Topic: Moe & Larry's haircuts in the Besser shorts

[Dog Hambone]

Forgive me please if this has been asked already, but I have a question after recently watching the later shorts with Joe Besser. I searched for something on this but couldn't find anything. In some of them, Moe & Shemp have short slicked back hair, like they wore when they were off camera. They have the old haircuts in a lot of them, particularly when continuity was needed with reused footage, but what prompted Moe to go without the bangs & Larry to go without the porcupine hair? Were they just trying something different on film? Did they feel like they were getting too old for the comedic looking haircuts? Is there an official explanation?

[Shemp_Diesel]

The story I've always heard is that it was Joe Besser's idea for Moe & Larry to go without their traditional stooge hairstyles. The idea being that the stooges should look more like gentlemen, if you can believe that & it was a sign to some fans that Moe & Larry didn't care anymore since they never would've done it during the Curly or Shemp eras.

[shemps#1]

Yeah, I think Moe said it was Besser's idea during one of his Mike Douglas appearances if I'm not mistaken. I think the reasoning also had something to do with their advancing ages.

[TXShemp]

This may be an un-Stoogefanish comment, but lets face it. Joe Besser was not the best choice. These were 16 of the worst shorts. I liked Joe DeRita, and it would have been him in these shorts instead of Besser had he been available.

[xraffle]

The story I've always heard is that it was Joe Besser's idea for Moe & Larry to go without their traditional stooge hairstyles. The idea being that the stooges should look more like gentlemen, if you can believe that & it was a sign to some fans that Moe & Larry didn't care anymore since they never would've done it during the Curly or Shemp eras.

Gentlemen? Who came in? (looks behind)

Seriously, what was Besser thinking? The whole point of the stooges having these hairstyles is to make them look silly. It's part of their comedy. If it wasn't, Curly wouldn't have been required to shave his head.

[TXShemp]

Besser was no Stooge. Period. I'm not exactly sure what he was, but I know for sure he did not fit in this trio.

[shemps#1]

Oh goodie, another "Besser was not a Stooge" type. 

[Boid Brain]

Oh goodie, another "Besser was not a Stooge" type.  

Well, he was 10 times better than DeRita, but Curly was 10 times better than him.

You know a comedian that WOULD have been Stoogeworthy after Shemp?

Buddy Hacket. Imagine! I have read that he was heavily considered by the studio, but was not chosen. I cannot substantiate this, but I have read or heard it before. I gotta figure that he was in his 20's in 1950....a little to young for the now near geezer Moe and Larry.

[7stooges]

Well, he was 10 times better than DeRita, but Curly was 10 times better than him.

You know a comedian that WOULD have been Stoogeworthy after Shemp?

Buddy Hacket. Imagine! I have read that he was heavily considered by the studio, but was not chosen. I cannot substantiate this, but I have read or heard it before. I gotta figure that he was in his 20's in 1950....a little to young for the now near geezer Moe and Larry.

The "Hacket as a Stooge" idea was apparently a story Buddy Hackett told once. He also stated that he turned down the offer to become a Stooge because of the violence. From what Jules White said, this story was probably a lie.

I also heard another story that Moe was considering Mantan Moreland as a Stooge. I'm not sure if this was true or not.

After Besser left, Larry considered Paul "Mousie" Garner as a replacement; the boys tried him out, but had to let him go. Moe later stated in an interview that Garner was "completely unacceptable".

As for the haircuts in the Besser shorts, I think this had to do with how times had been changing in the comedy field during this period. After the 1930s, very few newer comics dressed like clowns. Instead, they dressed like normal people. This included Abbott and Costello, Bob Hope, and (in his earlier films) Red Skelton. Besser probably went along with this idea.

[TXShemp]

Now that I think about it, I have heard the rumor about Buddy Hackett. He was on the Dick Van Dyke show...? He didn't look that young to me, but I don't know any background on him. I don't recall reading any opinions from Moe on Mousie Garner. I had the opportunity to meet him at the '94 convention. He did a one-man piano show during the banquet. This is all I have ever actually seen of his work, but my family and I thought he was really funny.

[Dog Hambone]

Besser was no Stooge. Period. I'm not exactly sure what he was, but I know for sure he did not fit in this trio.

When I was young, I too didn't like the Joe Besser shorts much. But I have a better appreciation for him after seeing all of his shorts in Volume 8 of the Stooges collection.

To be fair, he had a couple of hard acts to follow. He has a distinctly different style. And he had an unenviable disadvantage in that many of his shorts were re-do's of earlier shorts that featured Curly or Shemp, sometimes with virtually the same script. I think anyone could have looked bad given those circumstances. The all original Besser shorts are not bad at all. Try buying Volume 8 & watching all the Besser shorts (well, you can skip SWEET & HOT) and watching them for what they are, not for what might have been.    

  

[xraffle]

The all original Besser shorts are not bad at all. Try buying Volume 8 & watching all the Besser shorts (well, you can skip SWEET & HOT) and watching them for what they are, not for what might have been.

Agreed! After buying Volume 8 and watching it, I give Besser more credit than I ever did before.

Sometimes I wonder, if there were no Curly, Shemp or DeRita and it was only Moe, Larry and Joe from the beginning until the end, would people still hate on Besser? Now remember! I'm now putting you in a world where Curly, Shemp and DeRita do not exist. From the 1930s to the 1970s, it's all Moe, Larry, and Joe.

[JazzBill]

Now that I think about it, I have heard the rumor about Buddy Hackett. He was on the Dick Van Dyke show...? He didn't look that young to me, but I don't know any background on him. I don't recall reading any opinions from Moe on Mousie Garner. I had the opportunity to meet him at the '94 convention. He did a one-man piano show during the banquet. This is all I have ever actually seen of his work, but my family and I thought he was really funny.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      Morey Amsterdam played Buddy on The Dick Van Dyke Show.

[TXShemp]

Thats right. I was confusing Buddy's.

[Desmond Of The Outer Sanctorum]

Agreed! After buying Volume 8 and watching it, I give Besser more credit than I ever did before.

Sometimes I wonder, if there were no Curly, Shemp or DeRita and it was only Moe, Larry and Joe from the beginning until the end, would people still hate on Besser? Now remember! I'm now putting you in a world where Curly, Shemp and DeRita do not exist. From the 1930s to the 1970s, it's all Moe, Larry, and Joe.

No, I don't think people would be hating on Besser. But I don't think the Stooges would be quite as popular either.

Anyway, I agree that Joe doesn't get enough credit. He had so many disadvantages beyond his control -- like the budget cuts that had already affected Shemp shorts -- that to bash him is just pointless. At least he tried, and he didn't claim to be better than he was. Many of his era's scripts wouldn't have been much better with Curly or Shemp instead.

He definitely had his weaknesses as a Stooge. But if more scripts had used his strengths as well as A MERRY MIX UP did, his era might be assessed a little differently now.

[Jamison]

Joe Besser played the building superintendent on "The Joey Bishop Show" in the 60s. He was 10 times funnier there than in any Stooge film.

[horwitz-halfwits]

The story I've always heard is that it was Joe Besser's idea for Moe & Larry to go without their traditional stooge hairstyles. The idea being that the stooges should look more like gentlemen, if you can believe that & it was a sign to some fans that Moe & Larry didn't care anymore since they never would've done it during the Curly or Shemp eras.

Ok, I never watched any Besser films, but I sense that he was trying to change Moe and Larry's styles there. In my opinion, that was totally uncalled for. You can never change the stooges! Not even a slightest movement or cut of the hair! I also agree w/ xraffle and everything that he said. What's the point in trying to change the way Moe and Larry look? Same thing is true w/ Curly's style.

[simgershon]

First, everyone has is entitled to their opinion about Joe Besser. Opinions are like ryhmes with....  Joe Besser was funny in the 3 stoogurly to fill in the role of a cjild brat es shirts but arguably he was no curlyand to compare him to curly would be not fair.  Its like asking curly to act in the position of Stinky, Joe's charaqcter from the Abbott and Costello show.  It would be funny but it fits Joe better!
As far as hairstyles go, Moe tried it at his own thoughts.  It was obly in a couple of shorts and did not suit him.  It was a change of times he was a victim of circumstance....

[Big Chief Apumtagribonitz]

I have never bought into the argument that the new haircombs were Besser's idea.  He was the new boy, even if he had made that suggestion, who would have listened to him?  I tell you who wouldn't have: control freak Moe, that's who wouldn't have.  I go along with the theory that they were trying to make the shorts more like the ultra-bland, "normal" sitcoms which were huge on TV at the time, Father Knows Best, Ozzie and Harriet, Love That Bob, etc.  Ozzie and Harriet is so bland that even though it has a laugh track, the track seems to be operating at random because there are no accompanying jokes.  The effect is as weird as I'm describing it.  Those haircomb orders would have come from above, not from the new low man on the totem pole.  And the other slander of Besser has been disproved since the Sony re-releases, that Besser refused to be hit.  It turns out he got hit plenty, and more so as time went on.  Why would he refuse to be hit?  Stinky and Costello used to wail on each other.  I had almost forgotten about Besser on Joey Bishop's sitcom - he was hilarious.  Great with A & C, great with Bishop, bad in the middle with the stooges.  It's because the stooge scripts were awful.  Besser was by no means a good fit, I'm not saying he was, but he was a trouper.  This time around, it was the scripts that were stinky.

[Paul Pain]

I'm still alive folks!

Would have been interesting if the Besser shorts had better scripts.  As was seen in "A Merry Mix-Up," Besser could be funny with Moe and Larry.

[metaldams]

I'm still alive folks!

Would have been interesting if the Besser shorts had better scripts.  As was seen in "A Merry Mix-Up," Besser could be funny with Moe and Larry.

Good to see you Paul, Merry Christmas.

[Mark The Shark]

I have always been skeptical of the claim that the haircuts were Besser's idea, especially for the reasons mentioned above -- would Moe have really said yeah, sure, you're replacing my dead brothers, now you're suggesting we change our image and our iconic look we've had for our whole careers, sure!

But as was also pointed out, by the 1950s other popular comedy teams such as Abbott and Costello and Hope and Crosby looked like "normal people" for lack of a better term. While the 1930s Stooge shorts were gritty, placing the characters in the Depression era, then World War II followed, but by the 1950s they were often depicted as living in the post-war  suburbs and the shorts often played like then-contemporary sitcom episodes.

Maybe it just made sense. Besser may have suggested it, but maybe in the context of the time, it made sense to all concerned.

On the other hand, once Besser was out of the team it didn't take long for them to go back to the old haircuts, even shaving Joe De Rita's head and calling him "Curly-Joe." Most likely this was so they would more closely resemble the characters kids were watching on TV every day.

[HomokHarcos]

I have always been skeptical of the claim that the haircuts were Besser's idea, especially for the reasons mentioned above -- would Moe have really said yeah, sure, you're replacing my dead brothers, now you're suggesting we change our image and our iconic look we've had for our whole careers, sure!

But as was also pointed out, by the 1950s other popular comedy teams such as Abbott and Costello and Hope and Crosby looked like "normal people" for lack of a better term. While the 1930s Stooge shorts were gritty, placing the characters in the Depression era, then World War II followed, but by the 1950s they were often depicted as living in the post-war  suburbs and the shorts often played like then-contemporary sitcom episodes.

Maybe it just made sense. Besser may have suggested it, but maybe in the context of the time, it made sense to all concerned.

On the other hand, once Besser was out of the team it didn't take long for them to go back to the old haircuts, even shaving Joe De Rita's head and calling him "Curly-Joe." Most likely this was so they would more closely resemble the characters kids were watching on TV every day.

I think things started changing in the 1930s when radio stars started becoming major comedians. Usually they were verbal comedians and not clowns. I do wish we got more clowns in the later decades. You history of the Three Stooges remind of the history of Popeye's theatrical cartoon shorts. In the 1930s they were set in gritty urban Depression-era cities. In the 1940s he entered the navy during World War II, and then postwar the cartoons were set in suburbia.