10 Things You Didn’t Know About The Three Stooges

Screen Crush ^ | April 13, 2012 | Danny Gallagher

[martin_fierro]

5. Curly actually had a very nice head of hair

There is actually one Stooges ep with all four classic Stooges -- Moe, Larry, Shemp and Curly -- in frame.

The 1947 ep is titled, "Hold That Lion" and Curly only has a cameo appearance having had a stroke.

[chajin]

The first group, Shemp, Larry and Moe, got their start in film thanks in part to fellow vaudeville star Ted Healy who called the act his "Stooges."

Technically they were known as Ted Healy and his Racketeers, though they were also known as his Stooges.

AFAIC, Ted Healy was the most unfunny comedian of the early days of sound film; he must have made someone laugh to have had the career he did, but I wouldn't have been one of them.

[Gamecock]

[martin_fierro]

Some more Stooges trivia:

• Moe, Curly and Shemp were brothers
• The name "Shemp" came from his Eastern European immigrant mother's mispronunciation of "Sam"
• Curly was quite the party animal
• Others, as I recall them

[pepsi_junkie]

When I was a kid I read the autobiography of Moe Howard. Interesting peek into another time and place, growing up in city at the turn of the century and then the vaudeville life.

One nugget: the eye poke was actually done by Moe poking the others right above the eyeballs on the eye socket bone. So he really did poke them and occasionally he missed and hit the eyes. These guys got the hell beaten out of them on those old films.

[moehoward]

11) Moe got all the chicks!

[Larry Lucido]

There will always be only one Curly.

[Huskrrrr]

Moe saved his money and died a millionaire, while Larry was a gambler.

[samtheman]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzLREBbP3N8

[If You Want It Fixed - Fix It]

I should have read this kneeling before my shrine.

Nyuk, nyuk.

[massgopguy]

Moe threw his last pie on the Mike Douglas Show. His hair was combed up and he was in the audience. he asked what happened to the Three Stooges. On a subsequent show a guy in the audience had a pie which he asked Moe to hit him in the face with.
Speaking of Three Little Pigskins. How about a smoking hot blond Lucille Ball as one of the Mob's Molls?

[dfwgator]

From Cheers:

Sam: Everything I do is to impress women or revolves around sex. I guess I’m nothing more than a hot, manly machine of love.

Coach: Wait! what about the Stooges?

Sam: They’re ok. they’re over at Cliff’s.

Coach: No, no, Sam. what about the Three Stooges?

Sam: I like the Three Stooges. that really helps.

Coach: Wait. think about this.

Coach: Do women like the Three Stooges?

Sam: No, they hate them.

Coach: All right.

Coach: Are women impressed that you like them?

Sam: No. some of them even think they’re stupid.

Coach: When you’re watching the Stooges, do you think they’re sexy?

Sam: When you watch the Stooges, nobody has time to think about sex or women.

Sam: Hey, wait a minute. That means there’s another interest in my life. I like the Stooges for themselves. Hey, whoa. I’m ok.

[SunkenCiv]

#whatever -- there were SIX of them, and, they stole their act from Moe's 'big break' employer.

[pepsi_junkie]

Another interesting somewhat related tidbit from the old comedy days, actually before the Stooges. Buster Keaton was making a film where he was on top of a moving train and he was supposed to grab a chain from a water tower which would swing to the side and lower him to the ground. Unfortunately they didn't think this through and it was the real release from a real water tower full of water and when he grabbed it the water gushed out and slammed him down on the tracks forcefully. He hurt his neck badly and though he continued to work, he was in a lot of pain. But eventually in time it passed and he moved on. Years later he got an x-ray and his doctor asked him when he'd broken his neck.

Harold Lloyd once used the fuse on a prop bomb to light a cigarette and to his surprise the bomb blew. It had a small amount of gunpowder in it to make a smokey bang for the camera but it was enough to blow off at least one, maybe two fingers. OSHA would not approve.

[SunkenCiv]

My mistake, EIGHT -- Moe Howard, Shemp Howard, Larry Fine, Curly Howard, Joe Palma, Joe Besser, Joe "Curly Joe" DeRita, and Emil Sitka .

[massgopguy]

Ted Healy prevented the Stooges from getting a big contract with another studio. Bleep him.

[SunkenCiv]

Sure, but his kid wound up a two-bit investigator at that insurance company in "There's Something About Mary".

[Fai Mao]

When I was 15 I wrote Larry a letter after getting his address out of a book

He was living in a home for old actors and had had a stroke and didn’t really have any family around him.

He wrote me back and we corresponded for about a year.

[Responsibility2nd]

Then again, there is always hope for the Farrelly Brothers‘ latest entry.

 

Actually the Farrelly Brothers remake was hopeless. It didn't totally suck. But it was disappointing.