The Three Stooges Biography and Pictures

The Three Stooges Biography


The Three Stooges were an American comedy act in the 20th century. Commonly known by their first names, Larry, Moe, and Curly (sometimes spelled "Curley") became famous for their work in film. They starred in many short features that consisted of creative ways of showcasing their extremely physical brand of slapstick comedy.

The Stooges got their name and their start in a vaudeville act called Ted Healy and his Stooges. Brothers Moses (Moe) and Shmuel Howard (Shemp) (original last name Horowitz) were later joined by Larry Fine (real name Louis Feinberg). Shemp left for a career in film (notably as trainer Knobby Walsh in the 'Joe Palooka' films), and brother Curly Howard (real name Jerome, called "Babe" by family members) took his place. Moe was throughout their career the heart and soul of the troupe, acting as both their main creative force and business manager. His daughter Joan (nee Maurer) is today the owner of the Three Stooges.

The original Three Stooges split from Healy and went on to star in nearly two hundred theatrical short films in the 30s, 40s and 50s, the longest such series in film history. Curly suffered a stroke in 1946 and Shemp returned to the trio. Shemp died of a heart attack in 1956 and Joe Besser was the fifth Stooge from 1956-1958. Besser did not want to travel and had a clause in his contract specifically prohibiting him from being hit, and so was not a good third member, and Columbia Pictures finally pulled the plug on the series of shorts, which had become unprofitable. At this point it seemed that the career of the Three Stooges was over. Columbia released the entire series to television syndication and suddenly a whole new generation of fans rediscovered them. Moe took advantage of their renewed popularity by signing up Curly Joe DeRita as the third member. They went on to make a number of successful full-length feature films over the next decade before age finally caught up with them. Their last project, "Kook's Tour"(1970), was a sort of travelogue made for TV, but was never released though available today on video. Moe also had a minor career as a non-Stooge, appearing in a few movies during the 1960s.

Larry died in early 1975. After his death, it was decided that long time Stooge short actor Emil Sitka would replace Larry, and be dubbed "The Middle Stooge". However, Moe passed on a few months later, and the general opinion was that The Three Stooges cannot continue without any of Howard family involved.

Del Lord directed more than 37 of the "Three Stooges" films. Jules White directed many others.

Throughout their career, Moe was the heart and soul of the troupe, acting as both their main creative force and business manager. Comedy III Productions, Inc., formed by Moe, Larry and Curly Joe DeRita in 1959, is the owner of all of the Three Stooges trademarks, copyrights, and merchandising.

Their "excessive" on-screen violence came under scrutiny once the Stooges' shorts gained wide airplay on television. In a TV interview in the mid-1960s, Moe and Larry defended their approach to slapstick, saying it was just "cartoon violence"; that they were not shown being seriously injured in their films.

In Spring of 2000, a TV-movie aired on ABC. This movie was based on Michael Fleming's authorized biography on the Stooges: The Three Stooges: From Amalgamated Morons to American Icons.

Moe Howard
Real Name: Harry Moses Horwitz
Born: June 19, 1897
Died: May 4, 1975
Stooge years: 1922, 1926, 1929-1975


Larry Fine
Real Name: Louis Feinberg
Born: October 5, 1902
Died: January 24, 1975
Stooge years: 1925-1926, 1929-1971


Curly Howard
Real Name: Jerome Lester Horwitz
Born: October 22, 1903
Died: January 18, 1952
Stooge years: 1934-1946


Shemp Howard
Real Name: Samuel Horwitz
Born: March 4, 1895
Died: November 22, 1955
Stooge years: 1922-1925, 1929-1932, 1947-1956


Joe Besser
Real Name: Joe Besser
Born: August 12, 1907
Died: March 1, 1988
Stooge years: 1955-1958


Curly Joe DeRita
Real Name: Joseph Wardell
Born: July 12, 1909
Died: July 3, 1993
Stooge years: 1958-1975


Emil Sitka
Born: December 22, 1914
Died: January 16, 1998
Stooge years: c.1971-1975
 

Catchphrases

  • "N'yuk N'yuk N'yuk!" (Curly laughing)
  • "Ngah-ngah-ngah!" (Curly frightened)
  • "Why you...!" (Moe, to others)
  • "Come 'ere!" (Moe, to others)
  • "Why I oughta" (Moe)
  • "Hey, Moe! Hey, Larry!" (Curly, Shemp)
  • "Soitenly!" (certainly) (Curly)
  • "You imbecile!" (Moe, to the others)
  • "Yauauaua!" (Curly)
  • "La-la-la, la-la-la..." (Curly, humming)
  • "Mmmmmmmmh!" (Curly) (when frustrated; difficult to transcribe exactly)
  • "Rrrowf! Rrrowf!" (Curly) (when angry or defiant)
  • "You knucklehead!" (Moe, to others)
  • "Oh, a wise guy, eh?" (Curly)
  • "Oh, you're an intelligent imbecile!" (Moe)
  • "I'm a victim of soicumstance" (Curly)
  • "Hey, Porcupine!" (Moe, to Larry)
  • "I'll moider ya!" (Moe)
  • "Remind me to kill you later!" (Moe, to others)
  • "What's the big idea?!?" (Larry)
  • "Hey, knucklehead! Wake up and go to sleep!" (Moe)
  • "Spread out!" (Moe to the others)
  • "Say a few syllables!" (Curly to Moe when trying to wake him)
  • "I'm sorry, Moe, it was an accident!" (Larry)
  • "Anakanapuner!" (Moe, demanding a surgical instrument)
  • "Seenophran!" (Moe, demanding another surgical instrument)
  • "Not so haaaaaard!" (Joe Besser)
  • "Oh, cut it ouuuuuut!" (Joe Besser)
  • "You crazy you" (Joe Besser)
  • "Okay, buddy boy" (Curly-Joe DeRita)
  • "Dr. Howard, Dr. Fine, Dr. Howard." (over the public address system in a hospital).
  • "Woo-woo-woo-woo!" (Curly)
(or "Whoop-whoop-whoop-whoop!")
  • "Mee-mee-mee-mee!" (Shemp, frightened or surprised)
Uttered very fast, difficult to transcribe exactly; some other attempts:
"Heep-heep-heep-heep!"
"Hee-hee-hee-hee!"
"Bee-bee-bee-bee!"
"Vee-vee-vee-vee!"
"Meep-meep-meep-meep!"
  • "Join Hands,You Love Birds" (Emil Sitka)

Slapstick

Examples of Archetypical Stooge slapstick:

One Stooge pokes the other in the eyes with the first and second fingers of one hand. After a while, the other Stooge catches on and holds his palm perpendicular to the edge of his nose to block this. The first stooge then uses the index finger of each hand to jab both eyes at once.

One Stooge strikes his own outstretched fist with his other fist. After being struck, the hand revolves downward, back and onto another Stooge's head.

The triple slap: a straight man slaps the faces of all three Stooges in one energetic sweep.

One Stooge (typically Moe) grasps another Stooge's nose then horizontally strikes the grasping fist, making the sound of a tooting horn-like device.

Sound effects

The use of clever sound effects was important to the overall effect of the action. A good example would be Moe whacking one of his fellow Stooges on the head with a hammer. Typically, the sound of a hammer striking an anvil or a block of wood was used, suggesting the characters were "hard-headed" in more ways than one. A blow to a kettle drum accompanied blows to the stomach, and for pokes to the eye, a plucked violin string made the sound.

Music

Several instrumental tunes were played over the opening credits at different times in the production of their short features. The most commonly used themes were:

  • "Three Blind Mice", beginning as a slow but straightforward presentation, often breaking into a "jazzy" style before ending. Another version was played fast all the way through.
  • The verse portion of "Listen to the Mockingbird", played in a comic way, complete with sounds of cuckoo birds and such. Ironically, the actual song is mournful.

Feature motion pictures

The Three Stooges also made appearances in many feature length movies in the course of their careers:

Soup to Nuts (1930)
Turn Back the Clock (1933)
Meet the Baron (1933)
Dancing Lady (1933)
Myrt and Marge (1933)
Hollywood Party (1934)
The Captain Hates the Sea (1934)
Start Cheering (1938)
My Sister Eileen (1942) (Cameo)
Good Luck, Mr. Yates (1943) (scenes deleted)
Rockin' in the Rockies (1945)
Swing Parade of 1946 (1946)
Have Rocket, Will Travel (1959)
Snow White and the Three Stooges (1961)
The Three Stooges Meet Hercules (1962)
The Three Stooges in Orbit (1962)
The Three Stooges Go Around the World in a Daze (1963)
It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World (1963) (Cameo)
4 for Texas (1963) (Cameo)
The Outlaws Is Coming (1965)
Kook's Tour (1970)
The Stooges appeared in a short-lived television show called The New 3 Stooges which ran from 1965 to 1966 and featured a mix of live action, and animated Stooges shorts.

In 1977, there was a short-lived CBS animated series called The Three Robonic Stooges featuring Moe, Larry, and Curly as bionic cartoon superheroes with extendable limbs, similar to the later Inspector Gadget.

There are four Three Stooges shorts that are in the public domain, and which can be downloaded at no charge from the Prelinger Archive:

Disorder in the Court (1936)
Malice in the Palace (1949)
Sing A Song of Six Pants (1947)
Brideless Groom (1947)<br

Tributes
The 1984 song "The Curley Shuffle," recorded by Jump N'The Saddle Band, expressed admiration for the stooges and included a Curly imitation in the chorus.
The 1985 film, Stoogemania tells the story of an obsessed Three Stooges fan, and includes clips of their classic Shorts.
The 1994 Song, "Two Reelers" by Frank Black tells the story of the four "original" stooges and Jules White, and protests the dismissal of The Three Stooges as mere low-brow slapstick: "If all you see is violence/Well then I make a plea in their defense/Don't you know they speak vaudevillian?"
A 1987 computer game by Cinemaware, The Three Stooges, has the stooges trying to save an orphanage where they engage in wacky adventures and engage in some of their classic comic scenes. The game was also ported to the NES in 1989 by Activision.
In the 1995 computer game Space Quest 6, there was a minigame called Stooge Fighter, which was a humorous tribute to the stooges.
In an episode of the cartoon Pinky and the Brain entitled "Pinky & The Brain And... Larry", Pinky and The Brain are inexplicably joined by a third wheel Larry in their plan to get into the White House posing as wallpaperers, whose unwelcome addition to the team causes Stooge-style antics to ensue.
The King of the Hill episode "A-Fire Fighting We Will Go" contains several references to the Stooges.
The Super NES RPG Final Fantasy VI features as bosses the "Three Dream Stooges"(also named Larry, Curly and Moe), which entered in a character's mind while he was suffering from nightmare.
Homer Simpson from the TV show The Simpsons imitates Curly occasionally.

Trivia
Legend has it that the eye poke started when Shemp accused Larry of cheating in a poker game, and Shemp poked him in the eyes!

Click on a sound effect to hear The Three Stooges

 


This The Three Stooges Biography Page is Copyright © 2004 - 2009 Chuck Ayoub