From the S&S archives: An interview with Moe Howard of The Three Stooges

Pacific Stars & Stripes ^ | May 22, 1966 | Hal Drake

[demlosers]

OFFSTAGE, MOE HOWARD, the head-knocking bully of the Three Stooges comedy team, is a small, quiet man who dreads the day the Stooges may be pitied instead of laughed at.

Hilarious violence has always been the Stooges' stock in trade. Howard has punched, slapped, gouged and poked partners Curly (Joe de Rita) and Larry (Larry Fine) and their predecessors since the act began as The Three Lost Soles back in Prohibition days.

Moe's fist rattles like a snare drum on Curly's bald forehead and booms like a bass drum as it thumps Larry's midriff. Both Saturday matinee audiences and sophisticated night club crowds laugh uproariously. But Howard — who began a long career playing a drunkard's son in a Mississippi riverboat drama — is wise in the ways of show business. He knows loud laughs could suddenly turn into soft moans of sympathy.

"The public can't see old people cracking each other," the diminutive, mop-headed comic said in an interview at the Imperial Hotel. "They'll wind up feeling sorry for us. We work hard to be funny. We want people to laugh at us, not pity us."

And so Howard, the only surviving member of the original Stooges that included his late brother Shemp, admits that his retirement is not far off. Curly and Larry will do the same or go their separate ways. And one of show business' oldest and best-loved acts will be laid to rest.

"Maybe," Howard says reflectively, "we could get three young guys and teach them all the routines and the pratfalls — and the timing, too. That s very important."

For Howard, there will be writing — his autobiography, "I Stooge to Conquer," recalling how he was drawn to footlights and. movie sets during his boyhood years in Brooklyn, when he played hooky to hang around the Vitagraph Film Studio and run errands for stars like John Bunny and Fatty Arbuckle.

He can relate how he worked with oldtime stars like comic Ted Healy, a childhood friend, and first grew his flamboyant sheepdog haircut in 1921, "long before those Beatles were even born."

Not many performers can recall the days when melodramas extolling virtue and temperance were performed on Mississippi riverboats. Howard can. His stage was a slanting deck in 1919, when he played Simon Slade, The boy who murders his drunken father, in "Ten Nights in a Barroom."

HOWARD dates himself with each recollection. But a blunt inquiry about his age brings only: "I'll celebrate my 45th year in show business June 11. And I started very young.."

Howard call tell, most of all, of one of the most marvelous and profitable comebacks iii show business history. It was up and down for the Stooges, who began playing the Borscht Circuit summer resorts, moved on to night clubs, and in 1934 signed with Columbia Studios to do two-reel comedies. There were a total of 204. The contract lasted until Jan, 15 1958 — the longest in motion picture history.

It appeared, at the. time, that the Stooges were finished. But a few months after the contract lapsed, the first of their old films was fed into television. The studio made $7 million. The Stooges, with no rights on the films, made nothing.

THE OLD movies went through the television millrace fast. The public liked them. The producers wanted more. The Stooges nodded, smiled — and held their hands out for 50 percent. More shorts, and full-length movies like "The Three Stooges Go Around the World in a Daze" were to follow. Personal appearances took them as far as Toronto, Canada, where at the Canadian .National Exhibition, they broke a 76-year attendance record.

At a series of special shows in Pittsburgh — one in which an angle-minded promoter required parents to be brought to a nightclub by their children — the Stooges were heaped under fan letters laboriously printed or scrawled by very young fans.

"We didn't make any money out of those first TV movies," Howard says. "But they sure did a lot for us."

Howard said that while he and his partners are exceptionally good friends, they hardly see each other away from work.. Each is a separate and distinct personality. Curly, the crew cut buffoon, is a loner who stays home most of the time to read weighty stuff like "Rise and Fall of the Third Reich." Larry is a gregarious extrovert who reads detective novels and likes to do the town now and then.

Howard and his wife are on a 'round the world vacation trip. However, Howard says, he may scout some locations for a comic travelog the Stooges plan to make.

"We'll be in Champagne, France, in one sequence. All three of us will jump into a wine vat and start crushing grapes. Curly eats one, I hit him and the fight starts. The owners chase us out ..."

[demlosers]

Teruhiko Kikuchi / S&S
Moe Howard, with the bangs and
"Why, I oughta ..." look familiar to Three Stooges fans ...

... and the way he normally appeared, off-screen.

[DefCon]

? chat candidate ?

[martin_fierro]

	It's a 'Burgh Thing.TM
Send FReepmail if you want on/off BPT list
Learn Pittsburghese!

The boys were HUGE in the 'Burgh.

[billorites]

This Guy corresponded with Moe Howard when he was young, then dropped in to visit him and was entertained by Moe and his wife in the 1970's.

Check out his web page.

[nothingnew]

"Doyousweartotellthetruththewholetruthandnothingbutthetruth?!"

"He's talkin' pig latin!"

FMCDH

[nothingnew]

"DO YOU SWEAR?!"

"NO!...but I know all the woids..."

FMCDH

[dakine]

Huge in Detroit bump!!

[Sam's Army]

"Dr. Howard, Dr. Fine, Dr. Howard"

[JoJo Gunn]

I always was tickled by this image. Anyone have a better copy?

[Billthedrill]

If the Stooges have never won an Nobel prize for something, it just says how inadequate the Nobel prize is.

[MarkL]

IIRC, the last movie appearance of The Three Stooges was a cameo in "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad World."

Wasn't that also Spencer Tracy's last movie?

Mark

[Tumbleweed_Connection]

[GodBlessRonaldReagan]

Once Moe was asked how long he thought the Stooges would be in show business. He replied, "With a little luck, forever". I think he was right!

GOD BLESS THE THREE STOOGES!!!!

[Archie Bunker on steroids]

Remind me to kill you later
I'll make a note of it
Never mind, I'll do it now

I'm trying to think, but nuthin happens

[babyface00]

What I want to know is when he changed his name to Dennis and decided to run for mayor of Cleveland...

[beckett]

...."I'ma vic'um of circumstance...woo, woo, woo, woo, err, err, err, err ....hey Moe!

[mywholebodyisaweapon]

"Don't look now, but I think we're about to get killed!"

[pabianice]

Overlooked is how athletically talented these guys were.

[lone star annie]

"What are you going to do, give us a commission in the army?"

Curly replies, "Hey, it is straight salary or nuttin'!"


"Hey have you taken a bath?" "Why? Is there one missing?"

To me, they were the funniest comedians that have ever lived. Every generation discovers them anew and become instant fans. They were the greatest!!!

[HitmanLV]

Spencer Tracy made 'Guess Who's Coming To Dinner?' in the late 60s, which was the last film he made.

The Stooges made one more film (feature length) after their cameo 'It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World,' and that was 1965's 'The Outlaws Is Coming,' which featured Adam West.

About a year ago I flew into LA to see a special screening of 'It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World' at the Egyptian Theater on Hollywood Blvd. The screening was of the 2:40 minute or so theatrical release, with overture and intermission break. It was great to see the film on the big screen, as I have never seen it in a theater before!

There was a Q&A session, and Johnathan Winters and Sid Ceasar were there, and looked a bit frail and slow, and were introduced at the start of the program and said some brief words but didn't stay for the post-movie Q&A.

Director Kramer's wife dominated the proceedings, talking too much I would say, but she was very informative.

Mickey Rooney had his turn at the mike and I turned to my friend and I said 'Here we go!" and he wouldn't stop - going down his career, Andy Hardy, working with Garland, etc....until Mrs. Kramer had the courage to cut him off.

I always have loved Edie Adams and she related some anecdotes from the set and production (I wanted to ask her if Sid kept on grabbing her rear end in the movie because it makes the final cut about four times - I don't blame him though, she was quite a fetching lass at the time!), and Marvin Kaplan discussed his big fight scene with Winters at the gas station which had the crowd roaring!

The stuntman spoke and discussed some stuntwork for the film, and Peter Falk talked a bit about the ending of the movie. There was some discussion about the way the trailer was put together and that was interesting also - short interviews with the cast on the theme of the film - 'greed.' It was a great program from start to finish.

Anyway I bring this up because Mrs. Kramer teased the crowd that sometime in 2003 or 2004 in Los Angeles they will assemble and screen a special four hour edit of the film, never before seen! Needless to say, she said that the complete movie as filmed was about 5 hours or so, but that they are at work at a 4 hour screening so I advise you keep your radar on and when they announce this, get your ticket for the show - it could be a once in a lifetime event!

Also, about two weeks ago I was making a list for myself, of the best comedians and comedy performers of their era who were NOT in 'It's A Mad Mad Mad Mad World." Topping the list were Jackie Gleason & Art Carney.

A few days later, I learned Carney had passed away. I was bummed for a few days, really!