Gary Lassin, the Fan Club and Stoogeum's exhausted leader, passed along this interesting news article...
ROMEO, a.k.a.
Retired Old Men Eating Out is a group of retired Hollywood producers, directors, etc., who meet for lunch once a week at
Art's Delicatessen in Studio City CA. The article [see link] ran recently in a neighborhood Studio City newspaper.
One of the ROMEOs is
Abby Singer, a production assistant at Columbia Studios from the late 1940s to mid-1950s, including Assistant Director on some Three Stooges shorts. After Columbia, Mr. Singer went on to bigger things... you may recognize his name from the closing credits of many MTM Enterprises series in the '70s & '80s. He was a Producer / Executive Producer for THE MARY TYLER MOORE SHOW, THE BOB NEWHART SHOW, THE WHITE SHADOW, WKRP IN CINCINNATI, HILL STREET BLUES, REMINGTON STEELE, ST. ELSEWHERE, and others.
A couple years ago, a few
Three Stooges Journal staffers (Gary, Frank Reighter, Jim Pauley and myself) were on a research/fun trip to L.A. and had lunch at Art's Deli with Leonard Maltin. It happened to be a Thursday, the guys were there, and Leonard told us the story of ROMEO. We had an opportunity to briefly exchange pleasantries Mr. Singer; unfortunately, the Stooges were a very small (and technical) part of his career, and he had no stories to share with us.
Regardless, it was a pleasure to meet him. The article is a nice recollection for myself, and some of you might enjoy it too.
Abby Singer, first on the left (photo from the newspaper article)...
