SHEMP!

The life of comic actor and original Three Stooges member Shemp Howard.

Born Schmuel Horvitz in 1895 to Lithuanian Jewish immigrants, comic and character actor Shemp Howard was the elder brother of Three Stooges performers Moe and Curly (nonrelative Larry Fine was the third). But to most, he is known as the “fourth wheel” Stooge who replaced his popular brother Curly in 1946. Kearns argues—and argues, and argues—that despite being overshadowed by his brothers, Shemp was the Stooge’s “original star” who helped give birth to the comedy trio. As youths, both Shemp and his younger brother Moe demonstrated an aptitude for comedy, though it was Moe who, at age 11, struck out first into the world of acting. By 1910, they were a duo in a blackface act; when they managed to land gigs with both the RKO and Loew vaudeville circuits, they evaded the ban on double-booking by doing the same act in whiteface for Loew. Invited onstage at a performance by Moe and fellow comedian Ted Healy in 1923, Shemp incited a “roughhouse ruckus,” and from then on, the act was known as “Ted Healy and His Stooges.” Shemp, Moe, and comedian Larry Fine eventually launched their own vaudeville act in 1930. They rejoined their old boss in 1932, but Shemp quit less than two weeks later after a financial dispute with Healy, to be replaced by Curly. Shemp began a solo acting career at Vitaphone studios in Brooklyn. In the 1940s, he landed significant character actor roles at major Hollywood studios and played alongside screen legends like Marlene Dietrich and John Wayne. Through extensive research that includes interviews with film experts, family members, and fellow celebrities, Kearns strives strenuously and mostly successfully to demonstrate that “underrated, underappreciated” Shemp Howard was a “comedic superlative” who deserves a place on the “Mount Rushmore of comedy” and a gifted character actor who was his own man before he was a Stooge.

An illuminating, albeit slightly one-note, reworking of the Stooges mythology.