The Three Stooges are the most enduring comedy team of the century. Every generation of kids since the 1930s has been weaned on the eye poke, the eye-poke block, the whirling fist to the top of the head.
The Three Stooges began as a vaudeville act in the 1920s, known as Ted Healy and His Stooges. Samuel Horwitz ("Shemp Howard") was in this original lineup along with his brother Harry Moses Horwitz ("Moe Howard") and Philadelphia-born Louis Feinberg ("Larry Fine"), but Shemp left the group and was replaced by a third brother,Jerome Horwitz ("Curly Howard") in 1932. Healy subsequently went on his own, and Columbia Pictures picked up the Stooges. Shemp rejoined the group after Curly suffered a stroke in 1946, and he served as third Stooge until his death in 1955. He was replaced by Joe Besser, who was in turn replaced by Joe DeRita ("Curly Joe").
There were 190 short-subject films with Columbia from 1934 to 1959, and the trio subsequently appeared in several feature-length films, including The Three Stooges Meet Hercules. They also appeared frequently on television. In 1958, the Columbia shorts were released to TV, and the Stooges became popular with new generations. DeRita, the last living Stooge, died in 1993.
Since the Stooges' heirs were granted joint-licensing rights after a 1994 lawsuit, there has been an explosion of Stooge merchandising, including rereleased film footage, books, Three Stooges beer, Three Stooges lottery tickets, a cookbook and lunch pails. During the early '90s, Stooges films appeared regularly on the Family Channel. Columbia TriStar and Comedy IX Productions recently made digitally remastered versions of Three Stooges shorts available for syndication and cable television.
What made the Stooges so popular? For one, they helped us get in touch with the inner Stooge that exists in all of us. They represented the common man and poked fun at rich, snooty and pretentious people and professions - a popular theme during the Depression. The Stooges got away with things most of us would love to do but can't. Wouldn't you love to give a triple face slap to some "lame-brain" at the local gym, or twist the nose of a "wise guy" coworker with a pair of pliers?
The Stooges lampooned all walks of life, including doctors ("Calling Dr. Howard, Dr. Fine, Dr. Howard"), lawyers (in one episode, they portray the law firm of Dewey, Cheatum & Howe), dentists (who needs Novocaine when you can use a hammer and chisel?), radio personalities ("Quiet, numskulls, I'm broadcasting"), and the horse-racing industry ("She was bred in old Kentucky, but she's just a crumb down here"). They were among the first film performers to portray Adolf Hitler in a negative light, when it was controversial to do so.
Whenever I have to make a speech or public appearance, I don't relax myself by picturing the audience in their underwear. I just think of Curly pretending to be a college professor and singing the "B-a Bay B-e Bee B-i Bicki B-i" song. When I see Niagara Falls on television, I think of water gushing from the television when the boys acted as plumbers in a rich mansion. Whenever I hear the phrase, "The sword of Damocles is hanging over your head," I think of Moe sweating profusely as a blueberry pie dangles over his head during one of the classic pie fights.
The Stooges weren't for everyone. They never caught on big with women, the snooty hoi polloi and other assorted knuckleheads who took themselves too seriously and frowned upon the Stooges' slapstick, physical comedy. The Stooges also were unappreciated for years by serious film connoisseurs. But noted film critic Leonard Maltin included them in his book The Great Movie Comedians.
"Snobbism has excluded them from most 'respectable' surveys of screen comedy, but the time has come for at least some rudimentary recognition," says Maltin. "The Three Stooges lasted for more than 40 years because they were funny."
The Three Stooges never won any Oscars. They'll never be confused with comedic groundbreakers like Charlie Chaplin or Woody Allen. Yet, in their own simple way, they were geniuses.
Larry Atkins is a lawyer and writer who lives in Philadelphia.
