Shemp Howard

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Samuel Horwitz (March 11, 1895 – November 22, 1955), also known as Shemp Howard, was an American actor and comedian.

He was branded "Shemp" because "Sam" came out that way in his mother's thick Litvak accent.

He is best known as the third stooge in the Three Stooges, a position he played during the 1920s (1923–1932), but it was also associated with Ted Healy and his Stooges; and then from 1946 to 1955.

He had a fruitful solo career as a film comedian during his time with the Stooges.

Early life

Howard was born Samuel Horwitz in Bensonhurst, New York, on March 17, 1895, and raised in Brooklyn. Solomon Horwitz (1872-1943), and Jennie Horwitz (1870-1939) was the third-born of the five Horwitz brothers, born in Lithuanian Jewish parents Solomon Horwitz (1872–1943). Irving (1891-1939) and Benjamin (Jack) (1893-1976) were his older brothers; Moses (Moe) (1897–1975) and Jerome (Curly) (1903–1952) were his younger brothers.

Shmuel, Howard's first name, was anglicized to Samuel, and his parents and brothers used to call him Sam.

Personal life

Shemp married Gertrude Frank (1905–1982), a fellow New Yorker, in September 1925. Morton (1927–1972) had one child. Gertrude Frank Howard died before her husband and son, but she was living when Barney Frank (the son of her father's uncle) became a US Congressman in 1940.

Shemp's largely homely appearance was often used for comedic relief, with him mugging grotesquely or allowing his hair to fall in disarray. He even participated in a publicity stunt dubbed him "The Ugliest Man in Hollywood." (I'm hideous") He told reporters, "I'm ashamed." He was phobic about airplanes, automobiles, dogs, and water. Shemp was involved in a driving accident as a child but never obtained a driver's license, according to Moe's autobiography.

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Career

Moe Howard, Shemp's brother, began acting and filming as a youngster. With an act they titled "Howard and Howard – A Study in Black," Moe and Shemp eventually tried their hands as minstrel-show-style "blackface" comedians. They were also working for a rival vaindeville circuit without makeup at the same time.

Moe had collaborated with boyhood friend Ted Healy in a "roughhouse" appearance by 1922. One day, Moe noticed his brother Shemp in the audience and yelled at him from the stage. Shemp yelled right back and stepped out onto the stage, bringing the quick-witted Shemp right back. He was a member of the "Ted Healy and His Stooges" band from the start, and was regarded as "Healy and His Stooges" in the course. The Howard brothers were the first Stooges; Larry Fine joined them in 1928. When his three neoge stooges appeared in his way, Healy sang and told jokes, and Healy retaliated with physical and verbal abuse. Shemp was a bumbling fireman in the Stooges' first film, Soup to Nuts (1930), the only film in which he appeared in Healy's gang.

Moe, Larry, and Shemp decided to launch "Howard, Fine & Howard," after a rivalry with Healy in August 1930 and joined the RKO vaudeville circuit. On August 28, 1930, they appeared at the Paramount Theatre in Los Angeles. They added "Three Lost Soles" to the act's name in 1931, then champion Jack Walsh took on Jack Walsh as their straight man. Moe, Larry, and Shemp continued until July 1932, when Ted Healy invited them to perform again for the Shuberts' Broadway show "Passing Show of 1932," and they gladly accepted the invitation. Despite their previous differences, Moe knew that Healy's national Healy link would bring them closer to being on their own.

Healy walked out of the Shuberts' revue during rehearsals on August 16, 1932, in a labour dispute. Shemp, a few days later, was dissatisfied with Healy's stooges' work, left Healy's performance with "Passing Exhibition" in September, which concluded in Detroit and Cincinnati after pan reviews. Shemp reformed himself and spent the next few months on the road. In May 1933, he was spotted at Vitaphone Studios in Brooklyn for film appearances. Shemp was immediately replaced by his and Moe's younger brother Jerry Howard (known as Curly) after he recovered from Healy.

Shemp Howard, a New York-based performer, started working at Brooklyn's Vitaphone studio. He was given speaking parts and supporting parts right away after appearing on Vitaphone's Roscoe Arbuckle comedies, demonstrating his comedic appearance. Jack Haley, Ben Blue, and Gus Shy appeared in Vitaphone comics, then co-starred with Harry Gribbon, Daphne Pollard, and Johnnie Berkes, and then appeared in his own two-reel comedies. Art Trouble (1934), a Gribbon-Howard short film, also stars James Stewart in his first film role. Shemp was featured in the independently produced Convention Girl (1935) in a very rare straight role as a blackmailer and would-be murderer.

Shemp rarely stuck to the script. He starred in scenes with ad-libbed dialogue and wisecracks, which became his signature. Vitaphone was allowed to produce short comedies based on the "Joe Palooka" comic strip in late 1935. Shemp was portrayed as "Knobby Walsh" and, although merely a supporting character, he became the series's comedic star, with Johnnie Berkes and Lee Weber as his foils. He appeared in the first seven shorts, which were released in 1936-1937. Nine of them were manufactured, with the last two being completed after Shemp's departure from Vitaphone.

Howard unsuccessfully attempted to lead his own group of "stooges" in the Van Beuren musical comedy short "The Knife of the Party." It was an unusual occurrence in an otherwise fruitful solo career. He followed his brothers' example in 1937, migrated to the West Coast, and began supporting-actor work at several studios, mainly Columbia Pictures and Universal. He worked at Universal from August 1940 to August 1943, including W. C. Fields (playing Fields' bartender in the film The Bank Dicken (2004)); and with comedy duos Abbott and Costello and Olsen and Johnson. Charlie Chan and the Than Man murder mysteries were given humour by the comedian. How Can He Succeed? Private Buckaroo (1942), How's It? - Why Does It Exist? (1943), Moonlight and Cactus (1944), and San Antonio Rose (1941), the latter of which he was paired with Lon Chaney, Jr. as a faux Abbott and Costello. The bulk of these projects used his improvisational abilities. When Frank Fay walked out on a string of films starring Billy Gilbert, Gilbert called on his closest friend, Shemp Howard, to replace him in three B-comedy films for Monogram Pictures, shot in 1944–45. He also appeared in a few notable roles, such as his supporting role in Pittsburgh (1942) starring Marlene Dietrich and John Wayne.

Howard appeared in Columbia's two-reel comedies, co-starring Columbia regulars Andy Clyde, The Glove Slingers, El Brendel, and Tom Kennedy from 1938–1946. In 1944, he was given his own starring role. He was working in Columbia when his brother Curly was killed by a debilitating stroke on May 6, 1946. Curly had already had a series of strokes prior to filming of If a Body Meets a Body (1945), and Shemp appeared for Curly in January 1945 at the St. Charles Theatre in New Orleans.

Shemp agreed to substitute Curly in Columbia's famous Stooge shorts, knowing that if they did not return, Moe and Larry would be out of work. Curly's health worsened, and he intended to remain only until Curly recovered. Curly died on January 18, 1952 at the age of 48. Shemp has agreed to remain with the company in perpetuity.

Shemp's role as the third Stooge was very different from Curly's. Although he could have slapstick abuse in reaction to Moe's slapstick insults, he was more of a laid-back slapstick jerk in comparison to Curly's vivacious man-child persona. Shemp's most notable feature as a Stooge, unlike Curly, was a high-pitched "bee-bee-bee bee-bee," according to his narrator. It's a kind of soft screech caused by inhaling, which is sound. It was a multipurpose use: He snorted this sound when he was afraid, sleeping (done as a way of snoring), overtly content, or dazed. Curly's "nyuk nyuk" sound had become Curly's trademark sound as the "nyuk nyuk" sound had become Curly's. In addition to his well-known solo career, he was also given opportunities in the film to perform some of his own comedies.

During this period, the Three Stooges ventured into live television broadcasting, beginning with Milton Berle on his Texas Star Theatre team on Tuesday, October 19, 1948.

In 73 short stories (77 when counting four that were made after Shemp's death by incorporating stock footage). The trio also made the film Gold Raiders (1951), which was also filmed in 1956. Shemp suffered a mild stroke in November 1952 but recovered within weeks. The medical episode had no effect on his remaining films with the Stooges, several of which were remakes of earlier films that also used recycled footage to reduce costs.

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