THREE STOOGES CLUB #3: The Stooges at Columbia (Part 1)
Wednesday May 29th, 2024
Class Rules and Expectations
What is the The Three Stooges Club?
June 28th-August 30th
Wednesdays (10 classes)
4:15-5:15 PM EST
Hey, Porcupine!! Nyuk Nyuk Nyuk!! If you are a fan of the Three Stooges, then you know what that laugh is. But, did you know that there is more to the Three Stooges than just their slapstick? Why soitenly! So don’t be a victim of circumstance and come learn what made the Three Stooges who they were!!
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What We Learned in Our Last Class?
Woman Haters (1934)
The Three Stooges made their debut at Columbia Pictures in 1934 starring in the musical short, “Women Haters.” Spoken entirely in rhyme (or Seuss to me), the Stooges portrayed three traveling salesmen who join a club in an effort to never get romantically involved with any woman. In the Ted Okuda–Edward Watz book The Columbia Comedy Shorts, the Stooges are said to have received $1,000 among them for their first Columbia effort, Woman Haters (1934), and then signed a term contract for $7,500 per film (equal to $151,922 today), to be divided among the trio.
Harry Cohn is Impressed
Within their first year at Columbia, theater bookings for the Stooges films took off. Columbia Pictures president Harry Cohn was able to use the Stooges as leverage, as the demand for their films was so great that he eventually refused to supply exhibitors with the trio's shorts unless they also agreed to book some of the studio's mediocre B movies.
Never Knowing Their Popularity
Cohn also saw to it that the Stooges remained unaware of their popularity. Thus, during their 23 years at Columbia, the Stooges were never completely aware of their amazing drawing power. Their contracts with the studio included an open option that had to be renewed yearly, and Cohn would tell them that the short subjects were in decline, which was not a complete fabrication (Cohn's yearly mantra was "the market for comedy shorts is dying out, fellas").
Living Each Day Like It Was Their Last
Because they never knew the truth of their popularity with the general public, the Stooges thought that their days were numbered and would sweat it out each year, with Cohn renewing their contract at the last moment. This deception kept the insecure Stooges unaware of their true value, resulting in them having second thoughts about asking for a better contract without a yearly option. Cohn's scare tactics worked for all 23 years that the Stooges were at Columbia; the team never once asked for a salary increase—nor were they ever given one.
The Truth Eventually Came Out
It was not until after they stopped making the shorts in December 1957 that Moe learned of Cohn's tactics, what a valuable commodity the Stooges had been for the studio, and how many millions more the act could have earned. In fact, Columbia offered theater owners an entire program of two-reel comedies (15–25 titles annually) featuring such stars as Buster Keaton, Andy Clyde, Charley Chase and Hugh Herbert, but the Stooge shorts were the most popular of all.
A Standard Workload
The Stooges' release schedule was eight short subjects per year, filmed within a 40-week period; for the remaining 12 weeks, they were free to pursue other employment, time that was either spent with their families or touring the country with their live act.
The Stooge films made between 1935 and 1941 captured the team at their peak, according to film historians Ted Okuda and Edward Watz, authors of The Columbia Comedy Shorts. Nearly every film produced became a classic in its own right. Hoi Polloi (1935) adapted the premise of Pygmalion, with a stuffy professor making a bet that he can transform the uncultured trio into refined gentlemen; the plotline worked so well that it was reused twice, as Half-Wits Holiday (1947) and Pies and Guys (1958). Disorder in the Court (1936) features the team as star witnesses in a murder trial. Violent is the Word for Curly (1938) was a quality Chase-directed short that featured the musical interlude "Swingin' the Alphabet".
This House Has Sure Gone Crazy!
In A Plumbing We Will Go (1940)—one of the team's quintessential comedies—the Stooges are cast as plumbers who nearly destroy a socialite's mansion, causing water to exit every appliance in the home, including an early television set. This was remade twice, as Vagabond Loafers and Scheming Schemers. Other entries of the era are considered among the team's finest work, including Uncivil Warriors (1935), A Pain in the Pullman and False Alarms (both 1936), Grips, Grunts and Groans, The Sitter Downers, Dizzy Doctors (all 1937), Tassels in the Air (1938), We Want Our Mummy (1939), Nutty but Nice (1940), and An Ache in Every Stake and In the Sweet Pie and Pie (both 1941).
But What About Ted?
After splitting with the Three Stooges, Ted Healy appeared in a succession of films for MGM from 1934 to 1937 and was also loaned to 20th Century-Fox and Warner Bros. for films by those companies, playing both dramatic and comedic roles. One of his films, Mad Holiday (1936), featured stooge Dick Hakins as his sidekick.
In San Francisco (1936), a new lineup of "stooges" consisting of Jimmy Brewster, Red Pearson, and Sammy Glasser (Sammy Wolfe) filmed a scene with Healy, but it was omitted from the final release; a few production stills of them survive. Also, in the Technicolor short subject La Fiesta de Santa Barbara (1935), Jimmy Brewster briefly appears to 'stooge' with Healy. During this period, Healy took to wearing a toupée in public.[2] His last film, Hollywood Hotel (1937), was released a few days after he died.
I Have a Son!
After divorcing Betty Braun in 1932, Healy's second marriage was to UCLA coed Betty Hickman. After introducing himself, Healy proposed immediately, and the couple became engaged the following day. They were married in Yuma, Arizona, on May 15, 1936, after a midnight elopement by plane. Hickman was granted a divorce on October 7, 1936, which was nullified after a reconciliation. Their son, John Jacob, was born on December 17, 1937, four days before Healy's death.
What Happened to Ted?
Healy died on December 21, 1937, at the age of 41, after an evening of celebration at the Trocadero nightclub on the Sunset Strip in Los Angeles. He was reportedly celebrating the birth of his son, an event he had eagerly anticipated, according to Moe Howard. "He was nuts about kids", wrote Howard. "He used to visit our homes and envied the fact that we were all married and had children. Healy always loved kids and often gave Christmas parties for underprivileged youngsters and spent hundreds of dollars on toys."
The circumstances surrounding his death remain a matter of some controversy. An MGM spokesman initially announced the cause as a heart attack, but the presence of recent wounds—a cut over his right eye and a "discolored" left eye—combined with reports of an altercation at the Trocadero gave rise to speculation that he died as a result of those injuries.
Was it a Bar Fight?
Healy's friend, writer Henry Taylor, told Moe Howard that the fight was preceded by an argument between Healy and three men whom he identified as "college fellows". The younger men allegedly knocked Healy to the ground and kicked him in the head, ribs, and abdomen. The wrestler Man Mountain Dean reported that he was standing in front of the Plaza Hotel in Hollywood at 2:30 a.m. when Healy emerged, bleeding, from a taxi. He related an "incoherent story" of being attacked at the Trocadero but could not identify his assailant.
Dean contacted a physician, Sydney Weinberg, who treated Healy at the hotel. Another friend, Joe Frisco, then drove him to his home. Wyantt LaMont, Healy's personal physician, was summoned to the home the following morning when Healy began experiencing convulsions.Despite the efforts of LaMont and a cardiologist, John Ruddock, Healy died later that day of what was later concluded as alcoholism.. Because of the circumstances, LaMont refused to sign Healy's death certificate.
After his death, Ted Healy was interred at Calvary Cemetery in Los Angeles next to his mother and sister.
The Stooges Enlist in World War II (PART 1)
With the onset of World War II, the Stooges released several entries that poked fun at the rising Axis powers. You Nazty Spy! (1940) and its sequel I'll Never Heil Again (1941) lampooned Hitler and the Nazis at a time when America was still neutral. Moe was cast as "Moe Hailstone", an Adolf Hitler-like character, with Curly playing a Hermann Göring character (replete with medals) and Larry as Joachim von Ribbentrop-type ambassador. Moe, Larry, and director Jules White considered You Nazty Spy! their best film. Yet, these efforts indulged in a deliberately formless, non-sequitur style of verbal humor that was not the Stooges' forte, according to Okuda and Watz.
The Stooges Enlist in World War II (PART 2)
Other wartime entries have their moments, such as They Stooge to Conga (considered the most violent Stooge short), Higher Than a Kite, Back from the Front (all 1943), Gents Without Cents (1944) and the anti-Japanese The Yoke's on Me (also 1944). However, taken in bulk, the wartime films are considered less funny than what preceded them. No Dough Boys (1944) is often considered the best of these farces. The team, made up as Japanese soldiers for a photo shoot, is mistaken for genuine saboteurs by a Nazi ringleader (Vernon Dent, the Stooges' primary foil). The highlight of the film features the Stooges engaging in nonsensical gymnastics (the real spies are renowned acrobats) for a skeptical group of enemy agents.
Something’s Wrong with Curly
But while the Stooges were producing the World War II films, Curly began to noticeably slow down in his acting and mannerisms. Ultimately, this would culminate in the ending of the Three Stooges lineup as we know it.
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