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Roast-Beef And Movies

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Mark The Shark:
Just a question, I thought I had read something about this and maybe I did years ago in an old Journal, but I don't remember and a search of this forum comes up empty. But I'm curious about the "Roast-Beef" short which teams Curly with ethnic comic George Givot and telegram boy Bobby Callahan. I just wonder how those three guys ended up being cast together -- it seems I remember reading "somewhere" that those roles were originally supposed to belong to Moe and Larry but (1) I can't find any documentation of this, and of course, while this might seem obvious now, (2) in 1933-1934 they were not the iconic "Three Stooges" but three lesser-known performers compared to their later career. Also (3), why is Ted Healy not in this? Is this post-split? Are shooting dates for the M-G-Ms available? I remember reading (I think in "The Complete Three Stooges") that while "The Big Idea" was the last of the M-G-M shorts released, it has a low production number and might have been one of the first ones filmed. I guess I'm fascinated with this part of their career, which still might not be fully documented.

If Moe and Larry had been in "Roast-Beef," I wonder if it might have been a funnier film. I am not sure it would have mattered much.

archiezappa:
If Moe and Larry had been in it, at least we could have understood the dialog. I never can quite understand what George Givot is saying.

Tony Bensley:
1934 seemed to be MGM's year one for fictionalizing the 'behind the scenes' concept.  George Givot's performance does come across as a bit awkward to me, almost like 1929-1930 early talkie awkward, as I recall.

Speaking of behind the scenes, I sometimes wonder how the Three Stooges careers might have played out had Larry's Universal contract signing taken place before Moe Howard's signing with Columbia on that same day? 

CHEERS!  [3stooges]

archiezappa:

--- Quote from: Tony Bensley on December 20, 2017, 09:30:08 PM ---1934 seemed to be MGM's year one for fictionalizing the 'behind the scenes' concept.  George Givot's performance does come across as a bit awkward to me, almost like 1929-1930 early talkie awkward, as I recall.

Speaking of behind the scenes, I sometimes wonder how the Three Stooges careers might have played out had Larry's Universal contract signing taken place before Moe Howard's signing with Columbia on that same day? 

CHEERS!  [3stooges]

--- End quote ---

Probably would have made features. Abbott & Costello would never have been in pictures. Stooges would not be as recognized today. The main reason they're still going strong is the fact that they made short subjects. You can slot those in a lot easier than features.

That's my 2 cents.

Tony Bensley:

--- Quote from: archiezappa on December 20, 2017, 10:09:41 PM ---Probably would have made features. Abbott & Costello would never have been in pictures. Stooges would not be as recognized today. The main reason they're still going strong is the fact that they made short subjects. You can slot those in a lot easier than features.

That's my 2 cents.

--- End quote ---
Sounds plausible, especially the likelihood the Stooges would be less recognized today.  For one thing, there very likely wouldn't have been a late '50s revival, assuming the Stooges would have even cut the mustard in Universal Features, to begin with.  I do also wonder how the difference in workload at Universal might have impacted on Curly's health, as Feature Length comedies then rather tended towards padding of some scenes that often involved different players.  Would a longer lifespan for Jerome "Curly" Howard have resulted?

The mere idea of Abbott & Costello never being in pictures is a rather chilling one.  Heck, had the Stooges been successful at Universal, perhaps that could have caused a shifting of gears away from the Universal Monster pictures.  Who knows?

Of course, we would still have ROAST-BEEF AND MOVIES.  ::)

CHEERS!  [3stooges]

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