How much money did the original three stooges make

This website uses cookies. We use technologies, such as cookies, to customise content and advertising, to provide social media features and to analyse traffic to the site including the use of ad blockers. By continuing to use our website you consent to our Privacy and Cookie Policy. The Three Stooges are arguably the most popular and influential comedy institution in Hollywood history.

Yet Moe, Curly and Larry and Shemp did not receive the recognition and reward you might expect. In fact, as Empire reveals, their tale is one of exploitation, grievous bodily harm This article was first published in issue of Empire magazine. The image of The Three Stooges as fearless, anti-fascist crusaders, willing to put their livelihoods and their lives on the line in the noble cause of liberty, will come as a shock to anyone who thinks of them — if they think of them at all — as a fifth-rate Marx Brothers knock-off whose principal contribution to the art of comedy was the twin-fingered eye-poke.

And, to be honest, that would include most of the non-North American population of the planet and anyone in possession of a vagina.

Larry, Moe and Curly the classic Stooge line-up are stitched into the cultural fabric of America in a way that few entertainers are, rivalling Marilyn and Elvis for kitsch-cult supremacy. If you want proof of just how ubiquitous the Stooges are, try, as Empire did, doing some research on them at the main branch of the Los Angeles Public Library.

Just remember to wear some comfortable shoes. Yes, The Official Three Stooges Cookbook by Chicago Sun-Times reporter Robert Kurson was published in Books on the Stooges abound, running the gamut from craven hagiography to pseudo-academic analysis check out Stoogeology: Essays On The Three Stooges, edited by Peter Seely and Gail W.

Pieper , and the internet, of course, might have been invented for the sole purpose of disseminating Stooge data. A typical entry reads thus: Not deep, but nice varietal character and good balance.

Nevertheless, at an early age — and not unusually for working-class Jews around the turn of the century — both Moe and Shemp decided on a career in showbusiness. The pair had moderate success in a variety of burlesque shows before teaming up for the first time in to perform a blackface routine. They continued this until , when they encountered an old friend from their Brooklyn days, comedian Ted Healy, then a rapidly rising star in vaudeville.

The Final Years of Curly (of Three Stooges Fame) | Mental Floss

Healy recruited them to be his sidekicks, and when Philadelphia musician and comedian Larry Fine was brought into the act, The Three Stooges were born. In fact, Healy was an enormously successful entertainer, one of the biggest stars of his era, who has been cited as a formative influence by such comedy legends as Red Skelton, Milton Berle and Bob Hope.

That said, there is no doubt that Healy was a terrible boss, not only tight with a buck, but an abusive, volatile drunk to boot.

It was not a hit. The Stooges, on the other hand, impressed the Fox brass, and they were offered a contract without Healy.

Furious, Healy immediately put the kibosh on this by claiming the Stooges were his employees. The offer was duly rescinded.

When Larry, Moe and Shemp got word of this, they decided to cut Healy loose anyway and struck out on their own. True to form, Healy was incensed, forbidding them to use any of their old routines, which he considered his own copyrighted material, even threatening to bomb theatres if the Stooges dared to play them.

In desperation, Healy made a failed attempt to salvage his act by hiring replacement Stooges. It proved anything but a joyful reunion. This left the Stooges a man down. With all the foresight and perception that comes with drinking Wild Turkey for breakfast, he took one look at the future Curly Howard, the most beloved of all the Stooges, and dismissed him as not funny.

Admittedly, Jerry did not much resemble his iconic alter ego at that point, sporting long red hair and a handlebar moustache.

This earned him a huge laugh from the crowd vaudeville audiences were obviously a push-over , and one of the most gifted comic performers of the 20th century had officially arrived. The contract was not renewed, and in Healy and his Stooges finally went their separate ways. Not only was he prone to violent, drunken rages, he was apt to do some very dumb things indeed. Already several sheets to the wind when he arrived at the Trocadero on the Sunset Strip, Healy lost no time in mixing things up with another famously belligerent drunk, character actor Wallace Beery, who was drinking at the bar with DiCicco.

Healy suggested they take things outside. They duly did, and Beery and DiCicco proceeded to beat Healy to a pulp. The beating was so savage, in fact, that the following day Healy fell into a coma and died.

The Final Years of Curly (of Three Stooges Fame) | Mental Floss

Mayer deployed his infamous fixers Eddie Mannix and Howard Strickling to protect Beery, one of his top stars, by covering up the incident. MGM story editor Samuel Marx confirmed this in an interview shortly before his death in And by then, they had quite another ruthless sociopath to contend with. AT THE TIME OF HEALY'S DEATH, THE THREE STOOGES HAD BEEN UNDER CONTRACT TO THE MONSTROUS HARRY COHN'S COLUMBIA PICTURES FOR THREE YEARS.

They were on the brink of their greatest success and had honed their act into the classic Stooge mode that defines them to this day. The internal mechanism of The Three Stooges is deceptively simple. Moe, with his gravelly voice, permanent scowl and menacing helmet of bowl-cut hair, was the leader, invariably the under-boss entreated with overseeing whatever hopelessly doomed endeavour the Stooges found themselves pursuing and whatever it was, you can bet it involved heavy objects and the potential for maximum mayhem; plumbing, not surprisingly, was a favourite Stooge profession.

Moe actually had his brother Shemp to thank for his signature move. Once, during a card game, Shemp became so convinced that Larry was cheating him he leapt up and poked him in both eyes. Moe made a note of it and duly incorporated it into the act. An easygoing simpleton, Larry was the essential, non-threatening intermediary, and he brought a special genius to the role. Even given the quick-fire production schedule for shorts, the Stooges were extraordinarily prolific during their Columbia years, churning out film after film of, more often than not, admirable quality in terms of writing, direction and production values, given they were shot in a mere four or five days.

And their films were hugely popular, often getting a more positive response than the features they were designed to accompany. Naturally, their talent, industriousness and lucrative bankability were rewarded with all the bounteous largesse for which Harry Cohn was justly famous.

Although the legend that in the 23 years they spent at Columbia the Stooges never received a payrise is untrue, it is rooted in reality. Playing his customary dual role of ruthless businessman and enthusiastic sadist, Cohn kept the Stooges on a one-year contract throughout their career at the studio, forcing them to re-negotiate their employment every 12 months, browbeating them into signing for a pittance with warnings that the shorts department was in financial trouble.

Keeping its biggest stars in the dark as to their true value was a deliberate ploy to ensure they worked cheap. For one, they were terrified of Cohn and his Mob connections, as were a good many people in Hollywood.

As working-class guys, fearful of losing their livelihood, they were happy to take what they were given. AS EARLY AS , THE LIFE OF A STOOGE HAD BEGUN TO TAKE ITS TOLL ON CURLY.

Playing a human punchbag day in, day out for years, enduring constant blows to the head — most of which, according to Moe Howard, were every bit as real as they looked — brought on a series of minor cerebral haemorrhages that slowed him down to the point that he was unable to make personal appearances.

Shemp, now under contract to Columbia himself, was brought in to replace Curly in live performances. Cohn flatly refused to give Curly leave of absence, and it was not long before his declining health became evident on screen. His deterioration can first be seen in short If A Body Meet A Body. This should have signalled, at the very least, an extended period of rest and recuperation.

For their part, the other Stooges took on the extra responsibility willingly, hoping that Curly would eventually recover sufficiently to resume his role. But it was a losing battle and in , between takes on the short Half-Wits Holiday a remake of the two-reeler, Hoi Polloi , Curly suffered a massive, paralysing stroke.

In this he was as mistaken as many observers have been since. And if it was not immediately apparent to Cohn what replacing Curly entailed, the endless auditions for a new third Stooge alerted him to what Moe and Larry already knew: One is that, after Curly retired, Shemp did a valiant job but there was always something missing. Using the Three Stooges Wine Rating System in reverse gives a succinct, if harsh, summation of this position: Such wines are Shemps.

Although devastated, Moe and Larry kept the act alive, recruiting comedian Joe Besser as the third Stooge. This, as any Stooge fan will tell you, was the beginning of the end. Besser was never happy as a Stooge and, wary of what had happened to Curly, had a clause in his contract forbidding Moe from hitting him. By now, Columbia was the only studio in town producing shorts, and in , with television taking over the market, the department was shut down. A few weeks later, Moe returned to the studio to say goodbye to some old friends.

He was refused entry by a security guard. Shortly afterwards, amid negotiations for a live tour, Joe Besser left the act. By rights, this should have been the end of the road. But, in a supremely ironic twist of fate, the Stooges were actually on the brink of a major comeback. In Columbia offered a package of 78 Curly-era shorts for TV broadcast. Picked up by a number of networks across the US, they were an instant hit, particularly with children, and soon all Stooge shorts were in circulation and drawing huge audiences.

But it was, in many ways, a triumphant one. From to they made a series of feature films in the classic Stooge vein, including the infamous Snow White And The Three Stooges which is not nearly as bad as people would have you believe — well, not quite.

They also recorded 41 live wraparound segments for The New Three Stooges cartoon series.

It was not to be. In January , Larry Fine suffered a debilitating stroke, ending his career. Longtime Stooge co-star Emil Sitka was contracted to replace him, but no footage was ever shot with Sitka as a Stooge.

In December , Larry suffered another stroke and, the following month, he died at the age of Tragically, while negotiating a number of movie projects, Moe was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer. He died on May 4, BUT THE THREE STOOGES LIVE ON.

And in , Mel Gibson, perhaps the most famous Stooge fan, produced a Stooges TV biopic for ABC. The Simpsons is littered with Stoogeisms, so many they have their own website. Michael Jackson was also a huge fan, who drove around Neverland in a customised Stooge RV; he based his moonwalk on the Curly Shuffle, a move invented by Curly that made it look as if he was walking backwards.

The Stooges have even inspired poetry. Later, when stillness settles like an X-ray, you hear the most perfect line, the child in you laughing at its insistent plea that you imagine Dr. However you feel about the Stooges, such devotion is not born from an eye-poke alone, two-fingered or otherwise. For more in-depth stories on the history of Hollywood every month makes sure you subscribe to Empire today.

Gibson claimed that Riggs, a tortured insomniac, would definitely have been a Stooge fan, Late Show re-runs being the accompaniment to his dark nights of the soul. Doug Liman Exclusively Breaks Down The New Trailer. Pirates Of The Caribbean 5: Star Wars 40th Anniversary: Login Account Summary Profile Address Email Newsletters Email Preferences Interests Social Connections Phone Numbers Password Log Out.

The Tragic And Twisted Tale Of The Three Stooges. But the decision to bring Shemp back into the act was not that simple. After some initial trepidation, Harry Cohn was keen for Shemp to rejoin the act, and with Shemp under contract to Columbia, Cohn began to exert his influence of course, he expected Shemp to take a 50 per cent pay cut for relinquishing his hard-won independence.

Reluctantly, he signed on — but only, he insisted, until a permanent replacement for Curly could be found. In the end, Shemp remained a Stooge until his dying day. FOOL'S GOLD Just a few cinematic Stooge tributes! More from Empire if!

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