THAT the 3 Stooges Series of 2 Reel Comedy Shorts ran for a record 24 years is surely a tribute to their connecting with the public via their silly, knockabout slapstick humor as well as to the skill and frugality of production as practiced by Jules White's Columbia Short Subject unit. The shorts were seldom considered to be any sort of serious attempt at film and weren't ever intended to be so; being designed as a sort of added treat to the Theatre's Program. Gags, gags and more of the same abound in any typical picture and ne'er any footage is wasted in bringing us a story with those "three new men."
HAVING such a long, cinematic life span, as expected, there was a great variance in both cast and quality of the product. Over the ensuing years, membership varied slightly from playing actual "stooges" for Top Banana Comedian, Ted Healy, to striking out on their own. Shemp Howard, his brother Moe Howard and Larry Fine made up the original team; which dated to the1925 Vaudeville stage. Contact disputes frequently erupted between Healy and his underpaid crew. The Stooges briefly were on their own as "Howard, Fine and Howard". Shemp left and was replaced by his brother, Jerry (Curley), then he returned in time for the initial cinematic venture, SOUP TO NUTS (Fox, 1930); which had them still under Healy's miserly, iron fisted rule.
OLDER brother Shemp then left again; striking out on his own* and Curley then rejoined. Ted and the boys were kept busy doing supporting shtick in many a Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer feature and Short film.
MAKING a permanent, clean break with Mr. Healy in 1934, the Stooges sought out and received a deal with Harry Cohn's Columbia Pictures; promptly being assigned to the Short Subjects' Department.** They were an instant success; with Moe Howard taking over the role as the slapping, punching, hair pulling, tonsil tearing-out and eye poking leader.
ALL was well until when, in 1946, Curly suffered a stroke; which forced him into a premature retirement in 1948. Curly Howard (Jerome Horowitz) died in 1952.
WAITING in the wings when Curley was stricken was older brother Shemp, who moved back into his old spot and stayed there until his sudden death in 1955. It is at this juncture that we now refer.
REQUIRING a third knucklehead to fulfill their obligation to be "THREE", not "TWO" Stooges, a replacement for Shemp was sought. Candidate Number One was Burlesque Stage Comedian, Joe De Rita; but Joe was under contract to Minsky's Circuit and was then unavailable. With Mr. De Rita's being unavailable, Columbia forced a sort of 'shotgun wedding' on Moe & Larry with their own Short Subjects' contractee, the reluctant Joe Besser.
THAT the decision to shore up the Stooges' Act was the result of the "Suits" in Columbia's Boardroom was very apparent in the new Post Shemp Howard comedies; where, at best; the Boys seem to be just going through the motions of another day at work. Perhaps as a premonition of things that were to come, with production of HOOFS AND GOOFS, they set the bar as low as it could possibly go; leading to the actual demise of the Stooges Series and eventually to entire Columbia's Shorts Subjects Unit. (Its resources doubtless were being channeled into TV Production.)
BUT with each dark storm cloud there is a silver lining; for shortly thereafter, the decision was made to release the (eventually entire) backlog of Stooges Shorts to TV through their Screen Gems TV Subsidiary. Also, Moe & Larry got their wish to have Joe De Rita as their new, third partner (re-christened "Curly-Joe"). The Trio then embarked on a Nation-Wide personal appearance tour. The kids saw the Stooges films on the Tube, the Boys were again a hot property, formed their own Production Company with Moe's Son-in-Law, Norman Maurer, as Norman Maurer Productions or Normandy Productions. They signed a deal with Columbia to make a series of Features aimed at the kiddie trade, such as: HAVE ROCKET WILL TRAVEL, THE OUTLAW'S IS COMING, THE THREE STOOGES MEET HERCULES, etc.
ONE last note about HOOFS AND GOOFS that we would like to make; namely that Columbia's Shorts Unit actually made a sequel to it, HORSING AROUND (Columbia,1957), in which the reincarnated sister/horse actually has a Stallion lover, Schnapps! (Honest,Schultz! I swear it! My right hand to God.)
REDEEMING QUALITIES DEPARTMENT. There's only one of those here. And that would be
. (We hear you ask)
? It's the inclusion of veteran vaudevillian and dialectician supreme, Benny Rubin, in the Cast.
OTHERWISE, it's my 1st ever #1, "AWFUL!" Rating!
NOTE: * Shemp worked in a variety of roles, including playing Fight Manager 'Knobby' Walsh in a JOE PALOOKA Series for Vitaphone, teaming with Billy Gilbert in a number of movies for various companies, organizing his own Stooges for a short KNIFE OF THE PARTY (Van Beuern Studios/Magna Prod./RKO Radio Pictures, 1934)and appearing as a character comedian in many a production for MGM, 20th Century-Fox and most notably, Universal.
NOTE: ** There is a story from (I believe) the book, "Moe Howard and The Three Stooges" which tells of how, after the Stooges split with Ted Healy in 1934, Moe went to Columbia one afternoon and negotiated a pact with them; only to return home to find out that Larry had done the same at Universal. Mr. Carl Laemelle at Universal graciously bowed out, leaving the rest of Stooge History to Columbia mogul, Harry Cohn.
POODLE SCHNITZ!!
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