Moe Howard ·
Larry Fine ·
Curly Howard ·
Shemp Howard ·
Joe Besser ·
Joe DeRita
Moe was bossy. However, to know Moe simply for the punishment he inflicted is to know only a fraction of the Stooge. Yes, Moe administered his share of eye-pokes and double face-slaps. In addition, it is true that Moe emphasized his opinions by using sharp and jagged garage tools in way not recommended by the manufacturer. Nevertheless, can any fair-minded person argue that the other Stooges did not have it coming? Whether a man works in a downtown office or as a laborer in the field, there are only so many mistakes he can tolerate from inept partners before using an ax to express his displeasure. Moe, it turns out, was only human. Interestingly, Moe often absorbed more abuse than he dished out. Take Corny Casanovas, in which Moe is knocked off a ladder, shoved underwater in a bucket, poked by the handle of a mop, shot in the scalp, smashed into a wall after laying down on a fold-out bed, nailed by a tack, shot in the rear end with dozens of carpenter's tacks by Larry's machine gun, forced to swallow a pile of tacks, and given shoe polish instead of shaving cream with which to shave. You have had days like that, too; did you not become as grumpy as Moe? Pacifist critics will be interested to learn that Moe had a tender side, too. He rarely hesitated, for example, to offer compliments, as when acknowledging Larry's good ideas by remarking, “You're a very intelligent imbecile.” Moreover, no Stooge was more romantic. It was love that caused Moe to fire his pistol up the chimney at a philandering Shemp, and it was Moe who arranged dates for Larry and Shemp with his girlfriend Aggie's two sisters, Maggie and Baggie. (In fairness to Moe, he had not yet seen Baggie.)Educators argue that there is no redeeming value in the Three Stooges, but they have missed Moe's talents as a linguist. His facility with the insult, while not the optimal way to impress academics, must nonetheless be recognized as a remarkable intellectual achievement. Moe reeled off more than 100 different invectives, but it was his uncanny ability to dismantle and reconfigure words into stinging insults that made his legend as a linguist. Before Moe, there was no such thing as a “hardboiled egghead,” a “hot Airdale,” or a “half-brother to a weasel.” The English language misses Moe. Moe was born Moses Horwitz in Bensonhurst , New York, and was one of five children. Two of his brothers, Samuel (Shemp) and Jerome (Curly) Went on to join him in making the Three Stooges the immortal comedy team they remain today. He married Helen Schonberger in 1925, and they produced two children, Joan and Paul. Moe's favorite Three Stooges film was the 1940 short You Nazty Spy, in which he bitingly spoofed Hitler. Moe died of lung cancer at age seventy-seven in 1975 while finishing work on his memoirs. Like his bald and bushy head, Larry was a study in contrasts. Just when you thought you knew him, Larry would surprise you. His ethics, for example, zigzagged across vast universes of morality. Unable to resist stuffing silverware into his tuxedo while a guest at swank parties, Larry might be deemed a common crook by law-enforcement types. Theologians, however, would argue that he lived a clean life, as when he took a disciplined stand after Moe offered him some “C-A-N-D-Y” “Nah,” Larry replied firmly, “you know I don't smoke.” Larry's self-esteem could oscillate wildly. Often, he was self-effacing, as when the Stooges were addressed as “gentlemen” by strangers. Larry's typically modest reply: “Who came in?” But equally often he was boastful, as when he bragged to a professor that there hadn't been a gentleman in the Stooges' family in fifty generations. He even had the gall to boast to a potential employer that the Stooges had graduated from detective school with the lowest temperatures in their class. Larry is well remembered for his ability to follow orders. But parents who wish to raise obedient children might think twice about using him as a role model. Even Moe, who gave most of the orders, found painful Larry's attention to detail, as when Larry dropped a pile metal pipes on his toes. Larry's rationale: “You told me to drop what I was doing. So I did.” Critics should go easy on Larry. Many was the time that he ventured into a stately mansion, only to proclaim that the joint reminded him of the reform school, evidence that his youth was at least partially misspent. A rough childhood often produces reflective children; among the Stooges, Larry wss the most philosophical. Faced in one film with execution at sunrise, Larry reasoned that he couldn't die since he had yet to see The Jolson Story. He displayed deep existential insight by telling a homicidal gangster not to kill him because death was too permanent. Almost unknown as a conservationist (Larry refused to take baths because “it ain't spring yet”), he is also underappreciated as the Stooges' best idea man. When situations looked grim, it most often was Larry who suggested a way out. Had the Stooges made more films, some of his ideas might even have succeeded. Larry was born Louis Feinberg in Philadelphia, and became an accomplished violinist and musician early in life. He married Mabel Haney and fathered two children, Phyllis and Johnny. Larry's favorite Three Stooges film was Scrambled Brains (1951). He died at age seventy-two in 1975. Deep down, don't we all wish we were Curly? Curly never allowed the weight of the world (or the weight of his belly) to interfere with fun. He was immediate and of the moment, poised to pursue whatever new pleasure might present itself. Curly's joy resonated in the kitchen while stuffing turkeys, while using a straightedge razor and a hot towel to “shave” a block of ice, even on the gallows-cheering for himself-moments before being hanged. Curly had fun. That does not imply, however, that Curly was irresponsible. When asked to remind Moe to kill him later, Curly was always prompt to pull out a pencil and promise to make a note of it. When sent by Moe to bring back a flock of ducks, Curly assured everyone that “I'll be back in a quack with a quack…and I do mean quack!” He didn't perform all his duties flawlessly, but he always showed up to try. Though Moe is the Stooge most noted for his temper, Curly could display a bit of the bile, too. Ordinary chefs, for instance, do not snap at critics by asking, “Are you casting asparagus on my cooking?” And few grown men express intellectual frustration by squealing, “I'm trying to think but nothing happens!” Occasionally, Curly would respond to criticism the way we all have: by declaring himself to be a victim of circumstance. Curly was wonderful with animals and could certainly have made a name for himself in the veterinary sciences. Nowhere is this better illustrated than in Rockin' Thru the Rockies, in which Larry clobbers an unusual-looking fish with a metal pipe, only to be reminded by an eagle-eyed Curly that “that fish looks like Moe!” Few geese flew overhead without Curly imploring everyone to “look at the grouse!” Even during a reading lesson, after Moe recites the line “See the deer. Has the deer a little doe?” Curly is quick to interject as any animal lover would, “Yeah, two bucks.” More than one homicidal gorilla took a fancy to Curly. In the end, his real love was food. There is proof enough of this in Three Little Pirates, when the condemned Curly's thoughts turn hungry even as he is sentenced to death. Given the choice whether to die by burning or by being beheaded, Curly naturally selects the former, reasoning that “a hot stake is better than a cold chop.” In Court, after an angry judge cries “Order!” Curly replies that he'll take a ham sandwich. When the judge responds angrily, “Hold thy tongue,” Curly answers as only a connoisseur could “Not tongue-ham!” His joy at shooting a turkey from the sky is expressed simply in his declaration, “How I shall gobble this gobbler!” Like most food lovers, his sense of smell became highly developed; without realizing that he had sat upon a smoldering cigar, he remarked to a lovely woman that it “smells like somebody's frying onions.” Curly lived for food. Curly was born Jerome Lester Horwitz in Brooklyn, the fifth of five boys and younger brother to Samuel (Shemp) and Moses (Moe). Away from the camera, Curly possessed a delightful tenor and was an accomplished ballroom dancer. (Was there ever a more graceful comedian than Curly?) As a boy, he accidentally shot himself in the foot while cleaning a rifle, causing agonizing pain that persisted into adulthood. Moe speculated that it was this pain-along with a fear that his short haircut made him less desirable to women-that caused his brother in later years to drink heavily. This drinking may have contributed to the stroke he suffered at age forty-two on the set of Half-Wits Holiday (1946), an illness that forced his retirement from the Stooges. Curly married four times and fathered two children, Marilyn and Janie (from different women) before dying at age forty-eight in 1952 of complications from further strokes. In Jewish culture, a boy becomes a man when he turns thirteen. In Stooge culture, it happens when he learns to love Shemp. A Stooge fan's first instinct is to compare Shemp with Curly. It was, after all, Shemp who replaced his younger brother after Curly fell ill and retired from the group in 1947. To some Curly lovers, this already made Shemp a bit of a bad guy; no one, they claimed, could replace their hero. They were right. It would have been impossible for anyone-even a comic actor as immensely talented as Shemp-to mimic the mesmerizing movements and irresistibly childlike persona that made Curly legend. To his credit, Shemp never tried. Instead, he relied on skills that already had established him as a great slapstick actor: an uncanny sense of timing, a savvy demeanor, and the apparent ability to move in 100 different directions at once. To watch Shemp shadowbox is to witness a miniballot in which an unfathomable whirlwind of bobs and weaves and double slaps culminates, inevitably, in Shemp's own demise. Think that fancy footwork went unnoticed? Just watch the popular television program Seinfeld, where Michael Richards's Kramer character pays homage every episode to all that Shemp did first. Columbia was reluctant to hire Shemp as Curly's replacement, fearing he looked to much like his brother Moe (and perhaps not enough like brother Curly). However, their minds soon changed as movie theater owners continued to demand Stooge shorts to attract customers. Shemp, in the meantime, was bringing a newfound worldliness to the Stooges. He carried the air of a man who had been around, a fellow who could toast gorgeous dames with gilded pickup lines such as “A couple of pip-pips, a little barbecue, and what have you!” When Moe warned him to stop making goo-goo eyes at a knockout blonde because the Stooges were in her home on business, Shemp informed him coolly, “I mean business!” He was as cunning with men as he was charming with women. A master at controlling the crooked card tables of the Old West, he would rake in whopping poker jackpots with trademark poise and a casual “Come to Papa!” To colleagues who toasted him with a cheerful “Here's how,” Shemp always declared suavely, “I know how!” Tough guys who insulted him were often told, “Them is fightin' words in my country!” When the brutes agreed to fight, however, Shemp used his wits instead of his fists, reminding them, “Well, we're not in my country.” As a top-flight physical comedian, Shemp was naturally concerned about his body. Nursing a bum leg, he told a physician not to amputate because “I've had it ever since I was a little kid.” This concern for his own well-being often manifested itself in exaggerated symptoms, as when Shemp reported that “six lions were tearing me apart bit-by-bit” after a frog had slipped down his shirt. Despite the Stooges' limited income, he tried to dress well, even asking Moe if his slip was showing when they wore kilts as Scottish detectives in Hot Scots. Shemp was born Samuel Horwitz in Brooklyn. He was the third of five boys, two years older than brother Moe was and eight years brother Curly's senior. His favorite Stooge film was his first, Fright Night (1947). He married Gertrude Frank in 1925 and had one son, Mort, before his death from a sudden heart attack in 1955 at age sixty. After Shemp died of a sudden heart attack in 1955, Moe and Larry were again forced to choose between hiring another Stooge of folding the tent. This time they selected Joe Besser, a roly-poly, chrome-domed vaudeville veteran who had enjoyed success on the Broadway stage in the 1930s and in his own series of Columbia short films from 1949 to 1956. Joe made sixteen films with the Stooges, until Columbia closed the book on its short subjects department in 1958. Though Joe was quite earthly in appearance and mannerism, three of his sixteen Stooge films involved outer space. He remains best known for his plaintive whimpers, “Not so hard!” and “Oooh, you crazy!” Bravery was never Joe's forte, but he was always man enough to admit it. When asked by Moe in Sappy Bullfighters whether he was a man or a mouse, Joe did not hesitate to reply, “Squeak, Squeak.” Unlike the other Stooges, Joe was not adept with his fists. He did, however, possess a cunning that serves him well during sticky situations, as when jealous Latin lover Jose demanded to know how Joe dared to kiss his wife in front of him. “Turn around” Joe replied, “and I'll kiss her behind your back.” Joe was born in St. Louis and married Erna “Ernie” Kretschmer in 1932. He made his start in vaudeville as a teenager and soon found his way to Broadway, where he was discovered by executives at Columbia and signed to do his own series of two-reelers for the studio. During the 1940s, Joe appeared regularly on the legendary radio programs of Jack Benny, Eddie Cantor, and Fred Allen, and moved easily into regular television stints in the 1950s and 1960s on The Ken Murray Show, The Joey Bishop Show, and as the exasperated brat, Stinky, on The Abbott and Costello Show. He joined the Stooges in 1956 after Shemp-his close friend-died suddenly of a heart attack. Joe's favorite Three Stooges film was Flying Saucer Daffy (1958). He called his association with the Stooges “the happiest years of my life n show business” and was front and center in 1983 when the Stooges were awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Joe died in 1988 at age eighty of heart failure. “I go back fifty years with Joe Besser, when I played vaudeville with him,” comic Milton Berle said after Joe's death. “He was one of a kind. He was very innovative, very creative. He was a darling of a man, very congenial.” Columbia closed its short features department in 1958, grounding all flying pies and forcing the Three Stooges to find another medium for their mayhem. However, that wasn't the Stooges' only problem. Joe Besser, who had joined the team for sixteen shorts, was forced to resign in order to tend to his ailing wife. For the third time since Curly fell ill in 1947, Moe and Larry faced the possibility that they had delivered their final slap. Instead, they recruited a kindly faced, overgrown doughnut of a man, Joe DeRita, to step into the most vaunted shoes in team comedy. DeRita was a veteran of burlesque and Vaudeville, so he came steeped in the Stooges' rich tradition of precision timing and physical consequence. Despite his considerable girth, DeRita moved like a ballet dancer, always a golden attribute when among Stooges. To Moe and Larry, he was just what the doctor ordered. With crew cut in place and barrel belly front and center, DeRita looked enough like Curly to draw double takes even from seasoned Stooge fans. But Curly Joe, as he was called, proved to be very much his own Stooge. Over the course of six years and six successful feature films, Curly Joe projected a warmth and, yes, intelligence that helped cast the Stooges in a new role: that of good guys. Young children, especially, warmed to Curly Joe as they might to a doting grandfather; his relaxed delivery and soothing voice seemed perfectly suited to the ninety-minute feature-film format into which the Stooges were now venturing. Curly Joe was born Joseph Wardell in Philadelphia to show business parents. Of the six men who filled the fabled shoes of Stooges, only Curly Joe was not Jewish (he came from French-Canadian and English stock). Joe begins his show business career as a dancer and quickly made his way to the burlesque circuit, where he remained a mainstay for twenty-one years. His transition to film was a natural one. He was soon signed to a contract by MGM and also starred in a brief series of two-reelers for Columbia. Curly Joe joined the Three Stooges in 1958 and made six feature films and countless, wildly popular public appearances with the team. His favorite Stooge film was The Three Stooges go Around the World in a daze (1963). He married Jean Sullivan in 1966 and died in 1993 at age eighty-three of pneumonia after a series of strokes. “He used his stage experience,” said Mr. DeRita's stepson, Robert Benjamin. “He made a lot of people happy in his life. He loved working with the Stooges.”
Moe Howard
(June 19, 1897-May 4, 1975)
Larry Fine
(October 5, 1902-January 24, 1975)
Curly Howard
(October 22, 1903-January 18, 1952)
Shemp Howard
(March 17, 1895-November 23, 1955)
Joe Besser
(August 12, 1907-March 1, 1988)
Joe DeRita
(July 12, 1909-July 3, 1993)