Shemp Howard

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Shemp Howard (March 4, 1895 [1] – November 22, 1955) was part of the Three Stooges comedy team. Born Samuel Horwitz, he was called "Shemp" because "Sam" came out that way in his mother's thick Jewish Lithuanian accent. He was the older brother of Moe Howard and "third stooge" in the early years of the act. He would rejoin the trio in May 1946, after youngest brother Jerome "Curly" Howard suffered a stroke.

[edit] Early years

Shemp, along with his brother Moe, was born in Bensonhurst and Jerome (Curly), was born in Bath Beach a suburb of Bensonhurst section of Brooklyn, New York. He was the third of the five Horwitz brothers and of Levite and Lithuanian Jewish ancestry. Shemp played his somewhat homely appearance to comic effect, often mugging grotesquely or allowing his hair to fall in disarray. Notoriously phobic, his fears included airplanes, automobiles and water.

Moe entered show business in the 1910s. Shemp followed him in 1922, as part of a slapstick vaudeville act known as Ted Healy's Stooges. In September 1925, Shemp married Gertrude Frank (28) a fellow New Yorker. They had only one child, a son, Morton (born 1926) who died in 1972. On stage, Healy would sing and tell jokes while his three noisy stooges (show-business slang for assistants) would get in his way. Healy would retaliate with physical and verbal abuse. Shemp played a bumbling fireman in the Stooges' first film, Soup to Nuts, the only film in which he plays one of Ted Healy's gang.

[edit] Solo years

Healy was always the main attraction of the act, and his stooges were in constant disagreement with him over billing, money, and management. Tired of Healy's shenanigans, Shemp left Healy's act in 1932 to pursue a solo film career. He attempted, unsuccessfully, to create his own group of "stooges" in the Van Beuren musical comedy short Knife of the Party.

Otherwise, Shemp Howard's solo career was very successful. He performed with such comic greats as Fatty Arbuckle, W.C. Fields, and the comedy team Abbott and Costello, all of whom would reportedly trim his scene-stealing material. He also lent comic relief to Charlie Chan and Thin Man murder mysteries, and was hilarious in several Universal B-musicals of the early 1940s, among them Strictly In The Groove, How's About It? Moonlight And Cactus, and San Antonio Rose, in which he is paired with Lon Chaney Jr. as a faux Abbott & Costello. In most of these, his improvisational skills are highlighted. He was briefly teamed with comedians Billy Gilbert and Maxie Rosenbloom for three B-comedy features in 1944-45. He also played a few dramatic roles, such as his small role in the John Wayne film Pittsburgh in 1942.

[edit] The Three Stooges: 1947-1956

Since 1939, Shemp had been appearing frequently in Columbia's two-reel comedies, co-starring with Columbia regulars Andy Clyde, The Glove Slingers, El Brendel, and Tom Kennedy. Howard was given his own starring series in 1944; he was working for Columbia in this capacity when his brother Curly was felled by a debilitating stroke in 1946. Shemp reluctantly replaced Curly in Columbia's popular Stooge shorts. Initially, Shemp rejoined the Stooges on a temporary basis until Curly recovered, but as Curly's condition worsened, it became apparent that Shemp's association with the Stooges would be permanent. (Prior to replacing Curly on film, Shemp had substituted for his brother in some personal appearances in the early 1940s.)

Shemp is often compared to Curly, but his comedic stylings were unique, and some fans even prefer his gruff, wisecracking comic style over Curly's brand of silliness. Shemp appeared with Moe and Larry in 73 short subjects and the feature film Gold Raiders. He suffered a mild stroke in November 1952, though without noticeable effect on his remaining films with the Stooges (largely remakes of earlier films that recycled footage to reduce costs). Some fans, however, contend that in these later cheapies, Shemp looks weak, pale, and even disoriented.

[edit] Death

While returning home by taxicab from a boxing match on November 22, 1955, Shemp died of a massive heart attack. Shemp was lighting a cigar after telling a joke when he suddenly slumped over in his friend Al Winston's lap. Although Moe Howard claimed in his autobiography that Shemp died on November 23, 1955 and most accounts point to that date, the Los Angeles county coroner death certificate states that Shemp Howard died on Tuesday November 22, 1955 at 11:35 PST. He is interred at the Home of Peace Memorial Park in East Los Angeles.

In 1985, his surviving widow Gertrude Howard requested that Shemp's remains be exhumed. A second autopsy revealed that Shemp died from massive opaque plaque buildup in his arteries ^[1] In Paul "Mousie" Garner's 1985 biography of the Three Stooges, co-written by Joan Howard Maurer, Gertrude is quoted as saying that after his mild stroke in 1952, Shemp was prescribed an unknown heart medication despite never being otherwise treated for a heart problem.

[edit] "Fake Shemp"

Columbia had promised exhibitors eight Three Stooges comedies for 1956, but only four were completed when Shemp died. To fulfill the contract, producer Jules White manufactured four more shorts by reusing old footage of Shemp and filming new connecting scenes with a double (longtime Stooge supporting actor Joe Palma), seen mostly from the back. The re-edited films range from clever to blatantly patchy, and Stooge fans often dismiss them as the "fake Shemps." Rumpus in the Harem borrows from Malice in the Palace, Hot Stuff from Fuelin' Around, Commotion on the Ocean from Dunked in the Deep. The best (and most technically accomplished) is Scheming Schemers, combining new footage with recycled clips from three old Stooge shorts: A Plumbing We Will Go, Half-Wits Holiday, and Vagabond Loafers.^[2]

When it was time to renew the Stooges' contract, Columbia hired comedian Joe Besser to replace Shemp. After 16 films, Columbia replaced Joe by (in a sense) bringing back Shemp. Columbia kept the series going into the 1960s by reissuing Shemp's Stooge comedies. Thus, Shemp Howard remained a popular movie star for more than a decade after his death.

In a 2000 TV-movie, Shemp was played by John Kassir.

[edit] See also

• Lithuanian Jews
• Fake Shemp

[edit] References

[edit] Further reading

• Moe Howard and the Three Stooges; by Moe Howard [2], (Citadel Press, 1977).
• The Columbia Comedy Shorts; by Ted Okuda with Edward Watz [3], (McFarland, 1986).
• The Complete Three Stooges: The Official Filmography and Three Stooges Companion; by Jon Solomon [4], (Comedy III Productions, Inc., 2002).
• The Three Stooges Scrapbook; by Jeff Lenburg, Joan Howard Maurer, Greg Lenburg [5](Citadel Press, 1994).
• The Three Stooges: An Illustrated History, From Amalgamated Morons to American Icons; by Michael Fleming [6](Broadway Publishing, 1999).
• One Fine Stooge: A Frizzy Life in Pictures; by Steve Cox and Jim Terry [7], (Cumberland House Publishing, 2006).

[edit] External links

• Shemp Howard at the Internet Movie Database
• Shemp Howard at the Internet Broadway Database
• http://www.shempcompany.com/
• Shemp Howard memorial at Find A Gravede:Shemp Howard

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