The Three Stooges | ||||||||||||||||||||
| A Stooge by Any Other Name | ||||||||||||||||||||
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The Beginning of the Three Stooges as a comedy team is as wild and bizarre as any one of the more than 200 films that they made--films that touched, or at least poked, the lives of millions. Initially, the Stooges were exactly what their name implies: stooges, the butt of jokes for a well-known comedian named Ted Healy. Early in the 1930's they decided to break with Healy---a momentous decision on their part, considering that they had worked with him for years onstage and in short movies at the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) studio in Hollywood. The Stooges--Moe Howard, Larry Fine, and Curly Howard--made the break becaues they felt ready to go out on their own. But They were anxious. They had always been the second banana and had never starred in their own major show or movie. Ted Healy had connections, fame and respect; but he also had many personal problems, and the Stooges did all they could with him until it was time to break away. It was 1934, and the United States was still diip within the Great Depression. People were hungry and jobs were scarce, but Hollywood was thriving. No matter how desperate people were, they never hesitated to throw down a nickel to watch their favorite movie heroes every Saturday afternoon. Poverty was on every corner, but up on the moive screen there was a funny, exciting, romantic world, filled with beautiful people and outrageous comedians, going on thrilling adventures all over the globe. There were so many weighty problems in the real world. Moe, Larry, and Curly wanted to make people laugh and, perhaps, help them forget their worries for a while. | |||||||||||||||||||
| Shemp Howard (The Best Stooge) | ||||||||||||||||||||
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Shemp Howard, his hair slicked down over loving-cup ears, became one of the most famous comedy stooges in the history of stage and screen. The third eldest brother of Moe Howard, the team leader. Shemp was born Samuel Horwitz in Brooklyn. New York, on March 17,1895 (not 1900 as listed in studio biographies). Moe once recalled how his brother acquired the name Shemp. "Shemp was given the Hebrew name Schmool, after his mother's grandfather. Schmool was Anglicized to Samuel and then shortened to Sam. When his mother, with her broad European accent, would call him, the name 'Sam' came out 'Sams' and if you weren't listening carefully it could sound like Shemp....which it did! So from the time he was seven that's what his family called him. It was Shemp in school and in the world of the theatre. In later years, no one knew it was anything else." Shemp was a very mischievious child, and Moe recalled his favorite pastime was stuffing everything from wooden stockings to sweaters down the hallway toilet. "I remember one time when Shemp tore the pages out of our brother Irving's history book and jammed them into the toilet in our home in Bensonhurst," Moe chuckled as he recalled, "Because of this he had to run the family gauntlet: a smack from Mother, a belt across the head from Dad, a shove from Irving and a kick in the fanny from me." When Shemp reached the age of thirteen, he was a completely different person and had outgrown most of his mischief-making. Moe remembers that friends of the family had always predicted that Shemp was going to be an actor or a great comedian. But Shemp thought otherwise and never seriously entertained the idea of entering show business. Moe, on the other hand, worked like a demon at it, planned his future, and eventually made it to the footlights before his brother. Shemp graduated from P.S. 163 in Brooklyn, the same grammar school his brother Moe attended, and got as far as starting New Utrecht High School. Since he and Moe failed to finish school, thier parents, Jennie and Solomon Horwitz, urged them to go to a trade school. Late in 1911. Moe and Shemp enrolled at the Baron DeHirsch Trade School to New York, where Shemp took up plumbing and Moe studied to be an electrician. While Moe learned the definition of an ampere, an ohm, and a volt, Shemp learned the basics of threading and cutting pipe. Neither of the boys ever finished these courses but instead put their lessons into practice in a rare act of mischief. In recalling his school days, Moe has said that Shemp was not athletically inclined and as a student he was nil. He tried to pay attention In class but seemed unable to concentrate. Jack and Irving tried to help him with schoolwork, but Shemp was already playing the comedian. He'd laugh everything off with a cute remark, draw funny drawings, or make faces at the other students to make them laugh and get them in trouble along with himself. Shemp craved attention. Moe also recalled that Shemp was industrious for his age. The two brothers worked together at many different neighborhood jobs. First, they tried the plumbing business. But when Shemp burned his hand on hot solder he quit. The Howards next tried setting up pins in a local bowling alley, then delivering newspapersfor the Brooklyn Eagle. This continued until, finally, Shemp realized there was nothing left for them but the theatre. | |||||||||||||||||||
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