Columnist ties new Shemp Howard biography to immigration debate!

 

SHEMP!, Burt Kearns' game-changing biography of Three Stooges legend Shemp Howard, has drawn attention and praise from media and readers since its publication this month. A very intersting take comes from James Logue, columnist for the Exponent Telegram newspaper of Clarksburg, West Virginia, in his  reaction to the Washington Post article on the Amazon best-selling book.

Shemp, the unsung Stooge

·       by James Logue FOR THE EXPONENT TELEGRAM

     October 22, 2024

 

Regular readers of this column over the years know that in my annual list of unpopular Halloween costumes I end the list with Shemp.

 

Shemp was the accidental member of The Three Stooges who had to always live in the shadow of his more popular brother, Curly.

 

So I was reading The Washington Post online the other day and noticed a story in the books section that startled me. It reviewed a book on Shemp Howard, the “unsung” member of The Three Stooges.

 

Shemp started out as an original member of The Three Stooges, working with his brother Moe Howard and Larry Fine.

 

So what’s with the name, you ask. Well, he was born Schmuel Horwitz in 1895 to Jewish Lithuanian immigrants. His nickname was Sam but his mother, who had a very thick accent, always called him Shemp.

Now think about this for a moment. All you people out there who get your knickers in a knot over immigration, just think that if Mr. and Mrs. Horwitz were not allowed into the United States, we would not have had The Three Stooges.

 

Shemp left the act in the early 1930s to star in his own movies. It was then that Curly took his place and movie history was made.

 

Curly, who remains laugh-out-loud funny almost a century later, was very popular with movie audiences and helped the Stooges make a lot of money for Columbia Pictures.

 

Shemp, in the meantime, was very successful on his own, making his own short features and even doing some dramatic roles.

"All you people out there who get 

your knickers in a knot over immigration, 

just think that if Mr. and Mrs. Horwitz 

were not allowed into the United States, 

we would not have had The Three Stooges.”

 

In 1947, after years of drinking and smoking and dealing with hypertension, Curly suffered a career-ending stroke.

 

Shemp, who was also Curly’s brother, stepped in to keep the Stooges going. He was in a very awkward situation. Curly was the king. Shemp had impossibly large shoes to fill.

 

But even though he was not Curly, he turned out to be just as funny. And the Stooges shorts were as popular as ever.

 

Shemp did 77 short features for the team before he succumbed to a heart attack in 1955. The Stooges went on but they were not the same nor were they as popular as before.

 

The new book is simply called “Shemp,” by Burt Kearns. He said that “of all the great comedy performers of the 20th century, few have been as shortchanged as Shemp.”

 

If you have a chance, go on YouTube and watch Shemp in “Brideless Groom,” one of his best. Curly would be proud.

 

James Logue, who accepts that Shemp is still an unpopular Halloween costume, can be reached at jlogue@theet.com

 

SHEMP! Is coming! (video!)

SHEMP! 

The Biography of The Three Stooges’ Shemp Howard, 

The Face of Film Comedy 

by Burt Kearns, 

coming October 1, 2024 

from Applause Theatre and Cinema Books

Publisher to release two books by Burt Kearns in 2024: Tierney to Brando to SHEMP!

Shemp!

While gearing up for the release of his new book, Marlon Brando: Hollywood Rebel, author (journalist and television and film producer) Burt Kearns already has another book ready to be launched in 2024. After his acclaimed biography of tough guy actor Lawrence Tierney, his forthcoming study of Brando’s influence on popular culture, what other actor and iconic Hollywood figure could round out this trio of giants? None other than Shemp!  Shemp Howard of the Three Stooges.

Publishing giant Rowman & Littlefield has announced that Kearns's book (and second of 2024), SHEMP! The Biography of The Three Stooges’ Shemp Howard, The Face of Film Comedy, will be unleashed on October 1. Like Hollywood Rebel (due April 2, the day before Brando’s centennial), Shemp! is on the publisher's Applause Theatre and Cinema Books imprint.

The publisher describes the book:

Shemp Howard is one of the most recognizable faces of the twentieth century. He was also one of Hollywood’s most influential comic actors. An original member of the Three Stooges, Shemp, along with his brother Moe and vaudeville violinist Larry Fine, perfected a brand of raucous, lowbrow, slapstick comedy that had audiences rolling in the aisles of vaudeville houses, Broadway theatres, and movie palaces, and left an indelible imprint on the face of popular entertainment. Then he walked away... and the new Three Stooges – Moe, Larry, and brother Curly – made history.

But Shemp didn’t disappear. He made Hollywood history on his own, in a successful and -- until now –- 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, James Stewart, William Powell, Abbott & Costello, Lon Chaney, Jr., Myrna Loy, and Marlene Dietrich. 

Shemp! is the first book to challenge the “official” version of Three Stooges history that’s been repeated for decades, shattering myths as it uncovers the surprising and often unsettling facts behind the man’s unlikely story: how the child of Jewish immigrants, racked with severe anxiety and a supposed fear of automobiles, dogs, and water—could conquer vaudeville, Broadway, and Hollywood. And it’s more than a biography: author Burt Kearns digs into the shorts and feature films he did on his own—more than a hundred of them—and, through interviews with fans, family members, scholars, experts, filmmakers, and celebrities, examines the “cult of Shemp” that thrives today.

We’re told to "expect to be surprised” in this new, critical, and journalistic look at an often-overlooked comedy star.