Topic: Happy Birthday Shemp... MARCH 11

[BeAStooge]

Today on Facebook, Shemp's granddaughter posted a recent family find... Shemp's birth certificate.



Based on this, past dates of March 17 (taken from a Universal press release, and printed in The Three Stooges Scrapbook) and March 4 (supplied by Mort Howard, on Shemp's death certificate) appear to be retired.

But it raises another question... where and how does the name spelling of 'Hurvitz' fit into the family's history?

[Dunrobin]

But it raises another question... where and how does the name spelling of 'Hurvitz' fit into the family's history?

I suspect it was some clerk's interpretation of Sol's accent.

[Dunrobin]

I've updated the code for the Home page, so it is currently showing Shemp's birthday greetings again.   

[FineBari3]

It's really, really great to know what is the REAL date for sure!

Yes, I was thinking the same thing, about "Hurvitz" being spelled phonetically.

[hiramhorwitz]

But it raises another question... where and how does the name spelling of 'Hurvitz' fit into the family's history?

Interestingly, Hurwitz, a slight variation of Hurvitz, is the last name given for Moe in the Erasmus Hall High School alumni directory (see attachment). 

The portion of the page showing Moe's 1915 classmates is obscured due to being located near the book's spine -- so here are the classmates' names, for those interested:  Margaret Esquirol, Walter Gruber, Jeanne Kissen, and Milton Williamson.   

[attachment deleted by admin]

[Dog Hambone]

I suspect it was some clerk's interpretation of Sol's accent.

I agree. Also, in several eastern European languages, a "w" is pronounced like a "v".

[Moron4392]

Hello:

Please do not think me as a know it all, but I do not know how many of you have a cut of "The Three Stooges Family Album", but actually Shemp, Moe and Curly's real last name was 'Gorovitz'.  But with their fathers heavy European accent, the Immigrations Officer mistook the pronunciation as 'Horwitz'.

Hoekstra
Moron4392

[Dog Hambone]

So now we have Gorovitz in addition to Horwitz, Hurvitz, Hurwitz, etc...

No wonder they Americanized it to Howard for their stage names!