Topic: Your Stooge and classic comedy origin story

[metaldams]

      For both long time posters and future new posters, let’s use this thread to talk about how we discovered The Three Stooges and classic comedy.  Look forward to hearing your stories, I’ll start.

      I definitely got into The Three Stooges before anyone other comedians.  I was born in late 1978, so I was an 80’s kid and a 90’s teenager.  Back in the 80’s I would watch The Three Stooges on TV with my brother and Dad on the weekends.  Growing up in Connecticut I saw them on both the local New York and Boston stations as well as on TBS whenever they’d run marathons.  This was during the VCR days so I would take a blank tape and record a bunch of shorts off television.  I had The Three Stooges VCR game and even the Nintendo video game as well.

     Come the 90’s and my teen years, I moved to Delaware and lost touch for a while.  That was getting into music and playing bass (which I still love and still play) I really had no interest in movies at that age.  Come college and the early 2000’s, I was bummed breaking up with a girl.  Thinking I needed something to laugh I remembered The Three Stooges.  I bought a five VHS tape Goodtimes box set, really cheap. One of the tapes had the four public domain shorts and I watched that tape over and over again.

      Being the early days of the Internet, I was researching stuff about The Three Stooges online and discovered message boards.  I wasn’t quite as mature back then as I am now (clears throat), so into between flame wars with a certain troll, all these Three Stooges boards had comedy talk and I learned about how all their directors and writers worked with all these silent comedians.  I did buy Ed Watz’s COLUMBIA COMEDY SHORTS book and was shocked, shocked I tell you, that there were these comedians named Keaton and Langdon who went to Columbia as a last resort and didn’t consider it the prime of their careers.

      I did discover a bunch of other comedians and here I am well over twenty years later.  I have fond memories discovering Harold Lloyd one night in 2002 on TCM and for ten years, have been reviewing films on this site - though I’m taking a needed breather as of this writing, reviews will return at some point.  Talked to a lot of cool people online over the years too, which is great.

      So that’s my story, what about you knuckleheads?

[Dunrobin]

I'm an old fart, so I started watching the Stooges when they were first syndicated to TV back in 1959 and I was four years old.  My mother had loved watching the Three Stooges shorts in the theater growing up in the 1930s and 40s, so she would watch them with my brother and I when they came on in the afternoon.   Mom also introduced her boys to the Marx Brothers and Abbott and Costello whenever their movies came on TV, as well as cartoons like Rocky and Bullwinkle and Bugs Bunny.

I was a nomad as a young man, wandering back and forth across the U.S. (usually hitchhiking) and never staying in one place for more than a year or two, so I didn't watch TV very regularly in those days.  But when I settled down with my younger brother in Michigan in the late 80s, we rediscovered the Stooges on TBS.  Like metaldams, I started recording them on VHS tapes, and being the nerdy librarian type that I am, I initially kept track of my growing collection on index cards.  Then I got a copy of Joan Howard Maurer's book, The Three Stooges Scrapbook, for my birthday and discovered the filmography at the back of the book. Finally, I had a list of everything the Stooges had done!*  I was learning of all kinds of shorts and films that I had never even heard of, and my brother and I started making notations in the book by all of the ones  that we had managed to get on tape.

I had been into computers since the early 80s, and when the Internet really got going in the mid-90s I decided to try my hand at creating a website on a free community site and the Three Stooges seemed like a natural subject, and I used the filmography in the back of the Scrapbook as the basis for the site.  (A little too literally, which got me in trouble with the lawyers at first.)  Those early attempts eventually led to the launch of ThreeStooges.net in March of 1997.

Back in the late 80s, in addition to TBS showing the Stooges, we had AMC - when it actually stood for American Movie Classics and showed classic films uncut and commercial-free.  Shortly afterwards, Ted Turner launched TCM, and we started really getting into classic movies.  That is when I started discovering other comedy teams that I had never ever heard of before, like Wheeler and Woolsey, and the Ritz Brothers, in addition to the ones we knew from childhood like Laurel and Hardy, A&C, etc.  I've been hooked ever since, and thanks to this forum, I've learned about even more. 



* Or so I thought at the time.  Our online version has grown substantially thanks to our Team Stooge members and the phenomenal research done by the Fan Club members and Stoogeum staff over the years   I was so proud to realize that the revised 2012 edition of the Three Stooges Scrapbook cites ThreeStooges.net as one of their sources.

[ProfessorStooge]

I got into the Three Stooges when I was 14 years old. The Family Channel (now Freeform) showed a Three Stooges marathon, which led to the Stooge TV block. I also watched the N.Y.U.K. program with Leslie Nielsen, and recorded the shorts off TV. The first Stooge VHS tape I bought was "Simply Hilarious." I eventually started collecting the VHS tapes that were released by Columbia Tristar Home Video.  The tapes formed the basis for my Three Stooges collection. I later parted with the tapes when Sony started releasing the chronological DVD sets. After discovering eBay, my collection expanded. The items I have acquired include shot glasses, coffee cups, DVDs, books, cigarette lighters, dolls, figurines, tin signs, postcards, and vinyl records.

In my first semester of college, I took a writing course. One of the requirements was to write a research paper on any topic of our choice. I chose the Stooges because of my big interest in them.

[metaldams]

I got into the Three Stooges when I was 14 years old. The Family Channel (now Freeform) showed a Three Stooges marathon, which led to the Stooge TV block. I also watched the N.Y.U.K. program with Leslie Nielsen, and recorded the shorts off TV. The first Stooge VHS tape I bought was "Simply Hilarious". I eventually started collecting the VHS tapes that were released by Columbia Tristar Home Video.  The tapes formed the basis for my Three Stooges collection. I later parted with the tapes when Sony started releasing the chronological DVD sets. After discovering eBay, my collection expanded. The items I have acquired include shot glasses, coffee cups, DVDs, books, cigarette lighters, dolls, figurines, tin signs, postcards, and vinyl records.

In my first semester of college, I took a writing course. On of the requirements was to write a research paper on any topic of our choice. I chose the Stooges, because of my big interest in them.

Good to hear from you.  “Simply Hilarious, volumes 1 and 2” were actually in that Goodtimes set I mentioned above.

[Paul Pain]

I was born in 1993, so I haven't had opportunity to mop it up on these boards like others have.  My mother and father both grew up watching the Three Stooges, and my mother grew up watching them with her father.  And her father's father liked them too.

One night, when I was about 6 or so, she called me into her bedroom and introduced me to The Three Stooges.  This was in the AMC-only days that helped propagate what I now know as "The Lost 60."  From tinyhood, Shemp was my favorite, and Joy was my least favorite.  Over the years I watched them occasionally, but then with DVR I started watching them in earnest: DVR the recordings and entertain myself for the first hour of the morning.

One day while wondering something about the Stooges, my mother and I discovered ThreeStoogees.net. About 3.years after that, in 2014, I decided to check it out.  I saw the link to a discussion, clicked on the link, and decided to join Doug's reviews starting with THREE LITTLE SEW AND SEWS.  I have since then been this board's second most prolific poster behind only metaldams!

Through this site, I have discovered basically everyone else I know now except for the Marx Brothers.

[Umbrella Sam]

It all ties back to my love for classic cartoons. When I was younger, I had a few of those “100 cartoons” DVD sets. They did, of course, have 100 cartoons, but they were all public domain and not restored. Among those cartoons were some episodes of The New Three Stooges and even back then, I preferred the live action segments. I eventually started seeking out more Stooges material, getting a couple public domain sets as well as watching episodes on AMC. I don’t exactly remember when I found Three Stooges.net, but I definitely found it before I found the forum. One of my great regrets is that I didn’t find the forum until the Three Stooges discussion was almost over; every now and then, I’ve considered just starting from the beginning and writing my thoughts on the Columbia shorts, but at 190 shorts, it may be a bit too much of a task for me at the moment.

As far as other classic comedians go, I remember first finding out about Laurel and Hardy through a public domain DVD that came with one of my Three Stooges DVDs. The majority of the shorts included were solo shorts, with the only “Laurel and Hardy” material being THE TREE IN A TEST TUBE, the pre-team LUCKY DOG, and UTOPIA, which at the time, I thought was so disastrous, I decided not to look into them further. It wasn’t until I saw WAY OUT WEST on TCM that I realized they were a lot better than I had initially given them credit for.

The Marx Brothers I discovered due to my uncle, who had the box set with all of the MGM features, which in hindsight, may be why I’m a bit more easy on the MGM films than most fans. Abbott and Costello I discovered due to a PBS special showcasing routines from THE COLGATE COMEDY HOUR, and I was lucky enough to later find a DVD containing those COLGATE performances.

My interest in silent comedy was thanks to TCM. I remember seeing Chaplin’s THE KID one morning and thinking how amazing it was that someone could actually make such an emotional and funny film not only at the same time, but also without any sound. I started tuning into the TCM Sunday nights which was how I discovered Keaton (first film I saw was THE CAMERAMAN) and Lloyd (I think the first film I saw was GIRL SHY). Coming to this forum, I was at least somewhat familiar with most of the major comedians. One major exception was Harry Langdon, who I actually had seen in supporting roles in a couple features, but at the time, I had no idea he had ever been famous.

[Dee-Bee]

Hello all, I just joined the board and figured this thread was a good place to make my first post!

I'm 23 years old, so I grew up in the years when everyone was getting rid of their VHS tapes in favour of DVDs. Everything I had as a kid came from thrift stores, which meant most of my entertainment was on tape. I had a lot of those public domain cartoon tapes, and one of those "Six Hours of Cartoons" tapes gave me my first exposure to the (New) Three Stooges. I have to admit that back then, I used to fast forward through those shorts. I have a little more respect for them nowadays, but compared to classic Looney Tunes and Paramount cartoons, they don't really have as much entertainment value... but still, as a result of those shorts I at least knew of the Three Stooges as a concept. I also had a tape with three of the original public domain shorts (Disorder in the Court, Brideless Groom, and Malice in the Palace) but I don't remember if I ever actually watched it back then. One of the few DVDs I have at that time was a Little Rascals collection, and I always found those films to be too slow and boring (which I honestly still do). I think, as a result of that, I wasn't really interested in watching any other old black-and-white shorts as I assumed they'd be similar.

I also saw the 2012 movie when it came out, but I'd better leave my thoughts on that for another time!

As a teenager I started a VHS collection, beginning with the idea of getting back a lot of the stuff I grew up with. I accumulated a lot of classic comedy material that way. One day when I had an hour to kill, I threw on a tape of W. C. Fields' three public domain shorts, and I absolutely loved them. I started looking on the internet for more, expecting there'd be dozens more still copyrighted that I could get on DVD - I was really sad to discover that those three PD films represent the majority of his sound short output! But from there I started to look for other films that would be similar, and that was what led me back to the Stooges, when I realized I still had that childhood tape. I finally gave it a watch and laughed out loud the whole time. Then I showed it to my girlfriend at the time and she had the same reaction (which was rare!) So from there I was hooked. I ordered the complete DVD box set, plus the one with the solo shorts, and started watching all kinds of other two-reelers and comedy features from that era. I can't get enough of them. I just wish I could have discovered all this great stuff sooner!

[metaldams]

Hello all, I just joined the board and figured this thread was a good place to make my first post!

I'm 23 years old, so I grew up in the years when everyone was getting rid of their VHS tapes in favour of DVDs. Everything I had as a kid came from thrift stores, which meant most of my entertainment was on tape. I had a lot of those public domain cartoon tapes, and one of those "Six Hours of Cartoons" tapes gave me my first exposure to the (New) Three Stooges. I have to admit that back then, I used to fast forward through those shorts. I have a little more respect for them nowadays, but compared to classic Looney Tunes and Paramount cartoons, they don't really have as much entertainment value... but still, as a result of those shorts I at least knew of the Three Stooges as a concept. I also had a tape with three of the original public domain shorts (Disorder in the Court, Brideless Groom, and Malice in the Palace) but I don't remember if I ever actually watched it back then. One of the few DVDs I have at that time was a Little Rascals collection, and I always found those films to be too slow and boring (which I honestly still do). I think, as a result of that, I wasn't really interested in watching any other old black-and-white shorts as I assumed they'd be similar.

I also saw the 2012 movie when it came out, but I'd better leave my thoughts on that for another time!

As a teenager I started a VHS collection, beginning with the idea of getting back a lot of the stuff I grew up with. I accumulated a lot of classic comedy material that way. One day when I had an hour to kill, I threw on a tape of W. C. Fields' three public domain shorts, and I absolutely loved them. I started looking on the internet for more, expecting there'd be dozens more still copyrighted that I could get on DVD - I was really sad to discover that those three PD films represent the majority of his sound short output! But from there I started to look for other films that would be similar, and that was what led me back to the Stooges, when I realized I still had that childhood tape. I finally gave it a watch and laughed out loud the whole time. Then I showed it to my girlfriend at the time and she had the same reaction (which was rare!) So from there I was hooked. I ordered the complete DVD box set, plus the one with the solo shorts, and started watching all kinds of other two-reelers and comedy features from that era. I can't get enough of them. I just wish I could have discovered all this great stuff sooner!

Welcome to the board, Dee-Bee and thanks for your story.  Hope to hear more from you.

[Woe-ee-Woe-Woe80]

I'm born in 1980 and one night around Halloween of 1992 we were flicking through channels, we stumbled across the Three Stooges on TBS, my uncle (God rest his soul) claims that it's the Three Stooges, within 5 minutes I was hooked and thought they were the funniest guys on TV, the short that we came across was "We Want Our Mummy" which is one of my top favorite Curly shorts, the scene where Curly was swimming in the sand was hilarious! Thanks to him I instantly became a stooge fan.

I now own all 190 stooge shorts on DVD, my favorite stooge is Curly, as a kid I didn't like Shemp as much and neither did my uncle, when I became an adult I started warming up to Shemp and love him just as much as Curly.

[Samurai]

There were two major national crises going on in the autumn of '62. One had to do with missiles in Cuba, the other was my mom going into labor. One outcome was a blessing, the other is typing this drivel.

My intro to stoogedom came early. I remember watching with my dad, and he was a fan, although his number one favorites were Abbott and Costello.  I was lucky to have a local channel that covered all the daytime bases. WGN was every kids go-to. Ray Raynor/Garfield Goose in the am, Bozo's Circus at lunchtime, the Stooges and various other cartoons late afternoon. Other early favorites included 'Thunderbirds', Batman, Bullwinkle and the Flintstones. There were times when the boys didn't air in Chicago, but those times weren't the norm. We had more channels than most places, so the pre-cable era (which ended while I was in college) was comparatively decent. Like many of the older crowd, I had recorded several of my favorite Curly shorts onto VHS tapes, although they didn't go with me to college...vcr's in the early 80's were still $400+. From my late teens onward, I also became a fan of SCTV, Benny Hill, W.C. Fields and the Marx Brothers. Whenever they would air, I would watch. Laurel and Hardy features were occasionally shown, but I don't remember the two reelers being aired. I didn't do a deep dive on them until covid lockdown. Better late than never.  Fortunately, Chicago is ground zero for retro comedy, so I was able to get a quick primer. It was learning about them that initially brought me here...along with the Stooges of course. For that, you shall rue the day.

[Paul Pain]

I don't know, Samurai.  I, for one, among others, to be honest, really, and I really mean this, truly I do, you will be glad to know, sincerely, am glad you are here to join the fun.  The more the merrier!

[HomokHarcos]

Interesting thread!
I originally got into classic comedy from watching Looney Tunes, Popeye, Woody Woodpecker cartoons, the theatrical cartoon shorts.
Eventually, I was curious to find what other short films there were, so I discovered The Three Stooges, Laurel and Hardy, and Our Gang. It then moved on to a general Old Hollywood obsession.

[HomokHarcos]

I’ll expand a bit.
When I was a child my grandmother would often buy DVDs for me from dollar stores and Wal-Mart etc. Looking back, I’m now aware that these were all public domain sets, but they did feature some top series like Looney Tubes, Woody Woodpecker, and Popeye the Sailor. I eventually ended up searching up this stuff online, and even reading some books from my public library about Chuck Jones, Walter Lantz etc. Eventually being into anything about the Golden Age of Animation. My mom could sense I was getting into older media, and introduced me to Our Gang, and I was barely getting into The Three Stooges when I entered a high school, where I formed new interests and didn’t really pay attention to older media at all.

This changed when I became a college student and entered my twenties, I rediscovered the cartoons and comedy stuff, and decided to move being the shorts to any classic film comedian.