Three Stooges Timeline

• 1925- The Stooges form Vaudeville act Ted Healy and his Stooges along with performer Ted Healy.
• 1932- Shemp leaves act, Curly joins.
• 1934- The Three Stooges begin making their famous shorts.
• 1946- Curly suffers stroke and is forced to leave the act. Shemp is brought in as a replacement.
• 1952- Curly's health declines until his death.
• 1955- Shemp dies of a heart attack; the Stooges reuse old footage and use a stand in to complete more shorts as per demand in their contracts.
• 1956- Joe Besser is brought into the group.
• 1957- Columbia shuts down their shorts department, ending the Stooges run.
• 1959- After renewed popularity because of television, the Stooges embark on a personal appearance tour; Joe withdraws from the act to stay with his ailing wife. Curly-Joe DeRita is brought in as a replacement.
• 1959-1965- the Stooges make a series of popular feature films, and a successful animated televison series.
• 1970- Larry suffers a stroke ending his career.
• 1975- Larry suffer another stroke and dies. Later that year, Moe dies of lung cancer.
• 1988- Joe Besser dies.
• 1993- Curly-Joe DeRita dies.

The Stooges Today

The Stooges' popularity continues even today. It seems like a holiday isn't really a holiday without a Stooges marathon on somewhere. Many of today's media even contains Stooge references.

The Farrelly brother are even making a Three Stooges Movie set for release in 2009. Instead of being a bio movie, the movie will be much like the old Stooge shorts, but set in present day.

The Three Stooges legacy seems to live on forever.

Curly Joe DeRita

Curly Joe DeRita was born Joseph Wardell in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on July 12, 1909. His father was a stage technician, and his mother was a professional stage dancer, and the three of them would often act on stage together during his early childhood. After taking his mother's maiden name DeRita, Curly Joe joined the Burlesque circuit during the 1920s. During World War 2, DeRita joined the USO and performed throughout Britain and France.

After Joe Besser left the act, Moe, who was familiar with DeRita's work, asked him to join. DeRita accepted and became the first non-Jewish member of the Stooges. Because of DeRita's resmblance to both Curly Howard and Joe Besser, he was renamed Curly Joe.

Because Columbia had shut down the shorts departments, the Stooges began making feature films. In the 60s the Stooges appeared in an animated series, and shot a live action pilot called Kook's Tour. In 1970, the Stooges ended when Larry suffered a stroke. Years later, Curly Joe attempted to form a new Three Stooges with two new actors replacing Larry and Moe, but the act failed and Curly Joe retired.

Curly Joe died on July 3, 1993.

(photo from http://www.arcadovelho.com.br/Seriados/Patetas/3patetas_curlyjoe.jpeg)

Joe Besser

Joe Besser was born in St. Louis, MI on August 12, 1907. Joe was interested in show business at a young age, and particularly liked Howard Thurston's magic act. Whe Joe was twelve, he was allowed to be an audience plant in Thurston's act. Joe was so excited, that night he snuck onto Thurston's train and wasn't found untill the next day, when the train was in Detroit. Thurston told Joe parents, and began training Joe as his assistant. After Joe messed up a trick due to his nerves, he was only assigned comedic roles.

In 1932, Joe met and married Ernestine Dora Kretschmer. The two became neighbors and friends of Lou Costello. Joe would then appear in the Abbot and Costello film Africa Screams, which also had an appearance from Shemp. Joe and Shemp then became friends.

After Shemp died from a heart attack in 1955, Harry Cohn hired Joe to join. Joe didn't imitae Curly or Shemp, instead using the whiny character that he had developed over the years. He even had a clause in his contract that prohibited him from being hit too much. In 1957, Columbia shut down the two-reel comedy department. Moe and Larry wanted to tour with a live act, but Joe declined, wanting to stay with his wife after her heart attack in November of 1957.

Joe soon returned to televison and films, but was dismayed to see that fans only recognized him for his stint with the Stooges. Joe died of heart failure on March 1, 1988.

(photo from http://www.stoogeworld.com/_Biographies/joeport.jpg)