Moe Howard

Moe Howard
Howard in 1937
Born	Moses Harry Horwitz (1897-06-19)June 19, 1897 Brooklyn, New York, U.S.
Died	May 4, 1975(1975-05-04) (aged 77) Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Resting place	Hillside Memorial Park Cemetery
Other names	Harry Howard
Occupations	Comedian actor
Years active	1909–1975
Height	1.6 m (5 ft 3 in)
Spouse	Helen Schonberger ​ (m. 1925)​
Children	2, including Joan Howard Maurer
Relatives	Curly Howard (brother) Shemp Howard (brother)
Website	www.threestooges.com

Moses Harry Horwitz (June 19, 1897 – May 4, 1975), better known by his stage name Moe Howard, was an American comedian and actor. He is best known as the leader and straight man of the Three Stooges, the farce comedy team who starred in motion pictures and television for four decades. That group initially started out as Ted Healy and His Stooges, an act that toured the vaudeville circuit. Moe's distinctive hairstyle came about when he was a boy and cut off his curls with a pair of scissors, producing an irregular shape approximating a bowl cut.

Early life

Moe was born Moses Harry Horwitz in 1897. His mother was Jennie Horwitz, and his father, Solomon Horwitz, was a clothing cutter. Moe was the fourth eldest of five Howard brothers, including Shemp and Curly. He attended Erasmus High School for only two months, eventually taking a class in an electric shop at the Baron DeHirsch Trade School.

Howard's "bowl cut" hairstyle became his trademark, despite his mother initially refusing to cut his hair in childhood, letting it grow to shoulder length. He secretly cut his hair in his backyard shed after being frequently teased in school. During one appearance on The Mike Douglas Show in the 1970s, he stated, "I used to fight my way to school, in school, and back home from school."

Howard developed an interest in acting causing his grades to worsen and spurred him to play hookey from school: "I used to stand outside the theater knowing the truant officer was looking for me. I would stand there 'til someone came along and ask them to buy my ticket. An adult needed to accompany a juvenile into the theater. When I succeeded, I'd give him my ten cents—that's all it cost—and I'd go up to the top of the balcony where I'd put my chin on the rail and watch, spellbound, from the first act to the last. I would usually select the actor I liked the most and follow his performance throughout the play."

Despite his waning attendance, Howard graduated from P.S. 163 in Brooklyn but dropped out of Erasmus Hall High School after only two months, ending his formal education. He took an electric shop course to please his parents but quit after a few months to pursue a career in show business.

Career

Already in 1909, he had met a young man named Ernest Lea Nash (later known as Ted Healy), who was later to provide a significant boost for his career aspirations. In 1912, they both held a summer job working in Annette Kellermann's aquatic act as diving "girls". During A Night in Spain, and at the end of a four-month run in Chicago, Healy recruited vaudeville violinist Larry Fine to join the troupe in March 1928.

After the show ended in late November, Healy signed for the Shuberts' new revue A Night in Venice and coaxed Moe Howard out of retirement to rejoin the act in December 1928. In rehearsals in early 1929, Howard, Larry Fine, and Shemp Howard came together for the first time as a trio. When A Night in Venice closed in March 1930, Healy and the trio toured for a while as "Ted Healy and His Racketeers" (later changed to Ted Healy and His Stooges).

Ted Healy and His Stooges

Larry Fine, Curly Howard, and Moe in 1937

Ted Healy and His Stooges were on the verge of hitting the big time and made their first movie, Soup to Nuts (1930), featuring Healy and his four Stooges: Moe (billed as "Harry Howard"), Shemp, Larry, and Fred Sanborn (Sanborn had been with Healy's troupe since January 1929, as one of the stooges in "A Night in Venice")—for Fox Films (later 20th Century Fox). A disagreement with Healy led Moe, Larry, and Shemp to strike out on their own as "Howard, Fine, and Howard," and on August 28, 1930, they premiered that act at L.A.'s Paramount Theatre. Joining the RKO vaudeville circuit, they toured for almost two years, eventually dubbing themselves as "Three Lost Souls" and taking on Jack Walsh as their straight man.

On August 20, the day after Shemp's departure, Moe suggested adding his youngest brother Jerome ("Babe" to Moe and Shemp) to the act; contrary to some sources, no search for a replacement was conducted. Healy initially passed on Jerry, but Jerry was so eager to join the act that he shaved off his luxuriant auburn mustache and hair and ran on stage during Healy's routine. That finally got Healy to hire Jerry, who took the stage name Curly.

The Three Stooges

Further information: The Three Stooges

Moe playing harmonica in Disorder in the Court in 1936

After several appearances in several MGM films, Healy was being groomed as a solo character comedian. In 1934, his Stooges, then named The Three Stooges, signed with Columbia Pictures, where they stayed until December 1957, making 190 comedy shorts. He emphasized in his autobiography that the ill-tempered aspects of his on-screen persona did not reflect his real personality. He also boasted of being a shrewd businessman by wisely investing the money made from his film career. Still, the Stooges received no subsequent royalties (i.e., residuals) from any of their many shorts; they were paid a flat amount for each one, and Columbia owned the rights (and profits) thereafter.

Only after the Stooges became established as short-subject stars, the main titles changed to give the Stooges top billing. The version seen on TV and video today is this reissue print. They continued making short films at a steady pace of eight per year, such as Three Little Pigskins (also 1934) with a young Lucille Ball, Pop Goes the Easel (1935), and Hoi Polloi (also 1935), in which two professors make a bet trying to turn the Three Stooges into gentlemen.

Howard (left) with Shemp Howard and Larry Fine in Malice in the Palace in 1949

In the 1940s, the Three Stooges became topical, making several anti-Nazi short films, including You Nazty Spy! (1940) Moe's favorite Three Stooges film, I'll Never Heil Again (1941), and They Stooge to Conga (1943). Moe's impersonation of Adolf Hitler highlighted these shorts, the first of which preceded Charlie Chaplin's film satire The Great Dictator by nine months.

On May 6, 1946, during the filming of Half-Wits Holiday (1947), brother Curly suffered a stroke. He had already suffered a series of them before the filming of Beer Barrel Polecats (1946) and was replaced by Shemp, who agreed to return to the group, but only until Curly would be well enough to rejoin. However, Curly appeared in Hold That Lion! (1947) in a cameo (the only Three Stooges film to contain all three Howard brothers: Moe, Curly, and Shemp), it was an impromptu setup. He was well enough to participate in a second cameo the next year as a chef in a short scene in Malice in the Palace, but the footage was never used. Curly suffered a second series of strokes which led to his death at age 48 on January 18, 1952. According to Moe, stories (and later, scenes in a 2000 made-for-TV biopic) that he was forced to take a job as a gofer at Columbia are entirely false.

Television and advent of Curly Joe

The revitalized trio starred in six feature-length movies: Have Rocket, Will Travel (1959); Snow White and the Three Stooges (1961), The Three Stooges Meet Hercules and The Three Stooges in Orbit (1962), The Three Stooges Go Around the World in a Daze (1963), and The Outlaws Is Coming (1965).

During this period, Moe and the Stooges appeared on numerous television shows, including The Steve Allen Show, Here's Hollywood, Masquerade Party, The Ed Sullivan Show, Danny Thomas Meets the Comics, The Joey Bishop Show, Off to See the Wizard, and Truth or Consequences but, by the late 1960s, they were all at an age where they could no longer risk serious injury while performing slapstick comedy.

In Howard's later career, he showed up at many benefit affairs and appeared at college lectures. Howard's autobiography was finished one month before his death and released posthumously in 1977.

Personal life

On June 7, 1925, Moe Howard married Helen Schonberger (December 19, 1899 - October 31, 1975), a cousin of Harry Houdini. The following year, Schonberger persuaded Howard to retire since she was pregnant. Howard attempted to earn a living in a succession of "normal" jobs, none of which was very successful, and he soon returned to working with Ted Healy.

Howard and Schonberger had two children, Joan Howard (April 2, 1927 – September 21, 2021) and Paul Howard (born July 8, 1935). Moe was the first of any actor to play a Stooge to become a father. Moe had three grandchildren. Joan wrote many books about her fathers career, including raising funds for City of Hope National Medical Center by providing some of Howard's autographs. She and her renovated the attic of their Cheviot Hills home, and created an archive room dedicated to the Stooges, including a letter by John F. Kennedy thanking Howard. Paul Howard directed and narrated a 2015 series titled "Hey Moe, Hey Dad".

Filmography

Main article: The Three Stooges filmography

Death and legacy

Crypt of Moe Howard, at Hillside Memorial Park

Howard died of lung cancer at age 77 on May 4, 1975, at Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center in Los Angeles, where he had been admitted a week earlier in April, and just short of his 78th birthday. He was a heavy smoker for much of his adult life. His funeral was at Hillside Memorial Park Cemetery two days later on May 6. Howard was the last surviving member of the original Three Stooges, passing away just over three months after Larry Fine's death from a stroke.

Further reading

• Stroke of Luck; by James Carone, as told by Larry Fine (Siena Publishing, Hollywood, 1973.)

External links

• My Pal Moe by Bob Bernet (featuring letters and rare photos of Moe Howard at home)
• Moe Howard at IMDb
• Moe Howard at the TCM Movie Database
• Moe Howard at the Internet Broadway Database
• Moe Howard audio interview with Richard Lamparski Archived February 26, 2021, at the Wayback Machine
• Moe Howard Audio Interview Archived July 22, 2020, at the Wayback Machine