One Moe Time

When we last left The Three Stooges in the Moviehouse, we were singing the praises of the unsung Stooge, Shemp Howard, depicted above in a stippling caricature by cartoonist-illustrator-Stoogeaholic Drew Friedman.

Self-professed "Pop Culture Addict" Sam Tweedle wrote, "Shemp Howard worked continuously from 1932 to his death in 1955. In his career he made 166 films. Only 74 of those films were with the Stooges...That means, on his own, Shemp Howard made an additional 92 films. While the Stooges needed each other, Shemp was able to make it on his own."

In his own way, Shemp's younger brother, Moe Howard, took modest steps to make it on his own. But the path would first involve at least two more incarnations of the Stooges. Following Curly Howard's debilitating strokes that led to his departure from the act (and his death in 1952) and Shemp's sudden demise from a heart attack in 1955, Moe proposed that he and Larry Fine continue cranking out comedy shorts as The Two Stooges. Columbia Pictures chief Harry Cohn rejected the suggestion, and the studio insisted on a performer already under contract, a vaudeville comedian named Joe Besser.

Joe Besser was familiar to television viewers as a loudmouthed, bratty man-child called Stinky on "The Abbott and Costello Show" (pictured above, with Lou Costello). The annoying character was noted for whining such catchphrases as "You crazy you-u-u-u-u-u!" and "Not so har-r-r-r-r-rd!"

Besser appeared in the final 16 Stooges shorts at Columbia, but the fact is, he never fit in with the Stooges' style of comedy, and the Besser shorts have remained the least favorite among fans. Receiving a heftier paycheck than either Moe or Larry, Besser had a contract clause that actually prohibited Moe from knocking him around excessively. When Columbia abruptly shut down its two-reel comedy department in 1957, Joe Besser left the act to spend time with his ailing wife.

Moe and Larry were considering retiring themselves when Columbia's television subsidiary, Screen Gems, syndicated the old Stooges shorts to TV, launching The Three Stooges into superstardom. Joe DeRita, a veteran comedian from the vaudeville stage, joined Moe and Larry as "Curly Joe" for public appearances and in a series of a half dozen theatrical motion pictures, including "Snow White and the Three Stooges" and "The Three Stooges Meet Hercules."

The Three Stooges guest-starred in the 1963 western comedy "4 for
Texas," starring Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra, and Ursula Andress,
and were featured in a priceless, wordless cameo in 1963's "It's
a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World."

In 1970, Moe, Larry, and Curly Joe started production on "Kook's Tour" (pictured below), a pilot for a possible TV series that integrated Stooges comedy into a mockumentary travelogue format, written, produced, and directed by Norman Maurer.

Before filming was completed, 68-year-old Larry Fine suffered a severe stroke, paralyzing the left side of his body. Shooting was canceled, and the project was shelved.

Moe Howard and Larry Fine pose with actors
James Doohan ("Star Trek's" original Scotty)
and William Campbell (best known as spoiled
brat alien Trelane on "Star Trek").

Fine spent his remaining years of his life at the Motion Picture Country House in Woodland Hills. Despite being confined to a wheelchair, he entertained the other patients, completed his autobiography, and was visited regularly by Moe. After enduring additional strokes, Larry Fine died January 24, 1975, age 72.

After Larry's initial stroke, plans were in the works to replace him with Emil Sitka as his brother, Harry. Sitka had already appeared in nearly 40 Three Stooges shorts, typically as a frazzled, frizzy-haired foil for the trio's shenanigans (pictured below), earning the nickname "The Fourth Stooge."

Emil Sitka contends with Larry, Curly, and Moe,
and with Shemp, Larry, and Moe.

Nothing came of the plans to bring Sitka on board beyond promotional pictures like the one below, taken in 1975.
.

But we were going to talk about Moe on his own. Unlike older brother Shemp, Moe, who sold real estate on the side, didn't venture beyond the comfort zone of Stooge-dom until later in life. In 1966, 69-year-old Moe played a lawyer named Crumworth Raines in "Don't Worry, We'll Think of a Title," a box-office turkey that cast onetime vaudeville comedian Morey Amsterdam (who also produced and co-wrote the picture) as a short-order cook pursued by Russian KGB agents who mistake him for a defecting cosmonaut. Amsterdam's pals from "The Dick Van Dyke Show," Rose Marie and Richard Deacon, costarred in a cast that featured cameos by a virtual who's who of 1960s television, including Steve Allen, Cliff Arquette (TV's "Charley Weaver"), Milton Berle, Carl Reiner, Irene Ryan (Granny from "The Beverly Hillbillies"), Danny Thomas, and Forrest Tucker.

Morey Amsterdam explains the recipe for Borscht Belt shtick
to Rose Marie, January Jones (not to be confused with the January
Jones who starred in the series "Mad Men"), and Moe Howard
in a scene from "Don't Worry. We'll Think of a Title."

Two years before he succumbed to lung cancer, Moe Howard had a cameo in the low-budget 1973 cult horror flick "Doctor Death: Seeker of Souls." John Considine, who acted in a number of filmmaker Robert Altman's films in the 1970s (Considine and Altman collaborated on the screenplay for the director's 1978 ensemble comedy "A Wedding"), played the title role of a 1,000-year-old magician. Moe appeared as an audience volunteer who checks out the heartbeat of the mad magician's lovely assistant, Venus (pictured below), played by Swedish-born Sivi Aberg.

Eddie Saeta, the Philadelphia-born director of "Doctor Death," worked as a teenaged messenger boy for studio boss Harry Cohn at Columbia Pictures, where he probably befriended Moe Howard.

Moe Howard willingly poses for a publicity photo
with  "Doctor Death's" Venus, Miss Sweden 1964,
Sivi Aberg, who appeared as host Chuck Barris'
curtain-girl on "The Gong Show" in the 1970s.

A decade after "Doctor Death," Sivi Aberg and a loaf of French
bread shared a cameo alongside the bulging eyeballs of comic
actor Marty Feldman in Mel Brooks' 1976 "Silent Movie."

In the 1960s, Moe, along with Larry Fine and Curly Joe DeRita, amused the host of TV's "The Ed Sullivan Show" (pictured below)...

...While in the 1970s, Moe Howard, alone, made a half dozen guest appearances on Mike Douglas' talk show, including a memorable episode in which Moe endeavored to teach Douglas and "The Mary Tyler Moore Show's" Ted Knight the art of pie-throwing (pictured below). The demonstration started with the use of a mannequin but predictably expanded to human participation.

Moe Howard died less than four months after the death of his lifelong friend and show business partner, Larry Fine. He was 77. Moe was survived by his wife of 50 years, Helen Schnoberger (a cousin of magician Harry Houdini), and children Joan and Paul. Helen died of a heart attack less than six months later, age 75.

Artist Drew Friedman created this caricature
of Moe Howard in his later years.