I got to being curious about Shemp's last night alive. First, I was wondering what fights Shemp actually watched. It turns out it was the following, at the Hollywood Legion:
1) Cisco Andrade (the "Compton Comet") vs. Kenny Davis (with Mushy Callahan as the referee--Andrade won in the seventh round by TKO)
2) Vince Delgado vs. Cleo Lane (Delgado won in a fifth-round TKO)
3) Dave Cochran vs. Joey Brooks (Cochran in a second-round TKO)
4) Eddie Asti vs. Forrest Davis (the match ended in a draw)
5) Jesse Resendez vs. Joe Smyer (Resendez won, fourth-round TKO).
I tried to find photos or (long shot) videos from those fights but couldn't find any. Here's a photo of the Hollywood Legion, if that helps envision where he spent his last night:
Secondly, I was wondering about where he died exactly and what his route was, so I did some digging on that too. Now I'm pretty sure I know what happened. We already know that Larry wanted to see if they could free up some dates with Colombia for a big engagement, and so he called Shemp's house, but Babe told him he had just left for the fights. Shemp was to call him back the minute he got home. Shemp indeed watches the fights (details above), and this was the route he was to take home (note: both of the maps below are clickable for a zoomed in view):
Since this was a Tuesday night and late at night, it's unlikely that the taxi driver took side roads in place of the more direct highway 101 (I did verify that highway 101 was built in 1926, so it was well available in 1955). So we can confidently conclude they took the 101 North bound, planning to take Exit 12A toward Lankershim Blvd/Universal City, after which they would turn right on Lankershim Blvd and head home. However, just as they approached Barham Boulevard exit (per Geri Greenbaum), Shemp lit a cigar and then slumped over on his friend Al Winston, burning his lap. The Taxi driver was immediately alerted and he was able to react quickly and immediately take the Barham Blvd exit towards St. Joseph's hospital in Burbank. This was their revised route:
Meanwhile, Larry had ants in his pants over the personal booking offer the team got (why this went to Larry and not Moe, and why Larry was trying to confirm their availability with Shemp and not Moe is a question mark with me), and he recounted:
"It got to be about 11 o'clock, and I knew he should be home, so I got on the phone, attempting to ball him out. Moe's wife got on the phone and I said, "What are you doing there?" and she told me that Moe was at St. Joseph's hospital right now. When Shemp died in the back of a car, they drove him right over to the hospital."
Most accounts indicate Shemp was dead before arriving at the hospital, but of course he was not yet pronounced dead until at the hospital. His death certificate states that he died at exactly 11PM on November 22nd. So now we know that, although Shemp was not officially pronounced dead until 11PM, the family already knew by then that he was already dead, as Moe was already at the hospital and Helen Howard was at Babe & Shemp's house at that same time and had conveyed news of his death at that same time. I can only assume that one of Shemp's friends in the taxi cab called Babe upon arrival at the hospital, sometime before 11PM, telling her that Shemp had died.
There you go folks! I hope you enjoyed this read.
