Topic: What Did Curly think of the Shemp-Stooge Shorts?

[VaudevilleFan]

Has any of the family ever say if Curly ever saw the some of the Shenp-era stooge shorts and what he thought of them? Did he have any favorites or perhaps one he would have liked to have been?

[Shemp]

I'm not the most qualified to answer, but everything I've read indicated that once he left the Stooges, he never looked back (though he did believe between May 1946 until his second stroke that he might actually rejoin the boys).  But once he married Valerie, everything changed.  He accepted his new life as a dad and husband and settled down and never really talked about his days with the boys. I think the shows he would watch were Bedtime with Beany (going off of memory) and he also liked watching a young Jackie Gleason. I think he would watch kiddie shows with his daughter as his only other TV exposure. I've never read or heard anything about him watching Stooge shorts. I think he turned a chapter in his life, trying to become the husband and father that he never was before, and was actually really enjoying the moment, for as long as his health allowed.   

[Mark The Shark]

I think it would depend if he was going out to the movies at that point in his life. What I've read suggests he watched television and had his favorites, but the Stooge shorts wouldn't have been on television at that point. Of course, over time his condition got worse and I wonder if he was even watching television. I remember seeing quotes from a letter Moe wrote to Curly about Shemp filling in for him, and Moe said something like "it may encourage you, and in a way delight you, to know..." so I would guess Curly was glad to know his brother stepped in and the Stooges were able to continue (for what was considered officially at the time) temporarily until his return.

[Shemp]

He loved to watch Jackie Gleason in those days.  I think he also would watch some show called "bedtime for beanie" or something like that.  He would share with Valerie and her sister about the history of comedy and the art of comedy etc when he would watch those shows, but nothing I've read indicates he was watching the "new" shorts that were being pumped out.  I think given his druthers, my guess would be that he'd rather swim in his backyard pool or spend time with his family than go to the movies.  But what do I know. 

I'd give anything to see the discarded footage of Curly from "Malice in the Palace" in 1949 though...

[Mark The Shark]

It was "Time For Beany" -- created by Bob Clampett, featuring the voices of Stan Freberg and Daws Butler:

Clampett later brought them back in the animated series "Matty's Funnies With Beany & Cecil" (sponsored by Mattell Toys)

[Shemp]

Thanks for posting that video.  I tried watching it to see what Curly was watching (although that was a 1953 episode, I'm sure it was similar to what Curly watched when he was alive), but it was pretty painful to watch.  I'm guessing that Janie got more of a kick out of it than Curly did. 

I also found this, what is billed as "Jackie Gleason's first TV Show" in October 1949: 

I know Curly had a massive stroke in the beginning of 1949 but I would bet that he watched the very episode above, and perhaps some of those that followed.  I watched a few minutes and it was actually kind of funny.   

[Mark The Shark]

Thanks for posting that video.  I tried watching it to see what Curly was watching (although that was a 1953 episode, I'm sure it was similar to what Curly watched when he was alive), but it was pretty painful to watch.  I'm guessing that Janie got more of a kick out of it than Curly did. 

Yeah, most likely he watched it with Janie, just like my mom used to watch Bozo and Ray Rayner with me when I was a kid. It is kind of stagey, like TV of that era. Later they made an animated series out of it:

(There is one episode involving IIRC, a creature called the "Three-Headed Threep," which sports the heads of Moe, Larry and Curly. I didn't find it doing a quick You Tube search. I have a fondness for these characters having watched them on local Chicago TV as a kid.)

I also found this, what is billed as "Jackie Gleason's first TV Show" in October 1949: 

I know Curly had a massive stroke in the beginning of 1949 but I would bet that he watched the very episode above, and perhaps some of those that followed.  I watched a few minutes and it was actually kind of funny.

Thanks for the Riley link. I had not seen The Life Of Riley before. It was based on a radio show with an actor named William Bendix, with Gleason playing the role in the TV series. Later, they did a second TV version with Bendix.

I would have guessed if Curly appreciated Gleason, he may have seen him on Cavalcade Of Stars, but then I remembered he wasn't the original host of that series. He took it over in 1950 -- I don't know the exact timeline of Curly's health decline, but I would doubt Curly ever saw "The Honeymooners" as the first skit was performed only a couple months before he passed away.

It's interesting to watch stuff that some of our favorite performers watched, and imagine how it might have influenced them.