The Three Stooges (Moe Howard in center)
Moses Harry Horwitz — better known as Moe Howard, de facto leader of The Three Stooges — was born 125 years ago today.
Born in the Bensonhurst neighborhood of Brooklyn, Horwitz was the fourth-born of five brothers of Lithuanian Jewish ancestry. He was named Moe when still very young. Although his parents were not involved in show business, Moe, his older brother, Shemp, and younger brother, Curly, all eventually became world-famous as members of the Three Stooges.
He loved to read, as older brother, Jack, recalled: "I had many Horatio Alger books, and it was Moe's greatest pleasure to read them. They started his imaginative mind working and gave him ideas by the dozen. I think they were instrumental in putting thoughts into his head to become a person of good character and to become successful." This helped him in his acting career in later years, such as in memorizing his lines quickly and easily.
Although his "bowl cut" hairstyle is now widely recognized, Moe's mother refused to cut his hair in childhood, letting it grow to shoulder length. Finally, he could not take his classmates' years of teasing any longer, sneaked off to a shed in the back yard and cut his hair. He was so afraid his mother would be upset (she enjoyed curling his hair) that he hid under the house for several hours, causing a panic. He finally came out and his mother was so glad to see him she didn't even mention the hair.
Moe began to develop an interest in acting to the point where his schoolwork suffered. He began playing hooky from school and going to the theater. He said, "I used to stand outside the theater knowing the truant officer was looking for me. I would stand there 'til someone came along, and then ask them to buy my ticket. It was necessary for an adult to accompany a juvenile into the theater.
“When I succeeded, I'd give him my ten cents — that's all it cost — and I'd go up to the top of the balcony where I'd put my chin on the rail and watch, spellbound, from the first act to the last. I would usually select the actor I liked the most and follow his performance throughout the play."
Despite his waning attendance, Horwitz graduated from P.S. 163 in Brooklyn but dropped out of Erasmus Hall High School after only two months, ending his formal education. To please his parents, he took an electric shop course, but quit after a few months to pursue a career in show business.
He started off running unpaid errands at the Vitagraph Studios in Midwood, Brooklyn, and was rewarded at first with bit parts in movies in production. In 1910, a fire destroyed the films. With the fire, Horwitz’s work was done at Vitagraph.
In 1909, he had met a young man, Lee Nash, who was later to provide a significant boost for his career aspirations. In 1912, they both got a summer job working in Annette Kellerman's aquatic act as diving "girls."
Moe continued his attempts at gaining show business experience by singing in a bar with his older brother, Shemp, until their father put a stop to it. In 1914, Horwitz joined a performing troupe on a Mississippi River showboat for the next two summers. In 1921, he joined Lee Nash, now firmly established in show business as Ted Healy, in a vaudeville routine.
In 1923, he caught sight of Shemp in the audience and yelled at him from the stage. The two brothers heckled each other, garnering a great response from the audience, and Healy immediately hired Shemp as a permanent part of the act. He then recruited the vaudeville violinist, Larry Fine, to join the troupe in 1925. They were billed as Ted Healy and His Racketeers (later changed to Ted Healy and His Stooges).
By 1930, Ted Healy and His Stooges were on the verge of hitting "the big time" and made their first movie, Soup to Nuts — featuring Healy, and his four Stooges. Moe (billed as "Harry Howard"), Shemp, Larry and one-shot Stooge, Fred Sanborn, worked in the movie for Fox Films, later to become 20th Century Fox.
Shemp had never seen eye-to-eye with the hard-drinking and sometimes belligerent Healy, however. He left the group shortly after their first group of films to pursue a solo movie career. After a short search for a replacement, Moe Howard suggested his youngest brother, Jerome ("Babe" to Moe and Shemp). Healy originally passed on Jerry (whom he disliked), but Jerry was so eager to join the act that he shaved off his luxuriant auburn mustache and hair and ran on stage during Healy's routine. That finally got Healy to hire Jerry, who took the stage name, "Curly."
Healy and the Stooges were hired by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer as "nut" comics, to liven up feature films and short subjects with their antics. After a number of appearances in MGM films, however, Healy was being groomed as a solo character comedian.
With Healy pursuing his own career in 1934, his Stooges (now renamed The Three Stooges) signed with Columbia Pictures, where they stayed until December, 1957. They made 190 comedy shorts. With Healy's departure, Moe Howard assumed Healy's prior role as the aggressive, take-charge leader of the Three Stooges. He was a short-tempered bully, prone to slapstick violence against the other two Stooges.
But despite his outwardly rather cruel demeanor towards his pals, Moe was also very loyal and protective of the other Stooges on film, keeping them from harm and, should it befall them, doing whatever it took to save them.
He emphasized in his 1977 book, however, that the ill-tempered aspects of his on-screen persona did not reflect his real personality. He also boasted of being a shrewd businessman by wisely investing the money made from his film career.
But the Stooges received no subsequent royalties (i.e., residuals) from any of their many shorts. They were paid a flat amount for each one and Columbia owned the rights (and profits) thereafter.
However, according to Larry Fine in the 1970s, Columbia allowed the Stooges to do live tours when they were not filming in exchange for half salary during those months. Fine indicated that the profits from the tours substantially increased their yearly take.
In 1934, Columbia released its first Three Stooges short, Woman Haters, where their stooge characters were not quite fully formed. It was not a Stooge comedy in the classic sense but rather a romantic farce. Their next film, Punch Drunks, was the only short film written entirely by the Three Stooges, with Curly as a reluctant boxer who goes ballistic every time he hears "Pop Goes the Weasel."
Their next short, Men in Black (a parody of the hospital drama, Men in White), was their first and only film to be nominated for an Academy Award (with the classic catchphrases "Calling Dr. Howard, Dr. Fine, Dr. Howard" followed by their reiterated unison declaration as young doctors, "FOR DUTY AND HUMANITY!!").
They continued making short films at a steady pace of eight per year, such as Three Little Pigskins (with a very young Lucille Ball), Pop Goes the Easel, Hoi Polloi (where two professors make a bet trying to turn the Three Stooges into gentlemen) and many others.
In the 1940s, the Three Stooges became topical, making several anti-Nazi movies including You Nazty Spy! (Moe's favorite Three Stooges film), I'll Never Heil Again and They Stooge to Conga. Moe's hilarious impersonation of Adolf Hitler highlighted these shorts, the first of which preceded Charlie Chaplin's controversial but classic film satire, The Great Dictator, by months.
On May 6, 1946, during the filming of Half-Wits Holiday, brother Curly suffered a stroke. He had already suffered a series of them prior to the filming of Beer Barrel Polecats, and was replaced by Shemp, who agreed to return to the group but only until Curly would be well enough to rejoin.
Although Curly recovered enough to appear in Hold That Lion! in a cameo appearance (the only Three Stooges film to contain all three Howard brothers; Moe, Curly and Shemp), he soon suffered a second series of strokes which led to his death at age 48 on January 18, 1952.
The Three Stooges' series of shorts continued to be popular through the 1950s. Shemp co-starred in 73 comedies. (The Stooges also co-starred in a George O'Brien western, Gold Raiders, in 1951.) Moe also co-produced occasional western and musical films in the 1950s.
On November 22, 1955, Shemp died of a heart attack at age 60, necessitating the need for another Stooge.
Producer Jules White used old footage of Shemp to complete four more films with Columbia regular Joe Palma filling in for Shemp (thus creating the “Fake Shemp” phenomenon), until Columbia head Harry Cohn hired Joe Besser in 1956.
Moe sold real estate when his show-business life slowed down, although he still did minor roles and walk-on bits in movies (Don't Worry, We'll Think of a Title, Dr. Death: Seeker of Souls) and television appearances (Here's Hollywood, Toast of the Town, Masquerade Party, Truth or Consequences and several appearances on The Mike Douglas Show).
Howard died of lung cancer at age 77 on May 4, 1975 in Los Angeles where he had been admitted a week earlier in April, just over three months after Larry Fine's death. He was a heavy smoker for much of his adult life.
At the time of his death, Moe was working on his autobiography, titled "I Stooged to Conquer." Moe's autobiography was released in 1977 as Moe Howard and the Three Stooges.
Here is Moe Howard and Ted Knight throwing pies on the Mike Douglas Show