Mayer deployed his infamous fixers Eddie Mannix and Howard Strickling to protect Beery, one of his top stars, by covering up the incident. MGM story editor Samuel Marx confirmed this in an interview shortly before his death in And by then, they had quite another ruthless sociopath to contend with.
They were on the brink of their greatest success and had honed their act into the classic Stooge mode that defines them to this day. The internal mechanism of The Three Stooges is deceptively simple.
Moe, with his gravelly voice, permanent scowl and menacing helmet of bowl-cut hair, was the leader, invariably the under-boss entreated with overseeing whatever hopelessly doomed endeavour the Stooges found themselves pursuing and whatever it was, you can bet it involved heavy objects and the potential for maximum mayhem; plumbing, not surprisingly, was a favourite Stooge profession. Moe actually had his brother Shemp to thank for his signature move.
Once, during a card game, Shemp became so convinced that Larry was cheating him he leapt up and poked him in both eyes. Moe made a note of it and duly incorporated it into the act. An easygoing simpleton, Larry was the essential, non-threatening intermediary, and he brought a special genius to the role. Even given the quick-fire production schedule for shorts, the Stooges were extraordinarily prolific during their Columbia years, churning out film after film of, more often than not, admirable quality in terms of writing, direction and production values, given they were shot in a mere four or five days.
And their films were hugely popular, often getting a more positive response than the features they were designed to accompany. Naturally, their talent, industriousness and lucrative bankability were rewarded with all the bounteous largesse for which Harry Cohn was justly famous.
Although the legend that in the 23 years they spent at Columbia the Stooges never received a payrise is untrue, it is rooted in reality. Playing his customary dual role of ruthless businessman and enthusiastic sadist, Cohn kept the Stooges on a one-year contract throughout their career at the studio, forcing them to re-negotiate their employment every 12 months, browbeating them into signing for a pittance with warnings that the shorts department was in financial trouble.
Keeping its biggest stars in the dark as to their true value was a deliberate ploy to ensure they worked cheap. For one, they were terrified of Cohn and his Mob connections, as were a good many people in Hollywood.
As working-class guys, fearful of losing their livelihood, they were happy to take what they were given. Playing a human punchbag day in, day out for years, enduring constant blows to the head — most of which, according to Moe Howard, were every bit as real as they looked — brought on a series of minor cerebral haemorrhages that slowed him down to the point that he was unable to make personal appearances.
Shemp, now under contract to Columbia himself, was brought in to replace Curly in live performances. Cohn flatly refused to give Curly leave of absence, and it was not long before his declining health became evident on screen.
This should have signalled, at the very least, an extended period of rest and recuperation. For their part, the other Stooges took on the extra responsibility willingly, hoping that Curly would eventually recover sufficiently to resume his role.
But it was a losing battle and in , between takes on the short Half-Wits Holiday a remake of the two-reeler, Hoi Polloi , Curly suffered a massive, paralysing stroke. Curly was soon to discover that Marion was not a very nice person and was only after his money. The marriage proved a disaster, and the unhappy couple divorced after only three months together.
In the terrible divorce proceedings, Marion said of Curly: "He used filthy, vile language, kept two vicious dogs, he shouted at waiters in cafes, struck and kicked me, put out cigars in the sink. Curly, always a free spender, had spent a fortune buying gifts for Marion, and the divorce really shook him up. He had his first stroke soon thereafter, in early Curly's great vigor and boyish vitality, his comedy trademarks, sank lower and lower.
Instead of enabling Curly to rest after his stroke, as Moe requested, studio head Harry Cohn kept Curly churning out new Three Stooges shorts. Sadly, these final Curly shorts show him looking very old and worn, his previously starring roles greatly reduced, and, indeed, they put a bit of a black mark on his body of otherwise amazing comedy performances.
Curly's appearance grew worse until finally, while filming his 97th Three Stooges short, "Half Wit's Holiday," on May 6, , the straw finally broke the camel's back. Curly was supposed to participate in the film's final, climactic pie fight, but Moe spotted Curly sitting in his chair on the set. Moe found Curly slumped over in his chair with tears running down his face; Curly had suffered another stroke.
He was replaced in the act by older brother Shemp. Curly finally got a happy break in , when he met an attractive brunette named Valerie Newman. The two fell in love and married on July 31, Valerie was to bear Curly a daughter, Janie, the following year. She truly loved Curly and stuck by his side, through his constant downhill ride over the next few years, feeding and even bathing him as his health continued its slow deterioration in the late s. Healy would respond by verbally and physically abusing his stooges.
Brothers Moe and Shemp were joined later that year by violinist-comedian Larry Fine, and Fred Sanborn joined the group as well. The original Three Stooges in their film debut, Soup to Nuts. Many fans forget that Shemp Howard far left was the original third Stooge before his youngest brother Curly assumed the role. The film was not a success with the critics, but the Stooges' performances were considered the highlight and Fox offered the trio a contract without Healy.
This upset Healy, who told studio executives that the Stooges were his employees. The offer was withdrawn, and after Howard, Fine and Howard learned of the reason, they left Healy to form their own act, which quickly took off with a tour of the theatre circuit. Healy attempted to stop the new act with legal action, claiming they were using his copyrighted material. There are accounts of Healy threatening to bomb theaters if Howard, Fine and Howard ever performed there, which worried Shemp so much that he almost left the act; reportedly, only a pay raise kept him on board.
Healy tried to save his act by hiring replacement stooges, but they were not as well-received as their predecessors [2] In , with Moe now acting as business manager, Healy reached a new agreement with his former Stooges, and they were booked in a production of Jacob J. Shubert's The Passing Show of During rehearsals, Healy received a more lucrative offer and found a loophole in his contract allowing him to leave the production. With Shemp gone, Healy and the two remaining stooges Moe and Larry needed a replacement, so Moe suggested his younger brother Jerry Howard.
Healy reportedly took one look at Jerry, who had long chestnut red locks and a handlebar mustache, and remarked that he did not look like he was funny.
There are varying accounts as to how the Curly character actually came about. They appeared in feature films and short subjects, either together, individually, or with various combinations of actors. The trio was featured in a series of musical comedy shorts , beginning with Nertsery Rhymes. The short was one of a few shorts to be made with an early two-strip Technicolor process; the shorts themselves were built around recycled film footage of production numbers cut from MGM musicals, some of which had been filmed in Technicolor.
In , the team's contract with MGM expired, and the Stooges parted professional company with Healy. According to Moe Howard in his autobiography, [3] the Stooges split with Ted Healy in once and for all because of Healy's alcoholism and abrasiveness. Both Healy and the Stooges went on to separate success. Healy died under mysterious circumstances in The same year, the trio now christened The Three Stooges signed on to appear in two-reel comedy short subjects for Columbia Pictures.
According to Moe, Columbia Pictures studio head Harry Cohn would always wait until the last minute to renew the contract. The Stooges appeared in film shorts and five features under the "original" contract with Columbia. Del Lord directed more than three dozen Three Stooges shorts. Jules White directed dozens more, and his brother Jack White directed several under the pseudonym "Preston Black".
In the early shorts, Curly was billed as "Curley", and also as "Jerry Howard" when receiving a writing credit. This minute short subject starring Moe as an Adolf Hitler —like character satirized the Nazis in a period when America was still neutral and isolationist about WWII. Reportedly this film caused the Stooges to be placed on Hitler's so-called "death list" because of its anti-Nazi stance.
Chaplin, along with Jack Benny would also be on this list due to their later anti-Nazi films. The Stooges made occasional guest appearances in feature films, though generally they stuck to short subjects. Columbia offered theater owners an entire program of two-reel comedies 15 to 25 titles annually featuring such stars as Buster Keaton , Andy Clyde , Charley Chase , and Hugh Herbert , but the Three Stooges shorts were the most popular of all.
Curly was easily the most popular member of the team. The fact that Curly had to shave his head for the act led him to feel unappealing to women.
To mask his insecurities, Curly excessively drank, ate, and caroused whenever the Stooges made personal appearances, which was approximately seven months out of the year. His weight ballooned in the s, and his blood pressure was dangerously high. Anyone viewing Curly's last dozen shorts will see a seriously ill Curly, struggling to get through even the most basic scenes. During the filming of Half-Wits Holiday on May 6, , Curly suffered a debilitating stroke , and the film was finished without him.
He is absent from the last several minutes of the film. Curly's health necessitated a temporary retirement from the act, and while the Stooges hoped for a full recovery, Curly never starred in a film again. He did make one brief cameo appearance in the third film after Shemp returned to the trio, Hold That Lion! It was the only film that contained all four of the original Stooges the three Howard brothers and Larry on screen simultaneously; Jules White recalled Curly visiting the set one day, and White had him do this bit for fun.
Though Moe and Larry were open to the idea of continuing as a duo, Shemp was replaced in the team with Columbia comedian Joe Besser, who often played supporting roles in Abbott and Costello films and on their television show. Besser was less of a physical comedian than Curly or Shemp, and his character did not receive much physical abuse. The Three Stooges only made sixteen shorts with Besser as a member of the team because Columbia halted production on comedy shorts at the end of , though the shorts would continue to be released until June , when the final Columbia short, Sappy Bull Fighters , was released.
In almost 25 years, the Three Stooges starred in shorts for Columbia. Columbia did not renew the Stooges' contract. While the market for comedy shorts in theaters had ended, the Three Stooges saw their popularity explode when their shorts began airing on television in Moe and Larry gained an entirely new, younger audience and realized that their careers as entertainers were far from over.
To replace Joe Besser, the duo added comedian Joe DeRita, who cut his hair to appear more like Curly, whose popularity had grown with children because of the television airings of the Stooges' classic shorts. Joe DeRita went by the name "Curly Joe. The Stooges made several more feature films, many television appearances, and voiced themselves in the animated series The New Three Stooges.
While filming a pilot for a travel series featuring the Stooges in , Larry suffered a stroke and was unable to continue acting. Over forty years after the deaths of Larry and Moe, the Three Stooges still remain incredibly popular, and the comedy team's shorts still appear on television and have been issued on many types of home media.
Their slapstick personas and jokes especially Curly's catchphrases remain part of popular culture. A Three Stooges museum, dubbed the "Stoogeum," is located in Pennsylvania.
The Stooges continue to appear on hundreds of licensed products each year, including apparel, board games, scratch-off tickets, and even credit cards. Actively scan device characteristics for identification.
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