Page  Classic Images March 2012 Moe Howard and His Stooges “The Most Gentle and Kind Man I Have Ever Met” By Nick Thomas

It’s been over 75 years since ing the windup of a career that “Raised by the Stars: Interviews with for a solo career, Moe inherited the first slapped and produced almost 200 movie shorts 29 Children of Actors.” role of head Stooge in 1934, and for poked their way to Hollywood fame. between 1934 and 1959, a whole In addition, we’ll also hear from the next three decades was the self- Although their appeal waned dur- new generation became fans in the actors who recall working with Moe appointed, short-tempered boss of late 1950s when their films aired and the Stooges. the team. across the nation on daytime TV shows for kids. Then, with a wave of One constant throughout the long Off camera, Moe was nothing Stoogemania sweeping the nation, film career of the Three Stooges was like his volatile on-screen character, the boys even broke out of the movie Moe Howard (1897-1975) who first according to those who worked with shorts ghetto and began starring in appeared as a Stooge-type character him. He was a devoted husband of their own feature films. in (1930). With his almost 50 years to his wife, Helen, brothers, Curly or Shemp Howard and loving father to children, Paul , , (or their later replacements, Joe and Joan. Both have early memories , and Laurel & Hardy “Joe” Besser and Joe “Curly-Joe” of first seeing their dad perform on were some of the more skilled prac- DeRita), as well as Stooge regular, stage. “I can recall going to see the titioners of the art of film . , Moe would go on to Stooges’ early films, but I preferred For the sheer madcap mayhem of appear in 190 shorts for which the the live performances which were personal injury comedy, however, Stooges are best known. Moe and very exciting for me,” Joan Howard The Three Stooges were in a class Larry later teamed up with Curly-Joe told me. “I have vivid memories by themselves. In this article we for six feature films from 1959-1965. of seeing my father on stage, when will hear from the children of head However, the original leader of the I was around eight, while he was Doing promotional work, the Stooges pose with the famous restaurant Big Boy. Stooge, Moe Howard, in interviews gang was comedian Ted doing live shows for vaudeville. He (image courtesy of Nick Thomas) originally printed in my new book, Healy, who dealt out the punishment would sit me in the front row, and to the others. When Healy departed there was a lot of slapping and hit-

At Hollywood Wax Museum with wax figures of The Three Stooges. Far left is ; far right is Joan Howard; and to her left is her son, Jeffrey Scott. (photo courtesy of Joan Howard) Curly, Larry and Moe gang up on Nita Bieber in Rhythm and Weep (photo provided by Nita Bieber) www.classicimages.com Page  ting going on. What really stood any of them behave like their screen over his check book and muttering to normal job for a typical father. It’s out in my mind was that when he characters around our home,” said himself. He would worry about the hard to explain, but I guess I was would slap Curly on the face, saliva Joan. “I like to tell people that we ate act and whether or not their contract just wired that way for some reason. would fly out of his mouth. After the our pies, we didn’t throw them!” with Columbia would be renewed I also worried about whether kids show, Curly would complain: ‘Hit each year. Curly and Larry didn’t came over to our house to see me me harder so they can hear it in the In fact, Moe was a very pro- have any interest in that aspect of or to meet my famous father. So I back row!’” tective father and quite a worrier. their careers, so my dad was a wor- was just insecure on that level. It “When I started to walk, he would rier for all three of them.” lasted from when I was a little kid Paul Howard also clearly remem- tape soft sponges to all the sharp in elementary school until I was in bers seeing the Stooges perform, furniture corners in the rooms to As a young girl, Joan says she my 20s when I eventually realized it even though he was only around keep me from hitting my head if I was reluctant to tell her friends about was a rather non-productive attitude. three or four at the time. “I was in fell,” Paul recalled. “Later, when I her dad’s profession. “When I was a Now, I celebrate my family connec- the front of the theater, sitting on was about four years old and before kid, girls didn’t really like that kind tion to The Three Stooges. I go to my mother’s lap looking up on the I had learned to swim, he built a of at all, so I was fan club meetings, and take along stage, and a voice introduced them: swimming pool at our house. In a actually a little hesitant about tell- my family films and slides and tell ‘Ladies and gentlemen – The Three corner of the shallow end he built a ing my friends what my father did stories about growing up with Moe, Stooges!’ Then the music began, six-foot-by-four-foot slatted, wood- because I knew what their reaction and my father entered on one side en ‘crib’ which was immersed in would be. They would say things of the stage and Curly came in about six inches of water. I could like, ‘Oh, it’s silly and stupid’ or ‘I from the other side with a cigar in splash around in it, on a hot summer don’t like that kind of comedy.’ I his mouth. I don’t remember where day, and Dad could turn his back never lied about what my dad did, I Larry was. They began to kind of and weed in his gardens without would just be evasive.” dance together. Then ‘Pow!’– they worrying about me drowning. He smashed right into each other’s bel- was a very sensible and cautious Her brother, however, was not lies and faces. At the same time, a person in real life, not at all like his so subtle. “If anybody asked me big bass drum produced the sound crazy, angry screen character. But he what my father did for a living, I’d say he was a meter reader for the effect as they ricocheted off each was impatient and did worry a lot. Ruth Godfrey (left) and Gloria Patrice other and I noticed Curly’s cigar was I would see him sitting at his desk Pacific Gas and Electric Company!” with Nita Bieber (right) from Rhythm and just flattened against his face. To a at home in the early evening going Paul admitted. “To me, that was a Weep (photo courtesy of Nita Bieber). four-year-old, it was startling to see my father do such a wacky routine in front of an audience.” One might imagine that, while growing up, Paul and Joan had to hide hammers, household tools, and cream pies when their father and uncles gathered for family events, but that wasn’t the case. “I didn’t see

Publicity shot of Moe. A long time smok- er, Moe would die from lung cancer. (photo provided by Nick Thomas) Stooges are everywhere at the Stoogeum in Ambler, . (Photo provided by Gary Lassin) Page  Classic Images March 2012 Shemp, Curly, and Larry. The fans 85-seat theater and was the brain- museum. The other 99.99 percent iron. It’s a silhouette of the Stooges really appreciate it and I’m thrilled child of Stooges devotee and col- were purchased by me over the past doing their ‘stuff’ and has been on when I see them enjoying it.” lector, Gary Lassin, and opened in 30 years. Most of the items that I my house for about 50 years. It shows 2004. “I used my own money to obtained from family members were my dad poking Curly and Larry, and One venue where Paul Howard get it going,” said Lassin, who is purchased. The best one donated to my mother had it made for Dad back has shared memories of his family the current president of the 2,500 me was a letter handwritten by Moe in the ‘30s or ‘40s.” To this, Paul is the Stoogeum, a sacred destina- member-strong Three Stooges Fan to his six-year-old daughter, Joan. added, “I, personally, have no props. tion for devoted Stooges followers. Club and who actually married a She saved it since the mid- and However, my dad had a fondness for Located in Ambler, Pennsylvania, relative of Larry’s in 1981. “Only a gave it to me a few years ago at one collecting trinkets that conformed to about 20 miles north of , handful of items were donated to the of our fan get-togethers.” a frog theme. Drawings, a magnifier, the three-floor museum features an paper weights, ceramics, etc., I still Lassin says hardcore Stooges have a few of these frog icons.” fans/collectors will enjoy seeing other one-of-kind personal items While the Stooges use of props at the Stoogeum, including Larry’s to inflict violence upon each other driver’s license and studio ID card, may seem dated now, the real tal- which includes his thumbprints. He ent of The Three Stooges was their also has Shemp’s draft card, Joe exquisite comic timing and athletic Besser’s passport, as well as rare skills, which they transformed into posters, toys and games amongst a kind of ballet. This was the thousands of items. “My favor- appreciated by actress Joan Freeman, ite is Shemp’s discharge from the who remembers the boys brutalizing Army,” said Lassin. “It’s the oldest each other vividly on the set of the known Stooges-related document, 1963 , The Three Stooges from 1918, and it reveals that Shemp Go Around the World in a Daze. suffered from ‘nocturnal enuresis,’ After appearing in only 14 films (and the medical term for bedwetting. many more TV appearances), Joan It’s signed by Shemp using his real gave up acting in the 1990s. With name, Samuel Horwitz. There are her husband, Bruce Kessler who was only a handful of other Samuel a respected movie and TV direc- Horwitz signatures known.” tor, the couple took to the high seas and now spend much of their time Undoubtedly, many collectors on their 64-foot long-range trawler, Joan Freeman with Moe and Curly-Joe in The Three Stooges Go Around the World in would love to add Three Stooges “The Spirit of Zopilote.” In fact, a Daze. (photo provided by Nick Thomas) film props to their collections, Joan and Bruce were off the New such as the seemingly endless sup- Jersey coast, heading up to Maine ply of hammers and wrenches Moe for the summer, when I tracked them wielded to keep the others in line. down. But locating and identifying such items as authentic Stooges “weap- “I remember when I first saw ons” is nearly impossible, according Moe slap one of the others in the to Lassin. “The hammers and tools face, I just started to laugh,” said were generic props made of rubber, Joan by satellite phone. “So did Jay and not specifically made and used Sheffield, who played my boyfriend just for the Stooges films,” he says. (Phileas Fogg III). We giggled so “There’s no way to really document much, that we couldn’t get through whether a particular rubber hammer the scene and I actually felt embar- was actually used by the Stooges. So rassed because I didn’t think of it as the Stoogeum does not collect items being professional. But they were of this nature.” all very nice about it. The guys got along well together, and were just As it turns out, neither of Moe’s so good at slapstick comedy. They children have many movie props made it look so real and were really either. “The only thing I have is a like stuntmen in that respect.” clapper board that was used on one of the films,” said Joan. “Although Joan says she is amazed that fans it’s not from a film, one interesting still contact her about the film. “I was piece I have is a weather vane of The 22 years old at the time, and now I’m Three Stooges Meet Hercules card. (photo provided by Nick Thomas) Three Stooges made out of wrought 69. I still get a lot of requests to sign www.classicimages.com Page  Three Stooges photos. I actually saw honestly, I have no stories or memo- H.G. Wells story, “The Island of career was spent mostly as a dancer, a DVD of the film recently, and it ries to share,” she told me rather Dr. Moreau.” When first released, and she appeared in several feature brought back a lot of memories. But bluntly. “It’s awful, I know, but it the film began with an announce- films throughout the and ‘50s there were some parts I just don’t was just another job.” I pressed her ment to theater audiences that a bell including the 1946 short, Rhythm even remember doing. For instance, again: “Surely, you would recall would ring to warn them just before and Weep, which was one of the last there’s a scene at the end where we getting hit in the face with a pie on a “shocking” scene (a rather mild to feature Curly. “It was the only get drenched with water, but I have a Three Stooges film?” After all, image of a surgical knife cutting time I worked with the Stooges, but no recollection of that at all, which I thought, it could be considered into flesh) appeared on screen. Quite I was under contract to Columbia seems strange. Doing slapstick like a cinematic badge of honor, much likely, the noise from the bell pro- and saw them on the set constantly, the Stooges was not my personal like being insulted by comedian duced more anxiety than the scene! so I got to know them pretty well,” preference, but they were experts Don Rickles! No, she repeated, she said Nita. “They were all adorable to at it and it was still a very pleasant had no recollection whatsoever, and Unlike Thyssen, Nita Bieber work with and I loved it, although experience.” promptly terminated the interview. told me she thoroughly enjoyed her Curly clearly was not well during involvement in a Stooges film. Her Not every actress has enjoyable Tyler Chase, her friend and man- or vivid memories of working on a ager told me Thyssen’s reluctance to Stooges film. Danish beauty Greta talk about that period of her life was Thyssen came to America in the not surprising. “It was a bad time in early 1950s and appeared in a few Hollywood history for women, as TV shows and movies. She appeared they were often used and abused. It in three of the Stooges shorts wasn’t the kind of work she wanted between 1958 and 1959, including to do, which was serious acting. But Sappy Bull Fighters, the final Three it’s what her agent gave her and I Stooges short. On two occasions, she think she felt she was just used as received the standard cream pie/cake an object, and really doesn’t have in the face, which one would expect fond memories of that period. A to leave a memorable impression. few years later she quit at the peak However, in past interviews, Miss of her career because she wanted Thyssen has said she has virtually to raise her daughter and be a good no recollection of her roles with The mother.” Three Stooges. She confirmed this when I spoke with her from her New Thyssen also appeared with the York apartment. Stooges in Quiz Whizz and Pies and Guys, both in 1958. The following “Yes, I was in three of those year, Greta was her fetching best in shorts. I didn’t know anything about Terror Is a Man, a rather unusual the Stooges when I started acting and horror film loosely based on the Joan Howard with Stooges memorabilia in her attic (photo courtesy Joan Howard)

Larry, Curly-Joe, and Moe with Joan Freeman, and Jay Sheffield in The Three Stooges Go Around the World in a Daze. (photo provided by Nick Thomas) Paul Howard and daughter Jen at the Stoogeum. (Photo provided by Gary Lassin) Page 10 Classic Images March 2012 production.” Ruthy married Harold White, who 2 a.m., and it was freezing cold in Stooges reunion in Burbank at the was director ’s son. I my native costume. Every time we Hollywood Collector’s Show where Nita explains that she and two actually dated Harold before she would stop, the wardrobe people she signed autographs and reunited other girls played sisters in Rhythm married him! What’s interesting is would run up and put a fur coat on with Gloria Patrice, whom she had and Weep, and experienced a slight that the three sisters were named me; it was so cold!” not seen since 1946. “The Stooges mishap during one of the scenes. “I Hilda, Tilda, and Wilda, and I have fan club contacted me to ask me held up production for a couple of a real sister named Wilda! But I In Summer Stock with Gene to join them for the event,” she hours during the dance scene because believe that was just strictly a coin- Kelly and Judy Garland, Nita was said. “I’ve been in show business I skinned my shinbone jumping off cidence.” a ballet dancer and recalls a photog- all my life and the thing I’m most the platform we were dancing on. raphy issue with Garland. “They famous for is working with The And of course, everyone hit the Nita later appeared in two films actually had to change my part in Three Stooges!” panic button when I did that, because released in 1950, in which she had the film because they felt Judy and that’s money going out the window. more dancing roles. One was a dance I photographed too much alike, and Another actress who was But they were all sweet and under- scene in the Hedy Lamarr film, A that might be confusing to the audi- impressed with the Stooges’ pro- standing, and we got the bleeding Lady Without Passport. “The scene ence. So they changed my part so fessionalism was Nancy Kovack. I stopped and continued. The other was set in a nightclub in Havana, we wouldn’t be together. Naturally, caught up with her just before she girls who played my sisters were and I did the dance outdoors at night I didn’t like that.” flew off to Israel, for anniversary Gloria Patrice and Ruth Godfrey. on Lot 2 at MGM. We did it at about celebrations with her husband, famed After the release of those two conductor Zubin Mehta. “I was ter- pictures, Nita expected to see a boost ribly excited to be working with The in her film and dancing career; but Three Stooges and was just in awe of tragedy struck the same year. “I them,” recalled Kovack, who played developed polio in 1950, and the Annie Oakley in the 1965 doctors said I would never walk comedy, The Outlaws Is Coming. again. They wanted to put those “What I remember is that they were steel braces on my legs to help me very focused, and so intent on their walk, but I wouldn’t have any part of roles. They were not terribly funny it. For a while I was in a wheel chair, off set. I suppose I expected them, but with the help of massage and very naively, to be somewhat like exercises, I got back into shape. I their real characters off the set, but formed a new dance group, The Nita that wasn’t true at all. In fact, they Bieber Dancers, and continued to didn’t really have much communica- work in film, TV and on the stage. I tion with the other actors on the set. had an agent who had faith in me and There wasn’t a lot of interaction or helped me get my group together.” camaraderie one normally has doing a film. But that was because they Today, Nita still embraces her needed to focus, and interact and connection with The Three Stooges. communicate with each other all the In 2007, she was part of a Three time. If one of them had an idea to

Nita Bieber in an MGM 1948 publicity shot (photo courtesy of Nita Bieber) Stooge art on the staircase at the Stoogeum. (Photo provided by Gary Lassin) www.classicimages.com Page 11 try, he couldn’t just go off and do ies, he accidentally did poke Curly in ever met. It was such great acting on the last one I screamed until I it like a single actor might do. They the eyes, rather than hitting him on being able to switch his character on thought I had blown out my lar- all had to know what each would be the forehead, and that he felt terrible in a second.” ynx. Moe asked how my throat was doing because they worked as one about it.” and I told him it was really sore. unit on the screen. So even though Johnny recalls one incident on During a half-hour break, he left the we didn’t communicate a lot behind Many years later, when Johnny the set of The Outlaws Is Coming studio, drove to a drug store, and the scenes, I learned an important hosted his own kids’ show called that illustrates Moe’s real personal- returned with a paper bag containing acting lesson by watching them.” Curtain Time Theatre on WXYZ- ity. “There was one scene where I a spray bottle of Chloraseptic and TV Channel 7 Detroit from 1956 had to do about a dozen takes, and some throat lozenges. I remember Nancy went on to explain how to 1967, he was looking for new she met her famous husband. “There ideas. “I was opposite Captain was a woman who wanted to intro- Kangaroo, and wanted to come up duce us, but I refused her three with programming that would grab times! The fourth time, she invited young teenagers’ attention. I had me to a dinner party at a restau- the option of using old shows with rant in Los Angeles at the end of , , The 1968, and she asked me to sit with Little Rascals, or The Three Stooges. her husband—his name was Vincent So I started to run the old Three Minnelli! It was a dark room, lit by Stooges shorts. The ratings were just candlelight, and she sat the man she phenomenal, and it was picked up had been trying to get me to meet, by most of the ABC affiliates and opposite me. Well, it was all a trick, other kids’ shows around the U.S. and that’s how I met Zubin Mehta!” Suddenly, The Three Stooges were hot again! I remember Moe called Veteran entertainer and come- me from Hollywood and told me dian Johnny Ginger also had a small how grateful he was that there was role in The Outlaws Is Coming, so much renewed interest in the as one of the outlaws, Billy the Stooges.” Kid. Johnny remembers first meet- ing Moe around 1940, at the age of Johnny eventually invited Moe with Joe, Moe, and Larry in Sappy Bull Fighters. (photo Nick Thomas) six. “My parents were performing at to appear on his show as a guest, the same theater as the Stooges, the and Moe was only too happy to old Paramount Theatre in Toledo,” make the trip. “The first thing he recalled Ginger. “I would stand in said was: ‘I don’t understand the the wings, watching the Stooges per- Beatles—they’re copying my hair- form and couldn’t understand why cut!’ When I did The Outlaws movie this guy, Moe, was hitting, slapping, later, I remember Moe would always and eye-poking the other guys. It have his hair combed back between puzzled me, because between their the scenes. Then when they said, shows I would see them backstage ‘Moe, we’re ready’ he would throw playing cards, laughing, and drinking his head forward, the hair would coffee together. Moe actually took come down, and he’d get that ‘I’ll me aside one time and explained that mirder ya!’ scowl on his face in an it was just an act. He told me that a instant. But off camera, he was the few times during filming of the mov- most gentle and kind man I have

Moe and 12 year old Paul fool around at home while Moe's brother-in-law, a photographer in the US Navy, shot some priceless pictures in the Howard home. A Moe check today can sell for hundreds of dollars. (provided by Nick Thomas) (Photo courtesy of Paul Howard). Page 12 Classic Images March 2012 sitting there thinking here was this There were plans to do more ‘make-believe mayhem’ kept the guy who, just a few minutes ear- films, after The Outlaws Is Coming, soldiers sane. So it’s wonderful to lier, had been pounding on the other and Moe wanted Johnny to be know that my dad, uncles, Larry, and SINCE 1968 WE guys, and then he turned around and involved. “The next one was going the others still make the world laugh, did this kind act for me. That’s what to be a pirate movie and I was to play so many years after their passing.” MUST BE DOING he was really like, a gentle and soft- Captain Kidd. Then, a gangster film spoken man who could switch the with me as Baby Face Nelson. After SOMETHING acting on and off in an instant—a that, a circus film where I would play damn good actor.” a trapeze artist because I had worked Editor’s Note: The complete GREAT! trapeze and trampoline when I was interview with Paul and Joan Howard Comparing Moe, Larry, and younger, and was still very active. I is available in the new book, “Raised Autographs, Curly-Joe, Johnny says Moe was thought these all sounded fabulous. by the Stars: Interviews with 29 the quiet one on the set. “Larry was But after The Outlaws, Larry had a Children of Hollywood Actors” by Signed Books, a jokester, always pulling jokes on stroke and everything went down the Nick Thomas. This collection of everyone and a fun guy to be around. toilet. Moe called me and apologized personal interviews with children Sports, Hollywood, Joe DeRita was delightful too, but I for getting my hopes up. I just told of Hollywood legends also includes absolutely loved Moe. When we fin- him I was sorry for Larry and his entries on Jimmy Stewart, Rosalind Music, Space ished filming, Moe had everyone to family. Moe and I remained good Russell, Errol Flynn, Rex Harrison, his house for dinner which was quite friends and corresponded regularly Gary Cooper, Mel Blanc, Ingrid funny. The movie had been about up until his death.” Bergman, and Forrest Tucker, as saving the buffalo, so guess what well as noted supporting actors such Moe served?—buffalo steaks!” It’s been more than 35 years since as Jack Gilford, Jesse White, Billy Moe, last of the original Stooges, Barty, Jack Elam, and many others. The success of The Three passed away just four months after Go to: www.raisedbythestars.com Stooges television broadcasts in the Larry. Their routines and antics con- late 1950s led to the six feature tinue to live on DVD, where all 190 films, which Moe readily credited to shorts can be seen, and cable televi- Johnny Ginger. “Moe told me one sion (as of 2011, AMC still runs the day, ‘You made me a millionaire!’ shorts). “I still get letters almost And when I visited his home after every day from Three Stooges fans,” the movie, he showed me around says Paul Howard. “I remember get- the place and he said, ‘You gave ting an email from a soldier who had (Write for a FREE Catalog) me this!’ Well, I told him he did all returned from Iraq. He told me how that himself due to his talent, and he and his fellow troopers watched that maybe I just opened the door a the Stooges regularly while prepar- HEROES AND little.” ing to go on missions and how their LEGENDS The Outlaws Is Coming. (photo provided by Nick Thomas) 18034 Ventura Blvd., Suite #204 Encino, CA 91316 PHONE (818) 342-2800 FAX (818) 609-9975 WEBSITE www. HEROESANDLEGENDS .net EMAIL Former Head Stooge Ted Healy. (photo [email protected] Greta Thyssen with Larry, Moe and Joe in Quiz Whizz. (courtesy of Nick Thomas) provided by Nick Thomas)