I had started a post about my not believing that the Stooges were racists despite some "stereotyping" in several shorts especially those with Dudley Dickerson. I didn't want to mention this at the time because it had been over 20 years since I had read the following and couldn't recall where and now I found it! I remind everyone that I am a Afro-Cuban and when my family arrived in Key West from Havana, Cuba on the ferry they used to have in the 50's, my famliy and I mounted a Continental Trailways bus on our way to NYC and we were forced to sit in the back and used seperate facilities until we reached Dover, Delaware and then NY.
In Moe Howard and the 3 Stooges, pages #53 & 54(original 1979 pressing) Moe talks about their first trip to The South, to Jacksonville FL in 1931 when they were on their own between their time with Ted Healy. While walking down the street of Dowtown an elderly Black man, jumped to the street when Moe approached him, thinking there was something wrong with the sidewalk, Moe too walked on the street only to see the man go back on the sidewalk, this went on for a few times untill Moe grabbed the man and asked what was wrong, when the older Black man told him that in The South blacks and whites couldn't walk side by side as they faced grave danger. Moe told him, "this may not be my city but it's my country and I can walk with any man I choose" this as he wrapped his arm around the older man's shoulder., The old man told Moe, you're gonna get us killed. When Moe returned to the theatre where they were to perform , their names were removed from the marquee, their baggage was in the lobby and Larry and Shemp came from the hotel to tell Moe they had trouble with the stage hands who had seen Moe walking with the Black man, the theatre manager gave the boys their music, their checks and told them to leave town because they didn't want any "nigger lovers' and leave in a hurry before there was big trouble for them. When they arrived to NYC, they told their agent what had happened and also reported it ti the newspaper, end of story untill 40 years later in Hollywood when Moe came out of a supermarket and was asked by a man if he was one of the Stooges who played Jacksonville 40 years before and was run of town, when Moe replied in the positive, the man apologized saying he was a stagehand who had to run with the others and management or lose his job and then asked Moe for his autograph.
Shemoely Fine
