Tragedy Drove The Three Stooges To Replace Curly With Shemp

Few trios in entertainment history have ever proven to be as iconic and influential as the Three Stooges, the titular misfits at the center of a vaudeville team that performed from 1922 until 1970. However, for how memorable this team was, it did not always have the same lineup. Why did The Three Stooges part ways with Curly and bring on Shemp?

The Three Stooges enjoyed the most fame from 1934 to 1946, when the team consisted of Larry, Moe, and Curly, played by Larry Fine, Moe Howard, and Curly Howard. This lineup would not last – several times over – but Curly’s departure would be the most bewildering – and the one steeped in personal struggles that were a sharp contrast to the humor Curly inspired.

Why was Shemp recruited into The Three Stooges?

The history of the Stooges actually dates back to before they were a nationally-regarded comedy success. Actually, first came Moe and Shemp Howard, brothers born as Moses and Samuel Horwitz, respectively. In 1922, the comedy duo was recruited, along with Larry Fine, to be part of a new vaudeville act, Ted Healy and His Stooges, featuring Ted Healy as the straight man to the outrageous antics of his stooges.

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However, Healy was infamously temperamental, sometimes even violent, and prone to jealousy that could turn frighteningly aggressive because of his heavy drinking. Fearing for his safety, Shemp parte dways with the group to develop his own solo career, never to return – until a vacancy opened years later.

Enter and exit Curly Howard from ‘The Three Stooges’

That still left Larry and Moe in the thick of things. But Curly proved to be their escape card. It was Shemp’s idea to fill in the gap left by his departure with Curly, born as Jerome Horwitz, and younger brother to Moe and Shemp. Moe was very skeptical, asserting that Curly had “no talent whatsoever.” But they proved a solid enough team that they could all part ways with the volatile Healy.

Sadly, their success with audiences would not always mean stability in their personal lives. Curly’s lifestyle involved a lot of heavy drinking and heating; this combination saw him suffer from high blood pressure. Then, while filming on May 6, 1946, Curly sat in the director’s chair and, when he was called to do a scene, he did not answer. Time passed and Moe went looking for his brother.

He found him slumped over in that chair, chin on his chest, mouth distorted, unable to do anything but cry. Curly had suffered a massive stroke and was rushed to the hospital. Curly would take time to recover but this would be a defining moment in his career, putting the pieces into motion for his untimely retirement.

Although Shemp was in the midst of his solo career and did not want to interrupt that progress, he agreed to fill in for Curly to make sure Moe and Larry did not have their own careers upended, Screen Rant writes. Ultimately, this replacement would never be undone and Curly, who suffered from mental deterioration at the North Hollywood Hospital and Sanitarium, died on January 18, 1952, at the age of just 48. His was just one change in The Three Stooges but would, to this day, remain one of the most tragic.