I just got The Complete Three Stooges book for Christmas and it says the reason they reused those footages is so they can give Curly some time to rest due to his failing health. The VHS video covers used to have trivia under each short and it said the same thing. I'm not 100% sure if that's the real reason, but that's what all the sources are saying.
The sources...
- 1981-1982, authors Jeff & Greg Lenburg made that statement in
The Three Stooges Scrapbook without documentation, but based on prevailing opinions. But, their statement was logical and reasonably arrived.
- The VHS trivia notes were written by fan John Ewaniuk, who Columbia paid as a consultant. The trivia was
not derived from Columbia records. Ewaniuk most likely used
Scrapbook as his source.
- Circa 1996 - 1997, Jon Solomon was finishing his
The Complete Stooges manuscript. Over a period of months, he consulted numerous fans on numerous topics. I was one of those fans. One of our conversations included BEER BARREL POLECATS. Jon inquired if there was any contrary information, and I remember commenting that the Lenburgs' statement in
Scrapbook seemed reasonable. To the best of my knowledge, his book's statement was derived from
Scrapbook and fans' (including my own) undocumented opinions. ***
*** The book's draft was completed in 1997, and due for publication by University of Arizona Press in 1998. Delays forwarded rights and publication to C3 in 2002.
In subsequent years, I have had the opportunity to review Jules White's shooting script on file at the Motion Picture Academy Library in Beverly Hills. I've also looked at photocopies of production versions of the script, from two personal collections. There is nothing to reasonably support the conclusion that Curly's health was a factor in the use of stock footage for BEER BARREL POLECATS.
As mentioned above...
Evidence implies another reason.
A future issue of The Three Stooges Journal will go into those details.
