--- End quote ---
Ad hominem attacks notwithstanding, I do not see a modern day Left-Right political agenda in this old World War II news, so I would credit the Bee with some modicum of journalistic integrity on this sort of history reporting.
With respect to the Third Reich intelligence gathering mechanisms, I suspect you greatly underestimate their ability in that area. If not for the United States entry into the War, all of Europe might be speaking German now.
I went back onto Google and found over a dozen hits that relate this same story. Allegedly, Charlie Chaplin was also on the “Death list” for his portrayal of the “Little Dictator”. Google is not the best history book around, and it may ultimately not be true. But it hardly stretches the imagination to believe it could be true. If Hitler or one of his loyalists actually saw or knew of Moe’s impersonation, what do you think the reaction of the Der Führer would have been to a Jew making fun of him?
afcomser:
good point, I forgot the three stooges were jewish. Horowitz was there last name duh on me. Granted the death list was made by Gerbals not Hitler. I just remember reading that in one of my Stooges books, but some of them may not be acurate either.
Blystone:
If you can't tell the difference between shtick and ad-hominem attacks, what are you doing even discussing comedy? Let's say that an otherwise serious newspaper has a silly name. Oh... the New Orleans Times-Picayune, for example. There's a real newspaper that's been picayune for well over a century!
Definition of "picayune:" trivial (Merriam-Webster Dictionary)
I'll admit that I don't like that Bee paper (or any Fly papers) because I was once attacked by a swarm of bees in Sacramento and I'm still pulling the stingers out of my tuchis. Now even my computer's registry has hives.
[duck]
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