Stooges Among Us


Book Description

In this paparazzi-inundated world, it's hard to imagine that there was a time when genuine movie stars were accessible to members of the public. That was certainly the case in the 1970s with surviving members of the Three Stooges comedy team. Moe Howard, Larry Fine, Curly-Joe DeRita and Joe Besser routinely corresponded with their young admirers, invited them into their homes, and forged genuine friendships.Stooges Among Us is a record of these unique relationships told in the words of the fans themselves. Also sharing their insights are Stooges' family members, colleagues and close personal friends. Leonard Maltin, the renowned film critic and historian, provides the foreword to this often candid, always affectionate tribute.Here you will gain a back-stage pass to vaudeville theatres, movie sets, television studios and even a high school auditorium which featured performances by "The Boys." You will be there for touching, personal moments, as well as hilarious antics in which life mirrors the on-screen Stooge personas. Containing never-before published photographs and interviews with the Stooges, this is an unexpected treasure that will be read and re-read by classic comedy fans of all ages."This essential collection of essays by disparate Stoogephiles who fondly recall their close encounters of the Stooge kind with then-aged comics Moe Howard, Larry Fine, Joe Besser and Joe DeRita not only presents a vivid picture of these icons (especially Moe and Larry) in their final years but forms a fascinating Rashomon-like mosaic of alternately complementary and conflicting impressions. Stooge fans and students of human nature will not want to miss."- VideoScope




Curly


Book Description

While the Three Stooges were the longest active and most productive comedy team in Hollywood, their artistic height coincided with the years Curly was with them, from 1932 to 1946. Famous for his high-pitched voice, his “nyuk-nyuk-nyuk” and “why, soitenly,” and his astonishing athleticism, Curly was a true natural, an untrained actor with a knack for improvisation. Yet for decades, little information about him was available. Then, in 1985, Joan Howard Maurer, the daughter of Moe Howard and the niece of Curly and Shemp, published this definitive biography. In addition to speaking at length with his relatives, friends, and colleagues, she amassed a wealth of Curly memorabilia, a mixture of written material and rare photographs of Curly’s family, films, and personal life. In Curly, she put it all together to come up with the first and only in-depth look at this crazy comedic genius. She included plenty of intimate details about his astonishing relationship with his mother, his three marriages, and his interactions with his daughters and friends. The result was a well-rounded portrait of the most unpredictable—and most popular—Stooge. Joan Howard Maurer is the daughter of Moe Howard, the leader of the Three Stooges. Her books include The Three Stooges Scrapbook (with Jeff and Greg Lenburg) and The Three Stooges Book of Scripts. Michael Jackson, now recognized as the most successful entertainer of all time, often spoke of his love for the Three Stooges.




Total Chaos: The Story of the Stooges / Bonus Edition


Book Description

The first book telling Iggy Pop's story of The Stooges from his own words. Features a treasure-trove of unseen photos. Updated paperback version features a new chapter of photos plus a new interview with Henry Rollins by author Jeff Gold about The Stooges.




SHEMP!


Book Description

The definitive biography of the great Shemp Howard, an original member of the Three Stooges, and one of Hollywood's most influential actors that Library Journal calls "a complete portrait of a talented character actor," Kirkus Reviews calls an "illuminating… reworking of the Stooges mythology" and Patton Oswalt praises as "the only book you will ever need to read about anything. Burn all the other books - there is ONLY SHEMP!" Shemp Howard not only had one of the most distinctive faces of the twentieth century, but was also one of its most accomplished, influential comic actors and showbiz personalities. Along with his brother Moe and comedy violinist Larry Fine, Shemp was an original member of the comedy team that became known as the Three Stooges before he quit and set off on his own in 1932. SHEMP! shows how he made an even greater mark in a successful and until now largely unexplored career in more than a hundred movie shorts and features. He appeared in comedies, dramas, mysteries, Westerns, and musicals alongside the biggest stars of the Golden Age, including W.C. Fields, John Wayne, Jimmy Stewart, Marlene Dietrich, William Powell, Lon Chaney, Jr., Myrna Loy, and the team of Abbott & Costello. Author Burt Kearns challenges the “official” version of Three Stooges history that’s been repeated for decades, shattering myths while uncovering the surprising and often troubling facts behind the man’s unlikely story: how the child of Jewish immigrants, supposedly racked by debilitating phobias, could conquer show business; the behind-the-scenes machinations that pushed him to return to the team; and the circumstances surrounding his untimely death. Through interviews with fans, family members, experts, filmmakers, and celebrities, SHEMP! unearths treasures in Shemp’s solo work, examines the “cult of Shemp” that thrives today, and confirms Shemp Howard’s deserved place in cinematic history.




One Fine Stooge


Book Description

Presents a biography of Larry Fine, one of the Three Stooges, collected from his memoirs, and includes interviews, personal notes, clippings, and more.




Pop, You're "poifect!"


Book Description

Arguably the most recognizable and influential comedy team of all time, The Three Stooges have been making the world laugh since 1930. For four decades, beginning in the '30s, The Three Stooges were kings of the box office-first in a series of legendary comic shorts for Columbia and later in a string of successful feature films. In all, they made over 200 films! Half a century later, the act is still knocking them dead. Demand for The Three Stooges is so strong that their films can currently be seen every day of the week on cable TV-bringing the manic comic genius of Moe, Larry, and Curly to a whole new generation of delighted fans. These two new books pair vintage black and white photos from The Three Stooges's incredible film archive with short and snappy text that celebrates fathers and birthdays. "Why, I Oughta . . ." is an encouraging little reminder that getting older doesn't have to be so painful. ("Even if some of us aren't as curly as we used to be"), and Pop, You're "Poifect" pays tribute to dear old dad. Written to be given as a gift to dad, it offers an apology for the trials kids put parents through ("I know that there were nights when I kept you awake with worry, and days I probably made you pull out your hair in frustration-especially grade card days.") and words of thanks ("So thanks for all the times you've bailed me out-not literally, of course-not yet"). The words work in perfect tandem with the slapstick shots of The Three Stooges in action-and the net result is two books sure to delight Stooges fans new and old. So, will these books be a hit? "Soitenly!"




Three Stooges FAQ


Book Description

(Applause Books). This entertaining and informative study of the Three Stooges focuses on the nearly 190 two-reel short comedies the boys made at Columbia Pictures during the years 1934-59. Violent slapstick? Of course, but these comic gems are also peerlessly crafted and enthusiastically played by vaudeville veterans Moe, Larry, Curly, Shemp, and Joe arguably the most popular and long-lived screen comics ever produced by Hollywood. Detailed production and critical coverage is provided for every short, plus information about each film's place in the Stooges' careers, in Hollywood genre filmmaking, and in the larger fabric of American culture. From Depression-era concerns to class warfare to World War II to the cold war to rock-and-roll the Stooges reflected them all. Seventy-five stills, posters, and other images many never before published in book form bring colorful screen moments to life and help illuminate the special appeal of key shorts. Exclusive sections include a Stooges biographical and career timeline; a useful, colorful history of the structure and behind-the-camera personnel of the Columbia two-reel unit; and personality sidebars about more than 30 popular players who worked frequently with the Stooges. Also included is a filmography that covers all 190 shorts, plus a bibliography, making this the ultimate guide for all Three Stooges fans!




I Stooged to Conquer


Book Description

Originally published as Moe Howard & the 3 Stooges, by Citadel Press, 1977.




Enemies Among Us


Book Description

John E. Schmitz examines the causes, conditions, and consequences of America’s selective relocation and internment of German, Italian, and Japanese Americans during World War II.




Hooking Up


Book Description

Only yesterday boys and girls spoke of embracing and kissing (necking) as getting to first base. Second base was deep kissing, plus groping and fondling this and that. Third base was oral sex. Home plate was going all the way. That was yesterday. Here in the Year 2000 we can forget about necking. Today's girls and boys have never heard of anything that dainty. Today first base is deep kissing, now known as tonsil hockey, plus groping and fondling this and that. Second base is oral sex. Third base is going all the way. Home plate is being introduced by name. And how rarely our hooked-up boys and girls are introduced by name!-as Tom Wolfe has discovered from a survey of girls' File-o-Fax diaries, to cite but one of Hooking Up's displays of his famed reporting prowess. Wolfe ranges from coast to coast chronicling everything from the sexual manners and mores of teenagers... to fundamental changes in the way human beings now regard themselves thanks to the hot new field of genetics and neuroscience. . . to the inner workings of television's magazine-show sting operations. Printed here in its entirety is "Ambush at Fort Bragg," a novella about sting TV in which Wolfe prefigured with eerie accuracy three cases of scandal and betrayal that would soon explode in the press. A second piece of fiction, "U. R. Here," the story of a New York artist who triumphs precisely because of his total lack of talent, gives us a case history preparing us for Wolfe's forecast ("My Three Stooges," "The Invisible Artist") of radical changes about to sweep the arts in America. As an espresso after so much full-bodied twenty-first-century fare, we get a trip to Memory Mall. Reprinted here for the first time are Wolfe's two articles about The New Yorker magazine and its editor, William Shawn, which ignited one of the great firestorms of twentieth-century journalism. Wolfe's afterword about it all is in itself a delicious draught of an intoxicating era, the Twistin' Sixties. In sum, here is Tom Wolfe at the height of his powers as reporter, novelist, sociologist, memoirist, and-to paraphrase what Balzac called himself-the very secretary of American society in the 21st century.