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Today is the birthday of Moses Harry Horwitz who is better known by his stage name, Moe Howard. He was an American actor and comedian who is best remembered as the leader of the comedy team, ‘The Three Stooges.’
He was the leader and the most aggressive of the Stooges, much given to
bopping the others on the head with mallets, tweaking their noses,
gouging their eyes, kicking their shins and committing otherwise
cheerful acts of mayhem that magically never seemed to harm his partners
(YouTube links below).
photo: John Springer Collection / Corbis / Getty
Moe's
mother did not allow him to cut his hair during his childhood. When he
was being teased at school for having grown his hair to shoulder length,
he gave himself a haircut in his backyard shed. His ‘bowl cut’
hairstyle eventually became his distinctive style.
photo by Shirley V. Martin
I was not so keen on the group until I saw the film Mummy's Dummies
sometime in the late forties. The action takes place in Ancient Egypt
and I was beginning to be interested in Archaeology so it peaked my
interest.
Moe Howard started out in the 1920s as part of a vaudeville comedy act titled ‘Ted
Healy and His Stooges.’ The act originally had Moe and Ted Healy who
were later joined by Shemp Howard and Larry Fine (link below). Eventually, The Three Stooges
became distinguished for its slapstick comedy and farce with Moe and
Larry as its two mainstays. Though only three performers took the stage
to complete one act, a total of six performers (stooges) were featured
throughout the act’s running period of almost five decades. The Three Stooges collaborated with Columbia Pictures
and made 190 short films and Moe was widely recognized as one of the
stooges. He was seen in more than 250 films during his career spanning
six decades.
During those sixty years Moe Howard
struggled to replace, with brilliance, determination and luck, a
"Curly"Stooge
as each actor portraying him suffered ill health or died. The original
Curly's health problems brought back Shemp, who in turn was replaced by
comedian Joe Besser, who eventually gave way to "Curly Joe" DeRita.
Moe Howard died of lung cancer at age 77 on May 4, 1975, at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, where he had been admitted a week earlier in April, just over three months after the death of Larry Fine (link below) and just before his 78th birthday.
NY Times obit
His wife Helen Schonberger died of a heart attack later that year on
October 31, 1975, at age 75 and was interred in the crypt next to him on
the right.
At the time of his death, Moe Howard was working on his
autobiography titled I Stooged to Conquer. It was released in 1977 as Moe Howard and the Three Stooges.
There is an interesting and fun interview by David Letterman with the daughter of Moe, Joan Howard Maurer, on February 9, 1983 (link below).
Viewfinder links:
Net links:
YouTube links:
Ken R. Deutch ~ Moe Howard interview) (audio w/images)
Mike Douglas Show ~ Moe Howard (1 Hr., 9 Mins.)
Moe Howard ~
at Home (no sound)
Bad to the Bone video tribute
Richard Lamparski ~ Moe Howard (interview) (audio w/images)
David Letterman ~ Joan Howard Maurer (10 mins.)
"Only fools are positive."
~ Moe Howard
