Tony Soprano meets Shemp Howard at Book Soup -- and it’s a mobbed hit!

It was standing room only at Book Soup on the Sunset Strip on the afternoon of Saturday, the last day of November 2024,  for “The Shempranos.” Named as a wink at “Glicked,” the other pop culture phenomenon of the holiday weekend, authors Burt Kearns and Ray Richmond packed them in for an action-packed discussion on the connections between their new high profile books, SHEMP! The Biography of The Three Stooges’ Shemp Howard, the Face of Film Comedy, and The Sopranos: The Complete Visual History. 

Officially titled “When Tony Met Shemp: The Influence of The Three Stooges Slapstick Violence on The Sopranos,” the event  was moderated by author, comedy archivist, show business historian and Hollywood publicist Jeff Abraham (who, with Kearns, wrote The Show Won't Go On: The Most Shocking, Bizarre, and Historic Deaths of Performers Onstage). Abraham’s sharp, well-researched questions and observations kept the discussion moving, and elicited from the authors surprising stories and information.

Richmond looks sharp                                  Kearns wields a Sharpie

The panel of course revealed specific Three Stooges and Shemp Howard solo scenes, shorts and films that have been documented as inspiration for  the comedy that often preceded or was included in the violence of The Sopranos. Richmond also revealed the dark inspirations of Sopranos creator David Chase, production problems caused by star James Gandolfini, the comic aesthetic of the series’ violence, and his theory of what happened after the screen cut to black in the series finale. Kearns spoke of the many gangster roles Shemp Howard played in his solo career, the exquisite timing and choreography of the Three Stooges’ violent comedy, and the culpability of his brother Moe in Shemp’s early death.  

Abraham led a  lively Q&A that followed.

“When Tony Met Shemp: The Influence of Three Stooges Slapstick Violence on The Sopranos” was part of the iconic bookstore’s celebration of Indies First, the campaign supporting independent bookstores on Small Business Saturday. Signed copies of SHEMP! and The Sopranos: The Complete Visual History are available in person and online at Book Soup.

Murderers Row of Writers: Jim Colucci, Ray Richmond, Burt Kearns, Frank DeCaro, Herbie J Pilato

“Fascinating! Fresh perspectives!” Booklist praises Shemp!, Burt Kearns’ biography of the most talented Stooge

Burt Kearns’ latest book, Shemp! The Biography of the Three Stooges, the Face of Film Comedy hits bookstores in October, six months after the publication of his Marlon Brando: Hollywood Rebel. 

Like the Brando book, the volume about the “fourth” member of the famed Three Stooges comedy team has caused some controversy, as readers and critics alike agree that Kearns’ research has literally rewritten Hollywood history, casting a very different light on the veteran comic actor and his rightful place in Hollywood history.

The latest praise comes in the October 15 issue of Booklist,  the publication of the American Library Association:

"Known best for his work as a sometime member of the Three Stooges, along with his younger brother, Moe Howard, and comedian Larry Fine, Shemp Howard also had a considerable career as a performer in live theater (on Broadway and on the road) and a supporting actor in a long list of two-reelers and feature films. Journalist and screenwriter Kearns writes with a fan’s passion, and his account of Shemp’s rise from working-class Bensonhurst in Brooklyn and the lower reaches of vaudeville to Broadway and Hollywood is fascinating. Those interested in vaudeville will enjoy Kearns’ detailed descriptions of sketches performed and reviews of shows on the circuit. Kearns’ chronicling of the evolution of the Three Stooges, from a side act in comedian Ted Healy’s much larger productions, in which they were billed as Ted Healy and His Stooges, to a popular if low-brow act in the movies and on television, offers fresh perspectives on an iconic comedy group. Shemp’s relationship with Moe, who dominated the Stooges on stage and off, was complicated, prompting Shemp’s solo adventures, which will be new to many readers.”   — Jack Helbig

author Burt Kearns

Shemp!, published by Applause Theatre & Cinema Books, is available wherever books are sold and of course online.

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.