Well, dear readers, let us talk about The Three Stooges, shall we, since I have devoted so much time to watching this way overlong documentary on Prime – I thought I was finished after episode eight and yet – there was an episode nine, so I’ve just started watching that. What episode nine will cover is probably the son of Moe, who narrates and makes too much of it about him. Episode nine certainly can’t be about The Three Stooges as of episode eight every incarnation of them is dead. Now, the first time I saw The Three Stooges was in the early part of the 1950s, probably 1953 or 1954, at the Picfair Theater’s kiddie matinee on Saturday. My grandpa Sam (my father’s father, who died in 1956) would take me and we’d see cartoons, a serial chapter, a Three Stooges short (when they were NEW – with Shemp), and a feature film. Before I get to the Stooges, I write about Grandpa Sam in Benjamin Kritzer. Back in 2001 we didn’t have the Internet we have today, so I guessed at the year – I’d have to go look but I think I got it right – I knew the area he lived in, off Fairfax near The Bagel, a deli we used to go to frequently, but not the address. Thanks to newspapers.com, I found the address at 1061 Ogden Drive, although a different newspaper lists it at 4467 Cerritos Ave – I have no idea where that is. Anyway, I just looked up the Ogden address – it’s a duplex that’s probably been there since the 1930s and is still there, looking quite well kept. He could have walked to the Picfair and The Bagel from there. I just looked up the Cerritos Ave. address and it’s in Long Beach, so I wonder if at some point he lived with my Aunt Bella (his daughter) and Uncle Larry – they’re cousin Alan’s parents. Anyway, the POINT is that’s where I first discovered the lunacy of The Three Stooges and I probably saw all the Shemps of that era and maybe even the Joe Besser ones. I also think they showed a few older ones with Curly. But once they were done, they were done. At that point, they’d never been on TV. That changed in 1959 when Don Lamond hosted an afternoon TV show that showed the package of films that Screen Gems had licensed. Until that happened, the Stooges were basically done. But a funny thing happened on the way to syndication – they were discovered anew and were suddenly more popular than they’d ever been. I mean POPULAR. So popular that Columbia, who’d fired them just one year prior, had to come back to them with a sweet deal to make their first feature film, Have Rocket, Will Travel. I was there for that one at the Uptown Theater opening day first show, with a VERY unruly crowd of obnoxious kids. It took me a while to get used to the Curly/Shemp/Joe replacement – Joe de Rita, who they called Curly Joe, and I ended up liking him. But I was obsessed with The Three Stooges, as I’d not seen very many of the Curly shorts. My favorites were the shorts that had pie fights. Oh, how I loved the pie fights. That’s why I put one in one of the Sami episodes, a dream come true. And it was hilarious, just as pie fights always are. In fact, we lifted the sound of the pie hits right from a Three Stooges short – so it’s very accurate.
The documentary does have wonderful home movies and clips and interviews and that’s all great. The narration, for me, was like fingers on a blackboard. And it’s close to seven HOURS long, all told, and that’s just too loose and too repetitious for my taste. But it’s worth it just to see the clips and home movies. What’s really astonishing is how old they all looked at the end, when they died. The fact is, they all died younger than I am now, except Moe, who live to seventy-eight. But it’s the comeback that’s most astonishing – making feature films every year, personal appearances all over the country. In fact, I saw then in person at the Moulin Rouge in Hollywood. They played there in November of 1959 for two weeks and I was taken there by my father on a Saturday matinee. I don’t know who he knew there, but I was taken backstage before the show and had my picture taken with them. I fear that wonderful picture is gone with the wind, probably thrown in the trash at some point, but not by me, oh no, not by me.
Other than that, I got about six hours of sleep. I was awakened by the doorbell ringing at seven – I’d placed an Instacart order the night before so that I’d have the English muffins here along with the jam, and I also got food for yesterday, today, and tomorrow, starring Sophia Loren. The delivery was scheduled from between seven and ten and in my experience it’s always toward the end and never first thing – except it was first thing. Anyway, I answered e-mails, then at nine I had an English muffin and cherry jam, then took pill one. I had a long telephonic conversation after that, went to the mail place, came home, then did things on the computer until two o’clock. I cooked hamburger meat and onions, then inserted some into two taco shells with lettuce and cheese and I ate the two tacos – very good. Then I put the rest that was left on a hamburger bun with some cheese and that was great – like having a Bell Burger, for those who remember that item from long ago Taco Bell. That was nice and filling as well as filling and nice and then I took pill two. I did a few more things, then began watching episode four and by the time I finished episode eight it was eleven and time to write these here notes. For my evening food, I had some crackers then some pistachio ice cream I forgot I had. Then came pill three.
Today, I’ll be up by ten at the latest, I’ll have my English muffin and jam, take pill one, answer e-mails and do more catching up, I believe I’ll make the rest of the meat and onions and either do tacos and Bell burger again or have bow tie pasta with the meat, onions, butter, and parmesan cheese – that sounds pretty good right about now. Then at some point, I’ll watch, listen, and relax.
The rest of the week is more of the same and I’m pretty sure there’ll be a meeting and meal towards the end of the week.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, be up by ten at the latest, have my English muffin, take my pills, either repeat yesterday’s lunch or make pasta, and watch, listen, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: When did you discover The Three Stooges and were they your cuppa tea? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, happy to reminisce about The Three Stooges.