THE THREE STOOGES Biography - Intro by Curly's Grandson

how you folks and thanks for joining us I'm Brad server aka curly G the youngest grandson of the great curly Howard of the Three Stooges grab on and get ready for this extended version of the Stooges the men behind the mayhem directed by film historian and preservationist Paul gareki originally airing in 1994 as an episode of a nice biography series it includes rare photos family a co-star interviews lost stooge appearances bill clips and much much more hey we're super excited to be able to present the show for you so please comment on the video like subscribe and share so we can continue to bring all kinds of old and new content to help keep the laughter alive ah also below are links to the directors YouTube page the three stooges YouTube page and shop knuckleheads for all your three stooges needs shut up you so here we go folks sit back relax enjoy yourselves a cup of Three Stooges coffee and enjoy the show that's good how'd I do [Music] [Laughter] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] almost everyone is familiar with the screen characters of curly Moe and Larry and most people know Shemp Joe Besser and curly Joe these six men form the world's most loved comedy team The Three Stooges but Moe wasn't always the leader of the group in fact when they first started the boys were almost interchangeable the development of their screen characters was a slow process of evolution that took many years of refinement in the beginning the Stooges worked for a brilliant vaudeville comedian who essentially created the concept of Stooges Ted Healy was born Charles Ernest Lee Nash on October 1st 1896 in Kaufman Texas he moved to New York with his parents and grew up planning to pursue a career on business but was bitten by the showbiz bug early on he changed his name to Ted Healy and eventually found his niche on Broadway where he was performing with his first wife Betty Braun during the winter of 1922 they were appearing at the Prospect theater in Brooklyn where Ted had a visit from a boyhood pal it was this chance meeting that would forever alter the course of Ted's life and the history of film comedy that friend was Moe Howard born Moses Horowitz On June 19th 1897 in Bensonhurst New York the Horowitz family was a large one like many families of the time and Jenny and Solomon had four boys Jack Irving Sam who became Shem and Moe who was the youngest although that changed six years later with the birth of Jerome whom you might know as Curley Moe was always fascinated by the theatre and as a young boy he spent most of his time at the local play houses he would watch the same show several times and concentrate on just one performer the practice which served him well when he entered show business himself I would then many many film from 1909 to 1911 and must have been at 40 or 50 film asking if they wanted me to go for it in 1914 Moe ran away from home to get an acting job on a showboat in Jackson Mississippi after working there for two seasons Moe returned home and several months later he and his older brother shemp's started a new act called Howard and Howard they worked the vaudeville circuits achieving moderate success until the winter of 1922 when Moe discovered that his old friend Ted Healy was headlining at the Prospect theater according to Moe this meeting was essentially the birth of the Stooges well there's controversy as to who were the first Stooges I think everybody sort of agrees that Ted Healy was the number one stooge and he was a big vaudeville burlesque type comedian who was very popular in his day and he was boyhood friends with Shemp and Moe Howard growing up in the same neighborhood if you listen to Moe and his family they sort of think Moe was the first stooge if you listen to shamp and his people he was the first stooge what it seems like in the early years there were various Stooges floating in and out of the act as one got married and had children he left for a little while another person would come by and replace him but but basically it was Ted Moe and Shem this is some combination they picked up Larry after seeing him in a show in Chicago enter Lewis Feinberg better known as Larry fine Larry was born on October the fifth nineteen - it was born in Philadelphia and the address was 606 South 3rd Street at that time my father had a jewelry store at that address and my parents live in an apartment above the store Larry was the first of four children he was followed by Morris Phillip who died of influenza in 1919 and the last his sister Lila jewelers use acid to test gold and so my father had a bottle with the acid in it I don't remember what kind of acid it was but Larry as a little boy was like curious like other little boys and he put his hand up and he pulled this acid down and had burned the right over here in his arm he had this very bad acid burn and he could not use his left he was left-handed so the doctors suggested learning to play the violin actually as an exercise to practice using the hand we didn't know what else to get a youngster of his age to do to use the hand that's how he began playing the violin music would influence the rest of Larry's life he was always an outgoing child he was always an outgoing person as he grew up he was active in school but more in the sense that he was a musician mary was studying to be a concert violinist he played the violin in the school orchestra even when he was in elementary school and he was an excellent violinist so most of his early years were spent studying the violin but he had a need to be funny this was within it was born in him I guess you'd say [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Applause] Larry also loved sports he tried boxing under the name kid Roth but his parents disapproved and he quickly returned to the theater he worked in dozens of small shows and eventually teamed with his sweetheart Mabel Haney and her sister Loretta for a singing and dancing act which they called the Haney sisters in fine but in 1925 Larry was working as an emcee at Fred Mann's rainbow gardens in Chicago when he received a once-in-a-lifetime offer Ted Healy was working in Chicago with Shem and Moe Howard who were his Stooges I don't recall which one of them I think it was Shemp who went to see the show and he came back and told Ted I saw someone that I think would fit into our act very well and he said yes I'd love that okay in that same year of 1925 Moe married Helen Schoenberger and shortly afterwards shant married Gertrude Frank whose nickname was Babe the four boys worked the vaudeville circuit until Ted and Shemp left to join a Broadway show called a night in Spain during this period Larry married Mabel Haney and eventually he and Moe rejoined Ted and Shemp in the Broadway show a night in Venice which became a hit this paved the way for better bookings and eventually an appearance at the prestigious Palace Theatre on Broadway a talent scout from Fox Studios hired them for rube Goldberg's features soup-to-nuts Healy was making over $1,000 a week while the Stooges salary remained at the usual $100 see these Stooges were my father's employees and they came as an act and he was the one that was paid and he paid them and this caused a lot of friction especially with Moe because he was a better businessman than probably any one of the other four were they didn't care for the pay inequity but in their eyes it was a shot at the big time unfortunately the film only received lukewarm reviews but the Stooges received high praise for their performance Fox studio heads noticed the great reviews for the boys and offer them a solo contract but when Ted caught wind of the deal he immediately went to the Fox brass and forced them to withdraw the offer in his eyes they were breaking up his act and after all they were his employees so when the Stooges learned that the deal was off they decided to strike out on their own three boys left Ted Healy because they were offered more money in the RKO of him circuit how much I don't know so he needed three replacements they couldn't use the name of Healy Stooges of the Three Stooges so they call themselves Howard fine and Howard Shambo and Larry now tez get an audition of Stooges now I never saw that type of comedy before you were hit each and they poked your eyes I never saw that and I never saw their act until I got an audition I want my audition and I went up to see - hello - Ted he gave me a bang in her head you never saw in your life and I got so mad I jumped on him bitters here grabbed his nose hit him back he says you're hired get the corner you know why he did that get the reaction from you that was a whole thing Ted had his new Stooges performing material that was identical to what Moe Larry and Shemp had done [Laughter] [Music] [Laughter] [Music] so he was good to work for when he was when he was not when he was not drinking boy he was he was a college graduate you know I went to college Ted did and he always was a good actor but he developed to be a great personality he was the closest thing if I was telling jokes but as far as personality the closest thing I ever seen to children see he was the first person that ever played comedy off of somebody else up to his point in time comedy was always a Charlie Chaplin or Harold Lloyd type thing where some guy was funny and he was the whole show and he played off somebody else with the Stooges when I first would Ted Healy I used to go to bed at night now saw hands I saw those sore hands and fingers like my sleep and so I saw it with rehearsals whacking and banging you know them you know the first joke I ever did with Ted Healy he's at what times I said one o'clock you wouldn't phone or some player than twelve you know Ted was touring with his new Stooges but Howard fine and Howard were creating comedy of their own supposedly Shem came up with the I poke during a card game in which he was Larry beat him or something and he was mad and he just hauled off and poked him right in the eye and mouth laught it was so funny that he fell out of his chair laughing and said that's gonna stay on the act and that was probably one of the few things that Stooges actually invented themselves all the other things the pie fights and the slapping and all that had been known for many years before even though Ted had his new Stooges the chemistry just wasn't the same and he continued to press the original Stooges into returning I think the reason he hired us for when the Three Stooges it was for revenge for the three guys to see that they can be replaced not saying we are as good which I don't think we were but he it was his mind that he knew we weren't as good and finally I think we went with said mrs. Ted we'd like to do our own I kiddin fire us and about two weeks later we were urging a walk down Broadway now she said with the three guys on a promise to avoid drinking Ted won the Stooges back but again change was waiting in the wings Shemp decided he wanted to leave the Healy act for good apparently his wife did not like Ted Healy and there's some various stories floating around it's a pranks that you know Healy pulled that champ and his wife didn't take too kindly to and eventually Shem just went out on his own he'd had a very successful career on his own but I don't think he made the kind of money that the Stooges ultimately made at Columbia anything he doesn't so DK should get the opportunity to play the character Nobby and Joe palooka pictures on the coast and it seemed like a great opportunity for him and he was reluctant about leaving he said well what are you going to do for a third man I said Shem don't worry about that and Katie was working with a band called nap in this band he was a comedy guest conductor and it got a big laugh so we got in touch with Paley and said give me a man two weeks notice to come on d1 join with us she had the long hair you know he used to push it back over these it is and Larry had the wild hair I had the bangs and he had brown wavy a mustache he says well your back all right where am I here I'll be back here in a half hour and he was and he wore a cap when he took the cap off he was a boy the cube and so babe was rechristened curly it took a while but when he hit his stride curly became the most loved and the best known stooge in 1933 Ted Healy and the boys signed a film contract with metro-goldwyn-mayer the boys had finally hit the big time [Music] [Applause] in there one year at MGM they appeared in six feature pictures with big stars like Clark Gable Joan Crawford even Laurel & Hardy and they also starred in a series of five - real short subjects some of which were written as wrap arounds for elaborate MGM dance numbers that were filmed but never used they even filmed two of their shorts in a special format they did a couple shorts that were in a experimental it's I think it's called a two stripped Technicolor and I'm not a real technical guy but it was a very early form of Technicolor that they were experimenting with and it's kind of lousy looking color but its color and it's from 1933 it's very unusual the feature films and short subjects were well received by the public but the Stooges relationship with Ted once again began to deteriorate their complaint was all it was two things one that he drank too much and two that he didn't give him enough money and I think the latter was really the problem I think primarily because a of his drinking and B because of the inequity in the in the pay scale the Stooges were getting a lot of the laughs but they weren't getting any of the money and I think they felt that they could be just as good without him and make a lot more money and they had to deal with a lot of his stuff where he was drunk a lot of the time and ultimately they just decided to go in there Ron so Ted stayed with MGM and the boys set out as a trio it was decided that Moe would handle the business affairs essentially stepping into the healey role off screen he was very much like what he was like on screen not that he was mean and nasty but he was clearly the leader of the group he was probably the one who made most of this financial decisions and arranged a lot of the bookings and things like that and decided what was best for the team it seemed like he was the one who had the biggest say Moe landed a one film deal at Columbia Pictures and if the results were favorable the studio would offer them a long-term contract so the boys co-starred with Marjorie white in a 20-minute rhyming short subject called woman haters as soon as they finished they began writing a treatment for another comedy called a symphony of punches which they presented to the studio heads who were so impressed that the boys were given a seven-year contract with yearly options a symphony of punches was retitled punched and became their second short but more importantly Howard fine and Howard finally received the billing that would stay with them forever they became the Three Stooges we did nine nine films a year and we had under the contract and we did those in 40 weeks we had 12 weeks off in which we did personal appearances the stood has evolved into very specific characters the whole Larry impersonation that I do is it's a product of watching the Stooges for so many years so many times having everything memorized perfectly and and one day there was just nothing left to like about them there was no more surprises you knew it so well so I began to watch it in a different way I would just turn on the TV and I would just watch one thing and one thing only I would pay no attention to Moe and Curly because that's where usually the attention was they get into a fight and Moe would do a number on curly meanwhile no one ever can say that they watched what Larry was doing all this time and I began to look at the faces he made and the things that he said like when Moe was beating on Curley you were just watching them but if you took the time to look at the other side of the screen you'd see you know and I began watching that and then I began paying attention to his voice and I realized that how much Larry was like the Keith Richards of the Stooges you know what I mean it's like without without Larry they would they wouldn't have had any kind of relationship it would just be here all the time and nothing like setting little blazes here and there like when Moe would climb a ladder and you knew he was gonna fall and break his ass but the one little thing where he would say before it all happened and you knew it was gonna happen ego be careful Moe you know and it just to me that was bedlam that was like the thing that lit the comic fuse you see he couldn't talk tough to me because that would be the wrong the wrong thing to do my mouth anyhow he did and pray was just that simple I was just picking up from strand and I said anything I said okay he could break me in half but there's only retaliation which every time a personal appearance in the theater every time I through the scene and he forget his rights for a moment you know resident gets turned up a lead staff then nothing knew what he was gonna do on one occasion he'd go down to the floor and spin around like a tap Curly's wild expressions and childlike mannerisms made him the favorite stooge but off camera he could be very private and shy he was born on October 22nd 1903 six years younger than his brother Moe my father thought a lot of Moe and in some ways Moe was maybe a surrogate father my father was the baby of the family there were five boys Moe is not the oldest but he was the oldest um you know of course he was older than my father and I feel that well Moe gave him the nickname big and there was a special bond that there was a special bond when Curley was 13 he accidentally shot himself in the ankle while hunting and he nearly bled to death it was Moe who rushed him to the hospital saving his life however the injury left Curley with a noticeable limp and this would trouble him throughout his career when Curley was with his brothers or his close friends he became the life of the party he sang danced and played instruments but if his gang wasn't around he felt uncomfortable and would simply turn inward when he became a star he started to overindulge himself I saw it a couple of clubs in New York and danced every dance and between dances he was drinking never stopped he lived the life of three men Charlie was always slipping money to me that was his way of treating me well he'd always slipped a quarter to me here could go buy something you know or he'd go out with me and buy me something he was always doing that to me he probably apparently had a very sad lifestyle and sort of a lonely person loved dogs every time he went on the road and came home he came home with a new dog but his personal life was somewhat sad and that he was remarried four times and never seemed to find the right girl it was nothing he just disappeared he was he was really shy he would blush when you'd talk to him I don't think he said one word to me out of script you know I mean when we weren't on camera he said he's dialog and whatever he had to say and do in the minute they said cut he was he disappeared although his private life was troubled his work with moyen larry was unparalleled he seemed to be the center of interest I mean at all they all work together but to me I think he was the most delightful okay the way he looked and just make it Mickey laughs but I think Moe and there Larry they were they just worked like team work I mean it was wasn't guesswork with them it was they practiced they knew exactly what they were doing and it came across they didn't do any writing usually they were you know they had writers that wrote wrote the scripts for them but there was a lot of leeway in the scripts not that not that everything they did was add lived but there might be a part where just would say Stooges do their thing and then a few minutes of mayhem would it so with you know hit you know with all this stuff so there was some room for them to maneuver and I'm sure they had such a working relationship with the producers and directors that if something just wasn't coming out right they changed it around to make it funny now raise your right hand now pressure left end here take off your head raise your right hand now put your left hand here please take off your hat raise your right hand now put your left hand here will you please take off your head raise your right hand now put your left hand here take off your raise your right hand would you get rid of that hat raise your right hand raise your right hand you solemnly swear to do that nothing to the truth huh do you solemnly swear to tell suits on to that other's truth are you trying to give me the double-talk do you solemnly swear to tell others about the truth why don't you answer him he's asking you if you swear but I know the stooges roughhouse style of comedy often left them open to injury mo was supposed to be a paperhanger I think at the time he was up on the one that the would you noted with planks and everything else and it's supposed to break in a certain way and he was supposed to fall in a certain way and a fellow the wrong wait he broke his ribs and said I forget which picture was in and they cut right there and he was out for about a week or so and then they brought it back in again and sure what when you saw the thing when he fell you could see the face that he made that he really cracked his ribs you you could see if you look for it according to lila Budnick Larry's face was calloused on the one side where most slapped him his left cheek was always Raw on cows because most lapping him with the right hand across his left cheek his little jaw was like the back of your heel that's how tough it was you could hit Lowrie across that you I don't think it would ever felt it he was that calloused from constantly being hit you know it was nothing but it constantly day after day day after day being here but he was used to it in December of 1937 Moe Larry and curly were on their way to an appearance in Boston when they received word that their old friend and partner Ted Healy had died there's a lot of controversy over the way he died he was supposedly involved in a barroom brawl the circumstances surrounding the bra and who were the participants in the bra are still subject to conjecture to this day but after this brawl he supposedly went back to his hotel room and was found dead there the next day and it was only maybe three four days after the birth of his first child so it was very sad set of circumstances Ted is not what they think he is what they write him he was a nice man on the only bad thing he was a dr. Jekyll mr. Hyde when he had 20 drinkers mr. Hyde it's too bad we lost a great great talent when he died at the age of 41 he was I don't care if he was a genius one for him would mean two Stooges and he would drag me on the stage forced me to sing on stage and he was I was never more than a foot away from him when we were on the road and of course when he died I was heartbroken because I loved him dearly they had a stormy relationship but they were boyhood friends with him you know they they I think they there was always a place in their hearts for him they liked them they were friends with him but he just you know went a little too far and you know there was they really had no choice but to leave him when they found out he passed away I think they were truly upset and they were you know they were shocked obviously number one but I think they really they were very upset because although they did have a stormy relationship they you know they had known for a long time they were friends with him I've thought about many times the fact that he's the one that started it all and without him there would have been no Stooges the fact that he was celebrating my birth which caused his death of course is highly unusual it's very strange Three Stooges comedies often incorporated contemporary events into the plots during World War two they were one of the first teams to parody Hitler in their two shorts you nasty spy and I'll never heil again curly Moe and Larry were Jewish and these films reflected a political statement as well as a personal one well he was quite upset about it naturally I mean anyone who cared about people was upset and then you have to remember we're Jewish and so the war in Germany and what went on in Germany before the war with Hitler and all was extremely upsetting to all of us I think when he was younger when he wasn't one of the Stooges and he was playing in vaudeville and the little acts and small towns he was given a hard time and smaller in some small towns where they put him in bathrooms to dress or they wouldn't let him you know go in and go outside and dressed on in the backyard or something or you know get that little Jew out of here but you listen you hear that today so it's not it doesn't surprise you the only difference is that 50 or 60 years ago you kept your mouth shut today you don't the stewed comedies were more popular than ever but Curly's health was beginning to deteriorate curly hadn't been well none of us realized just what was wrong with him we know now that he'd had a couple of slight strokes and three little pirates was some time after he'd had those strokes but he from time to time he became almost his old self and in three little Pirates he was in my opinion excellent he he had recovered we had high hopes that he would be perfectly all right but as we now know he wasn't and on the next picture he folded up P he had a stroke that that disabled him the stress of Curly's personal life began to take an obvious toll he had been married four times drank too much suffered from high blood pressure and was rapidly gaining weight in May of 1946 Curly's hard-living caught up with him and he suffered a paralyzing stroke on the set of half-wits holiday and he was forced to retire from the act Moe hoped that after some rest Curley would be able to return so in the meantime he convinced his older brother Shemp to rejoin the group well he fit right into the act because he had been the original third stooge so there was no problem in that sense from this from the general public standpoint I know today people think that he was a weak replacement for Curley but those are the people that don't know he was the original stooge I think a lot of people also think shrimp was trying to imitate Curley and he was really not in any way he just did his own thing which was nothing really like what Curley did and I think the people that really don't know the history of it are the ones that really don't like Shemp all that much the real the real fans understand the champ was perhaps the leader of the Stooges at the beginning and when he came back to replace Curley he fit in perfectly with the boys Columbia was hesitant to use Shemp because of his close resemblance to moe but ultimately the Stooges won the point shemp's experience made him the obvious choice he was in a hundred or more films on his own between 33 34 and 46 during that 13-year period he was probably a 90 or 100 films on his own he had his own series of which he was the star at Columbia where there were seven us it was the Shemp Howard series and you know there were he was the head stooge and the other people were the knuckleheads Shemp Howard had been born Samuel Horowitz on March 17th 1895 according to Moe their mother had a very thick accent and when she called out for her son Sam it came out sounding like Shem when his brothers took to calling him Shemp the name stuck Shem was the most darling man I've ever known he also was kind to me as a child because you have to remember the original group was Larry Moe and Shemp he knocked me out when he was serious that's when he was scared to death of his own shadow walk he's always looking back there's anybody following him and when are you going to tell room he'd locked the doors and put chairs by it's nobody get it lock the windows always waking up see if anybody's there you know he's scared okay that's why he's always walking around like way to tell he was that way you know that was his character off-camera he was a warm loving laid-back family man and he preferred to spend his time playing with his son mortar watching the fights but on screen he had a character that was wild and unpredictable [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] why this time I'll focus no I'm sorry no oh thank nothing nothing oh gee thanks you're welcome in 1947 curly was still partially paralyzed but feeling better he made a small cameo appearance with a full head of hair in the short hold that lion it was the only time that the three Howard brothers appeared on screen together but according to Larry Curly was set to make another appearance in the 1949 short malice in the palace the scene was shot but wasn't used in the final print his health was still fragile but during this time curly finally found what he was looking for on July 31st 1947 he married a beautiful young woman named Valerie Newman they had a baby girl named Janie and for the first time in his life curly was truly content they got married in 1947 and he died in 1952 they had a good marriage and they seemed to have a lot of good times together unfortunately into the marriage that he got and you know strokes and became sick after I was born she would want him at home as much as possible but he wasn't from my viewpoint or what my mother expressed at least in parts of the marriage and infinite or anything like this he at this time in his life enjoyed a family and seemed to find our certain peace and contentment and he found this niche of being a family man which is probably what he wasn't when it was an earlier period in his life I don't remember stories but I remember bottom lines and what my father meant to my mother and to me that what she expressed was that he was deeper than a comedy clown that not only was he a genius in this room but he had a lot more depth than a lot of people realized then he took his job seriously he loved an audience but he worked at making it look effortless I think he found something he loved and he felt good about doing it and he found something that brought him happiness one of the things that my mother told me was he told her I hope Janie in life does what makes her happy because I have found what makes me happy and that is the most important thing in the world to do what makes you happy I think the worst part is that he didn't live long enough that I could have known him as an adult and asked the questions that I would like to know as an adult about how he felt about different things but it feels good and I'm very proud of my heritage and I think the older you get the more family means to you Curley had several more strokes and on January 18th 1952 curly Howard brother father and stooge died although distraught over Curly's passing Moe Larry and Shemp continued to make two-reel comedies they even found time for live television I gotta get rid of these executive [Applause] it's a sandbag that's dangerous you know that that that could kill someone Oh may I be forgiven for the thought which is running right Oh gentlemen yeah I mean now that you hear from the Yeats and all would you do something for my audience would you sing holy to you doing that oh yeah [Music] [Music] boy good boy let's just say I'm here they're right around the inkwell here just like that now wait a minute now you don't have to strike it out would you play some executive music please [Music] [Music] and you live buddy you are I wanna be [Music] the moon was shining down no don't dare tell the friendship or a yellow jewel it be nothing like that [Music] [Applause] they may like eerie when you call me dearie was that [Music] yellow keepin the rosary [Music] [Applause] when [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] for many years they were the top-grossing short subject series in Hollywood and they won you know the Laurel Awards and these other awards every year that were given by the theater owners to the top grossing film so they brought in a lot of money for Columbia over the years unfortunately the major studios were slowly beginning to phase out short subjects less time and effort went into the scripts and production and as a result the end product was sometimes inferior Moe was hoping he could get Columbia to put the Stooges into another feature picture but before anything could be planned fate struck another crushing blow on November 23rd 1955 Shemp was coming home from an evening at the fights the other guys in the car started smelling some burning and Jim's head had slumped down on his chest and the cigar was burning his lapel or something they looked back and you know he was dead Shemp had a massive heart attack and died instantly Moe was grief-stricken he had lost two of his brothers in a three year period and seriously considered disbanding the act but both he and Larry were still under contract to Columbia they made four more shorts with Joe Palmer doubling for Shemp and by shooting him from the rear and having him hunched over because he was a little too tall they were sort of able to pull it off but they did what they had to do I like I said they were professionals they were from the show must go on school and Moe thought about continuing the act as the two Stooges but studio heads dismissed the idea he had to find another third stooge Joe Besser was born on August 12th 1907 he was popular in his own right having worked with stars like Olson and Johnson and Abbott and Costello and even had his own series of films at Columbia so Moe approached him and he agreed to be a stooge I enjoyed every minute of it with him in fact I say how wonderful they were I never liked to be hit with anything and Larry used to say to me don't worry Joe I'll take it now that's a guy they were during 56 and 57 he made 16 shorts with the Stooges which were then shown during the 5758 season in fact one of them I think even went into 59 but at that point Columbia decided that they were going to close their shorts department after 24 year run the students were sort of out of work a lot of people don't know that even though they were successful with their movie career they never made any money in all the years that they worked at Columbia Studios they never got a raise from day one until the last day that they worked they made the same salary supposedly they were just denied entrance to the lot I mean they came back to pick some things up and he told him you know you don't have a contract here get out of here they didn't have any kind of farewell party for them you know they were denied access to the parking lot and everything which is sort of sad after a 24 year association very heartless but they decided well we'll go on tour because that's what the way they had made all their money in the past anyway I was going on tour but Bester's wife was ill and he didn't want to travel around the country leave her so they were forced to come up with somebody else and they came up with Joe DeRita they tried him out and he worked out he became curly Joe sort of cuz he looked like curly said his name was Joe so I guess they figured what out we already had curl you already had Joe will call you curly Joe and the name stuck Joe DeRita was born Joseph Wardell on July 12th 1909 in Philadelphia like Joe Besser dorita had been a star in vaudeville and burlesque so he was prepared for the rigors of touring they spent how to 12 16 20 weeks a year on the road doing personal appearance to us and he would do three four or five shows a day and that's really where they made most of their money they did an act that hadn't changed in 35 or 40 years I knew every line of the show Joe was a very charitable person one tell you something about Joe Larry had a big Lincoln see the corporation paid for their cars you know Larry had a big Lincoln mode like the sports car he died had a Porsche and Joe would get maybe a Dodge or a Chevy station wagon and everybody would have wonder why and I knew why he told me why they used to trade it in every two years and he would buy the station wagon back he had a sister in Baltimore and she wasn't out of any means and he would buy the station wagon back from the trade-in because he took care of that station wagon I mean took care of it and gave it to his sister every two years that's the kind of person joke I know he took care of his mother very charitable man very charitable in fact to give you ideas a Joe they would send me four different things for food or something I'd say no I'm going out to get a sandwich anybody want anything this won't say yes this one say some and Joe would say write it down eight I'll pay at the end of the week because Joe took care of the checks and everything at the end of the week whatever I spent he say how much it's been I said thirty six dollars and ten cents added all itemized he said it can't be that much maintenance it's got to be more than that he says that includes a tip to give the people you know when you buy them I think yeah Joe was everything included Nate it can't be $36 you must be mistaken for out to write something down write out a check for $50 here's $50 in 1958 Columbia Pictures released 78 of the old Curley to readers to television and within one year's time their popularity soared to new heights none of them were really aware of it when they came to Pittsburgh and their last you know the the reoccurrence of the popularity after television they got off the train because they came by train and at that time I think it was 1959 and they saw all these people at the station they wondered who the VIP was on the train not realizing the crowds were for them they had absolutely no idea of how popular they were Joe DeRita brought his own comic style to the act obviously he had big shoes to fill but he was a veteran performer - it wasn't like he was just a nobody he wasn't perhaps as well-known as Joe Besser was at the time investor came in most everything was discussed with larium oh where they reduced to take something to do something or anything not one person made the decision then after Joe joined him Joe was like a junior partner let's put it that way and Larry after a couple years said that's Moe this I know let's make him an even partner I don't know what the partnership was at at that time maybe it was 40 40 40 and 20 so Moe says why we've been so we've been for years it's well you know why should he get far today the good amount though Larry says look between twenty and thirty three percent it's not that much difference Moe and you're making them feel like a like he's part of us like us he feels like he's he's a he's a nothing he's a drag on let's make him feel and that's what they did I made him an even partner Larry forced a normo because I told you Moe was strictly that I didn't say chief he was drifting outside of their working relationship it was not really a close friendship because they spend so much time together in their working relationship that they each went their separate ways with their families they got together on big occasions but they each had their own families and they didn't spend that much time at home so that when they were at home they wanted to spend as much time as they could with their families so they did not socialize on a day-to-day basis Joe DeRita was a very funny guy nobody realizes a sense of humor and Joe would like once in a while say to me hey Nate it's very quiet let's let's jazz up the place I said what do you want to do Joe and Joe and I were very friendly he said let's play cards together he says we'll play gin you make some dumb moves and I'll make some dumb moves you'll see what'll happen so I'm playing Janet Larry's looking over my shoulder and I'll make a dumb move oh what a stupid move you made you know I did it purposely and then what would go over to Joe's pan and look at his Joe do you know how to play gin really not I play I don't think you how to play gin so I would say let me take your hand I'll show you how to play and I go look at him Moe would take Joe's hand and then the two of them would start fighting each other it would be plenty playing for pennies 1 2 & 3 not growing of gin or anything like that and they would argue like hell Joe and I would say the other room and laugh like hell he says we started something the boys were back on top and the studio that had fired them in ninth 57 wanted them back this time for a starring feature picture called have rocket will travel extra scientist establish visual communication with rocket in flight history is being made on the proving the National Space Foundation as scientists prepare for the ultimate total triumph over space within a matter of moments you will for the first time see the interior of a space rocket in flight here's the countdown five four three two one electronic science enable us to see the interior of the rocket Oh No what's this oh my not BAM yes is the Three Stooges who are making history alright but laughs history in their first full-length feature motion picture have rocket will travel try to contact earth [Music] [Applause] no change in their course they can't control it the ships on an automatic course to the planet Venus [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] ashay you heard about the Sputnik and nothing well a movie that's a three student hired on a three-stage rocket we're landing for the first time the world's craziest comedians are really out of this world are admitted we did it rocket will travel in space [Applause] you are expected I'm talking out in Mobile I am waiting I am Larry I am oh now I am curly Joe take us to your leader [Applause] [Music] image of a saint a Harley look pretty good for robots they made more real ugly didn't they Larry I don't know I think he's uglier in person don't miss this hilarious mixture of muscles and mirth as the three stooges blast off in the biggest comedy bonanza in years [Music] the Stooges did several more features between 1960 and 1969 and their last film for Columbia was the outlaws is coming.the outlaws is coming what a wonderful experience by I think we did that in 1964-65 I'm not sure our first meeting at the Columbia ranch one morning quite early and I went into makeup and got on my Western duds and came out in the street and I saw Larry fine sitting in a chair and I think his wife was yelling at him about something and then actually the guys were very serious off-camera they're demeanors they were really very serious artists in their own way and I was impressed with quiet they were in respect to their screen persona I thought mo basically in talking to him here and there while we were filming was was a kind man and a serious almost professora in a way Larry was a warm sort of person and always you know had a word for somebody and would always spend time Joe DeRita was curly at that time and he he was more gregarious and I think outgoing and communicative I enjoyed all of them but I suppose I spent more time talking with Jill because he seemed to want to talk a little more than the others there were a number of silly bizarre wacko things that happened while we were filming the outlaws is coming.the guest villains we had a disc jockeys from all around the country and Norman more the Sturgis figured that that would help promote the movie if they put the disc jockeys in the picture as villains gave Rawls and so you know you can imagine with maybe 20 radio jocks all competing for attention it looks kind of silly and fun and I think the funniest little incident with the picture that I remember the main thrust of the plot was that we were trying to save the Buffalo I was the young it lawyer from Boston and I had the same interests and that's how we got together but anyway so we spent the movie trying to save the Buffalo the rap party at the end of the movie Moe says okay everyone's invited to my place in bel-air for a buffalo barbeque and that sort of typifies these three restless nights I never really spent much time with them away from the set people don't do that often in Hollywood you know you're doing a series and you spend 18 hours a day with people and you just kind of want to get away from him I think it's probably more healthful that way I wanted to go home with the Stooges every night but they wouldn't let me in 1969 Moe Larry and curly Joe started work on a self-produced comedy travelogue series called kook store during the last few days of filming the pilot Larry suffered a major stroke which forced him to retire they were able to patch together a one-hour version of the pilot which nothing ever happened with but that was really the end of the Stooges as we know it and once he was able to really handle himself he was able to speak pretty well again because in the beginning he could not talk he decided he wanted to go live at the Screen Actors guild country house and he applied to go into that that's in Woodland Hills two magnificent place and he moved into that and he lived there for the last six years of his life there were a lot of other people that were in the motion picture home too that you know he got friendly with and he'd befriended other people in Hollywood Ed Asner the guy from The Mary Tyler Moore Show and a couple other people Ted Knight also from that show I know they played shuffleboard together and stuff like that it was obvious that Larry couldn't continue so Moe and Curly Joe contacted their old friend character actor amyl Sitka to assume the role of the middle stooge they had played with the idea in Sitka was supposedly even hired and signed signed sealed and delivered to work on a picture but you know things fell through and that group that would have been mo Sitka as the Larry Rolle and Joe DeRita has the third stooge never materialized as a film most started to work as a solo he gave interviews lectured at colleges and made dozens of TV appearances and even though Larry was still partially paralyzed he too was able to appear on local talk shows he seemed to be doing well when he suffered a second stroke which further slurred his speech two months later he had a massive stroke which put him in a coma Larry died two weeks later on January 24th 1975 Moe was heartbroken over the news of his old friends passing but continued to work even though he developed lung cancer they were trying to work on a film as late as 74 with Sitka again but apparently Sitka kept getting a call you know we're gonna film next week we're gonna film next week we're gonna film next week and then Moe died and that was the end of it Moe died May 4th 1975 just four months after Larry Moe's passing brought an end to the world's longest-running comedy act Joe Besser continued to work in TV and films and take care of his wife Ernie until his death on March 1st 1988 Joe DeRita retired from show business and lived happily in North Hollywood with his wife Jean until he passed away on July 3rd 1993 the Stooges are gone but their legacy of comic mayhem will make a laughs for generations to me the Stooges weren't based on any kind of reality as a kid I even knew that I liked seeing people get hit in the head with hammers but I've also been able to create original characters based on the Larry voice like for cartoons like Ren & Stimpy where Stimpy the cat is his voice is very much based on Larry fine except it's all jazzed up I think the Stooges will be popular long after we're all going because they are poking fun at life you know there are some shows that have that effect making people laugh and smile and get each other either would you play some executive music please [Music] me water [Music] [Music] at first me and you buddy you are [Music] the moon shining down no don't dare time-dependency boy yo dude it be nothing like that [Music] [Applause] well

Channel: Curly's Grandson

Views: 412,953

Rating: 4.8733921 out of 5

Keywords: Three Stooges, biography, curly, moe, larry, 3 stooges, the three stooges, three stooges full episodes, shemp, larry fine, curly howard, shemp howard, curly g, curly shuffle, abbott and costello meet frankenstein, 3 stooges bangla, the 3 stooges, বাংলা ফানি ভিডিও, curley, থ্রি স্টুজেস বাংলা, three stooges bangla funny dubbing, A&E, biography channel, Los Tres Chiflados

Id: vx9trbsfkS8

Length: 64min 36sec (3876 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 20 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/AndyPagana]

There's some really rare stuff in there and it's neat hear Larry's sister talk about him!

[u/johnszott]

Thanks for sharing! One of the best Biio’s I’ve seen so far. Larry’s sister talks good about basically all of them,especially curly taking care of her.