Rare Historical Photos

www.threestooges.com

The Three Stooges

The 1930s and 40s gave us three comedic geniuses. Moses, Samuel and Jerome Horwitz, better known as Larry, Moe, and Curly, grew up as blue-collar Jewish kids in Brooklyn. They didn’t have any leaning or bent towards theater. However, when Moe and Shemp decided to go into show business, the rest was history. Ultimately, the Stooges would team up with Ted Healy (1930) to become part of his comedy routine. Ted had connections to Fox Studios and produced a feature film with the Stooges called Soup to Nuts. Yet, Ted’s comedy did not translate well to the big screen. However, Fox brass loved the Stooges. In time, they would ultimately land their own contract with Columbia after doing a few features for MGM. And while they were responsible for keeping the Columbia film short division in the black, the studio made sure they were none the wiser. The Stooges were kept on yearly contracts and brow beaten into submission for lower pay with the studio head telling them the film short division was in financial crisis (the Stooges appeared mostly in short 10 minute films before the main feature, much like Pixar animated movies today). Nobody argued either because of his mob connections which ultimately led to the death of Ted Healy. Seems like there was a lot of stress and pain behind those famous Nyuk, Nyuk, Nyuks.