There seems to be some question as to just when Emil Sitka almost joined the Three Stooges. For reference, Larry Fine had his stroke in January of 1970 and died in January of 1975. Moe died in May of '75.
According to The Three Stooges Scrapbook by Jeff and Gregg Lenburg and Moe's daughter, Joan Howard Maurer, the Sitka plans came about in '71, while Larry was still alive. The book details plans to shoot a Stooges feature in the Philippines, and to undertake a few other projects — all of which fell through — with Sitka filling in for the ailing Larry. This corresponds to what the Emil Sitka site says.
However, several Stooge fans wrote me that Moe refused to try and replace Larry until after Larry's death. The book, The Three Stooges by Michael Fleming also seems to believe that the Philippines project only came up after Larry passed away. It states that Sitka was waiting with bags packed to get on the plane to go shoot this film but it kept being postponed due to Moe's health problems. Finally, the book says, Sitka got the call that Moe had died and that ended that.
That would put this account in the early part of 1975…however, it inexplicably quotes Sitka's son, Saxon (who now operates www.emilsitka.com) as saying, "My father felt funny about filling in for Larry, but once he spoke to Larry about it, my dad was all pumped up." So that would also place it before Larry's passing.
I am inclined to believe the first version. The weight of evidence seems to be on that side…plus, I visited Larry out at the Motion Picture Country Home around '71 or '72 and I have the vague recollection of him saying something about Sitka filling in for him until he got his health back. (At the time, no one expected him to get back to performing strength but for understandable reasons, everyone pretended that was still possible, if not probable.) I could be wrong about him mentioning it but even if I am, I still think the 1971 scenario makes more sense.
And isn't it nice to finally have something important to discuss on this site, instead of all that trivia about bombing Iraq?