The substitute Stooges.
Tom McCafferty
Apparently the original Stooges walked out on their manager for some
reason.
Their manager discovered subtitutes. They were in the bio program.
Is there any data on them on the 'net?
Markshark989
You're thinking of Ted Healy's Stooges. Just a basic brief history: Ted Healy
was a childhood friend of Moe and Shemp Howad. Some time in the early 1920s,
they crossed paths again (after not having seen each other for years) and
either Shemp, or Moe, or both, were in the audience of a vaudeville performance
of Healy and his wife. The usual story is that Shemp heckled Healy from the
audience, Healy called him up on stage, they improvised a bit together, he
joined the act permanently, then Moe joined, and later on, they picked up Larry
in Chicago after they saw him perform a Russian dance while playing the violin.
Reportedly, Larry was running late, had just showered and had not dried his
hair, and a theatre manager told him to get on stage immediately, regardless.
Healy and Shemp and/or Moe saw Larry's hairdo and decided they needed him
either (depending on the version of the story) as a replacement for either
Shemp or Moe, or as an additional Stooge.
Moe, Larry and Shemp then performed with Healy from around the mid-1920s until
around 1931, during which time they also made the 1930 Fox feature film "Soup
To Nuts." Also appearing in "Soup To Nuts" was a fourth member, Fred Sanborn,
who also was part of Healy's act at the time.
Reportedly, the Stooges (but not Healy) were offered a Fox film contract on the
strength of their performances in this film. Healy heard about it, made a
scene, and helped blow the deal for them. The Stooges reacted with anger and
split from Healy. They went on their own as "Howard, Fine and Howard" with
straight man Jack Walsh.
Meanwhile, Healy hired three replacement Stooges. They were Dick Hakins, Jack
Wolfe and Paul "Mousie" Garner. They played with Healy for a couple years; in
1932, "our" Stooges briefly made peace with Healy and rejoined him. They were
booked to perform in a show called "The Passing Show Of 1932." Joe Besser (who
later replaced Shemp as a Stooge following Shemp's death in the 1950s) was also
in that show. In Joe Besser's autobiography he also says Curly Howard used to
hang out backstage, but did not participate in the show. But Healy had a
disagreement with the show's producers and walked, possibly as a bluff to get a
higher salary. Healy left and took Moe and Larry with him, but Shemp refused to
go with them, and he stayed in the show (assuming Healy's role, is that what
I've read somewhere?). For the first couple weeks of the Healy/Stooges
post-"Passing Show" performances, Fred Sanborn returned to the fold to replace
Shemp, and then Shemp was permanently replaced by Curly.
Meanwhile, Garner and Hakins were also performing (with Sammy Glaser replacing
Jack Wolf and billed as "Sammy Wolf") and ironically, these three also hired
Jack Walsh as a straight man. They also performed in a couple of films
together. And there is a (possibly unrelated) trio billed as "The Three
Stooges" in the 1934 Universal feature film, "Gift Of Gab." There is another
Universal film called "Myrt And Marge," which was listed in some older Stooge
filmographies, then later, it was claimed that it was not "our" Stooges but
this other group...but as it turns out, "Myrt And Marge" *does* co-star "our"
Stooges (Moe, Larry and Curly, with Ted Healy).
Which brings us pretty much to the end of the Healy saga; Healy, Moe, Larry and
Curly ended up getting signed by MGM to do a handful of shorts and appear (in
various combinations) in some feature films; the Stooges split with Healy in
1934 and signed with Columbia; Healy stayed with MGM and continued to make
films, and Healy died in 1937.
There also has been some conflicting information regarding who was in Healy's
act and when. It's been stated in some books that Healy's first Stooges were
Shemp, Lou Warren and Dick Hakins, and that group goes back to 1922. Also,
Garner and others are reported to have "filled in" for one or another of "our"
Stooges at times, but a lot of that information seems to be in dispute. Garner
also has claimed that on several later occasions, he was considered as a
possible replacement either for Curly, or for Shemp, or even for Joe Besser.
Garner has said Moe and Larry wanted him badly, but he could not perform with
them due to contractual obligations; Moe is quoted in one book as saying Garner
auditioned to replace Shemp but was "completely unacceptable." Garner also once
said he had been slated to fill in for Shemp in a television sitcom the Stooges
were to do in either the late 1940s or early 1950s; a pilot was filmed in 1949
(with Moe, Larry and Shemp), but apparently never aired until the late 1990s on
cable TV. There are a couple stories, one that the Stooges' contract forbade
them from doing a regular television series, and the other that Shemp backed
out and wouldn't do a series (hence another ill-fated opportunity for Garner to
step in). Garner later joined Joe De Rita ("Curly-Joe") and Frank Mitchell as
"The New Three Stooges" for some nightclub performances in the early to
mid-1970s, apparently with Moe Howard's blessings. That's not the only
"temporary fill-in" story making the rounds; there also are reports that
*Shemp* substituted for Curly in some live stage performances when Curly was
not well enough to perform, and this supposedly pre-dated Shemp's actual
"official" replacing Curly by at least two or three years. However, to my
knowledge, none of this has been officially documented.
I think that's pretty much it. Ted Healy's granddaughter (Beth Healy) used to
post here occasionally and provided some very interesting information on him.
There also is a Ted healy website:
Tom McCafferty
I think Mousie is still alive.