Stooge Facts

The three stooges made 10 films with Ted Healy from 1930 through 1934

Curly made 103 films which included 6 features and 1 remake of an earlier Stooge film

Shemp made 78 films including 1 feature

Shemp made 11 remakes of older Stooge films

Joe Besser made 16 films 5  of which were remakes

Joe DeRita made 10 films with the three stooges, all features

Moe appeared in 4 films without the Stooges including, "Doctor Death, Seeker of Souls" in 1973. This was his last film

Shemp performed as "Knobby Walsh" in Joe Palooka shorts for Vitaphone from1934-1937. After that he appeared in 36 films without the Stooges

The Stooges as a team made a total of 207 films

The only episode that all three Howard brothers appeared together in was "Hold that lion" from 1947. The Footage was also used in 'Booty and the beast'

Curly had his stroke while filming 'Half-wits holiday' in 1946

Curly had a gun accident as a teenager that made standing for extended periods very
painful

Curly's nickname was 'Babe'

Curly was very self conscious about having to shave his head for the act. He ended up becoming a heavy drinker. He felt he was unattractive to the opposite sex and liquor gave him the courage to approach women

8 Shemp films were released  after he passed away in 1955

Shemp was replaced by a stunt man named Joe Palma from the time of his death in late 1955 until Joe Besser was signed on as the "third Stooge"

Palma had long, stringy hair like Shemp, and he was seen only from behind in the new footage, which was combined with old scenes of the real Shemp to create the "new" episodes

Joe DeRita was Moe's first choice to replace Shemp but he was under contract to
another studio

Their next choice was Joe Besser, a burlesque comedian. Joe Besser performed with the Stooges until 1958. He stopped performing due to the failing health of his wife

Joe DeRita was then asked to join the three Stooges and did so in 1958

The New Three Stooges cartoon premiered in 1965

The three stooges produced 156, 5 minute cartoons for TV

The Stooges were preparing to do a TV series in 1970 based on an idea they had toyed with for several years. It would be a series of color travel films with the three stooges visiting and fouling up the entire world. The title would be 'Kook's Tour'. It was designed to be a tour with a boat and camper and their co-star, Moose, a black Labrador retreiver

Location filming was shot in the Northwest

The three stooges headed back to Los Angeles to shoot closeups. Then Larry had his stroke. Moe knew the Stooges as an act had come to an end

The three stooges appeared three times on the Ed Sullivan show. On their first appearance Ed introduced them as the Three Ritz Brothers. Ed got out of the mistake by adding, 'who look more like the three stooges to me'

The Stooges did one show with Milton Berle. It wasn't Moe's most enjoyable appearance. He wasn't comfortable being on the receiving end of slapstick and in one routine Berle slapped Moe and cracked his front tooth

Moe and Larry passed away in 1975. Shemp passed away in 1955. Curly passed away in 1952 at the young age of 48