I'm hearing from a lot of Stooge fans, a few of whom I think want to poke me in the eyes and run a saw across my head.
One fellow was irate at my suggestion that when Joe Besser left the act, Joe DeRita was the only choice. This guy thought Mousie Garner would have made a great Third Stooge. Well, maybe. It has been alleged that Moe didn't think so. But I think that at that point in their dwindling career, Moe and other advisors saw the wisdom — in terms of marketablity — of bringing in someone who could remind people of Curly. Whatever popularity the Stooges had then as an act flowed from the reruns of the old Curly shorts on TV and there was no question he was the most beloved member of the team. They didn't go to Joe DeRita and say, "How'd you like to join the act?" It was more like, "How'd you like to shave your head and change your name so we look kind of like Moe, Larry and Curly again?" Mousie, whatever his skills, couldn't help them on that count.
Another reader was upset that I spoke ill of Snow White and the Three Stooges and suggests I'm wrong to view it as a Stooges movie. Since Snow White gets top billing, it should be seen as a Snow White movie…and a darned good one, he thinks. Well, okay. I don't think Ms. White's name came first because she was the real star. I think it came first because they were aping the form of "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" but by any name, I don't think it's a very good movie and I don't think the Stooges are very good in their scenes.
Someone who didn't sign their name wrote to correct me on two points. One, he's right about. I said Curly was the third guy when the Stooges broke into films but of course, Shemp was the guy in their first film appearance, Soup to Nuts. This anonymous correspondent also noted that at one point (two, actually) Moe was prepared to add Emil Sitka to the act. Yes…but as a replacement for Larry, not Curly or Joe.
And then Douglass Abramson wrote to say and ask…
I agree with you, I don't know why anybody would attack DeRita or Besser. Any defects in the films they did as Stooges were due to the short production schedules and shoestring budgets. Your post did get me wondering something about Shemp. I couldn't find an answer online, so I thought I'd see if you knew. Why did Shemp go back to the act after Curly's stroke? Was it family devotion or was there a career element to the decision? He was working regularly as a character actor and was even getting parts in A, or at least B+ pictures. Working a couple of days on Another Thin Man had to be an easier buck than a Three Stooges short.
I suspect being shot out of a cannon in the circus was an easier buck then than being one of the Three Stooges. But I think I answered your question back in this message with information I learned from an unimpeachable source. I mean, if you can't believe a woman who slept with W.C. Fields, who can you believe?
By the way, in case I didn't make it clear in my piece, I think Shemp Howard and Joe Besser have both been underrated. I think both added some sparkle and funny performances to films that didn't have much to offer in terms of fresh jokes, production values and, probably, time to do a second or third take. I am told the Stooge Fanciers have become much more tolerant of non-Curly films these days but I remember a time when it was kind of taken for granted that a Three Stooges Film Festival would not sully the screen with a movie lacking Jerome "Curly" Howard. If you showed one with Shemp, attendees would start barking like a dog, spinning around on the floor on one ear and going "Woo woo woo!"
I'm not knocking them. I've been known to do precisely that when served cole slaw. But let's have a little love for Shemp, Joe and Curly Joe. They had the toughest job in show business if you don't count performing death-defying stunts like Dar Robinson, Yakima Canutt, Vic Armstrong or anyone who ever attempted to direct Shelley Winters.