Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Shemp Howard - The “Magical” Stooge?
When we think of The Three Stooges®, usually the names “Curly, Larry & Moe” come to mind. But as most fans know, Shemp Howard spent many years as part of the comedy team. In fact, after his sudden passing in 1955, he managed to make four more movies he was under contract for at Columbia Studios. Pretty incredible—how did he pull it off? Was it magic? A bit of movie magic, maybe…
These days, we think nothing of special effects like this—remember President Kennedy shaking hands with Tom Hanks in Forrest Gump, three decades after his death? But back in 1955, this was pretty tricky stuff. The film makers at Columbia Studios devised a way to make it appear as though Shemp was still part of the comedy trio, even though he was deceased.
To do this, they used old Three Stooges film shorts and inserted old film clips into the new movies. Any new footage of Moe & Larry was edited together with the stock footage of Shemp. When it was absolutely necessary for Shemp to appear in the new scenes, they used a body double for him, filming him from behind or with his face obscured.
Not long after comedian Joe Besser joined the act to replace Shemp, Columbia replaced him by bringing back Shemp! Thus, the studio kept the series going well into the 60s, and Shemp Howard remained a “working” movie actor for more than a decade after his death!
And, thanks to the “magic” of DVD, we’re able to enjoy all of The Three Stooges today!
posted by Betty at
9:23 AM
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