Three Stooges Celebrate 80 Years!

It was EIGHTY years ago (1934) that The Three Stooges - Larry, Moe & Curly - made their first "official" comedy short for Columbia Pictures, "Woman Haters." At a time when Lansing was caught up in the Great Depression, the Stooges were helpin' to cheer everyone up. (If ya wanna see what Lansing looked like during the Great Depression, go to THIS LINK and see for yourself!) The Stooges made 220 films: 190 of 'em the short films we all saw on TV with Larry, Moe, Curly, Shemp & Joe Besser. Curly Joe DeRita appeared only as the third stooge in the feature films of the 50's & 60's; Curly Howard and Shemp Howard appeared in stooge full-length films in the 1930's and 1940's. Feature films were made by all (including Curly Joe DeRita) except Joe Besser. It's easy to dismiss Stooge comedy as nothing but slapping, eye-gouging & konks on the head...but if you study these films, you'll see these guys had GREAT timing, creativity and talent. That's why these films still hold up so well today.

Here's what downtown Lansing looked like when the Stooges began their incredible string of films: