Curly Howard | |
|---|---|
 Howardc. 1930s | |
| Born | Jerome Lester Horwitz (1903-10-22)October 22, 1903 Brooklyn, New York, U.S. |
| Died | January 18, 1952(1952-01-18) (aged 48) San Gabriel, California, U.S. |
| Resting place | Home of Peace Cemetery, Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
| Other names | Jerry Howard Jerome Howard |
| Occupations |
|
| Years active | 1928–1948 |
| Spouses | |
| Children | 2 |
| Relatives | Moe Howard (brother) Shemp Howard (brother) Joan Howard Maurer (niece) |
| Website | ThreeStooges.com |
Jerome Lester Horwitz (October 22, 1903 – January 18, 1952), better known by his stage nameCurly Howard, was an American comedian and actor. He was a member of the comedy teamThe Three Stooges, which also featured his elder brothersMoe andShemp Howard, as well as actorLarry Fine. In early shorts, he was billed as Curley. Curly Howard was generally considered the most popular and recognizable of the Stooges.[1]
He was well known for his high-pitched voice and vocal expressions ("nyuk-nyuk-nyuk!", "woob-woob-woob!", "soitenly!" [certainly], "I'm a victim of soikemstance" [circumstance], and barking like a dog), as well as hisphysical comedy (e.g., falling on the ground and pivoting on his shoulder as he "walked" in circular motion), improvisations, and athleticism.[1] An untrained actor, Curly borrowed (and significantly exaggerated) the "woo woo" from "nervous" comedianHugh Herbert.[2] Curly's unique version of "woob-woob-woob" was firmly established by the time of the Stooges' second Columbia film,Punch Drunks (1934).[1]
Howard had to leave the Three Stooges act in May 1946 when a massivestroke ended his show business career. He suffered serious health problems and several more strokes until his death in 1952 at age 48.
Curly Howard was born Jerome Lester Horwitz in theBensonhurst section of Brooklyn, New York, on October 22, 1903. OfLithuanian Jewish ancestry, he was the youngest of the five sons of Jennie (Gorovitz) and Solomon Horwitz. Because he was the youngest, his brothers called him "Babe" to tease him. The name "Babe" stuck with him all his life. However, when his elder brother Shemp Howard married Gertrude Frank, who was also nicknamed "Babe", the brothers called him "Curly" to avoid confusion.[3] His full formalHebrew name was "Yehudah Leib bar Shlomo NatanHaLevi".[4]
A quiet child, Howard rarely caused problems for his parents (something in which older brothers Moe and Shemp excelled). He was a mediocre student, but excelled as an athlete on the schoolbasketball team. He did not graduate high school; instead, he kept himself busy with odd jobs and constantly following his older brothers, whom he idolized. He was also an accomplished ballroom dancer and singer and regularly turned up at the Triangle Ballroom in Queens,[5] occasionally bumping into actorGeorge Raft.[1]
When Howard was 13, he accidentally shot himself in the left ankle while cleaning a rifle. Moe rushed him to the hospital, saving his life, but the wound resulted in a noticeably thinner left leg and a slight limp. Curly was so afraid of surgery that he never had the limp corrected. While with the Stooges, he developed his famous exaggerated walk to conceal the limp on screen.[1]
Howard was interested in music and comedy, and watched his brothers Shemp and Moe perform as stooges inTed Healy's vaudeville act. He also liked to hang around backstage, although he never participated in any of the routines.[citation needed]
Howard's first on-stage appearance was as a comedy musical conductor in 1928 for the Orville Knapp orchestra; Howard would conduct the ensemble with his arms flailing, unaware that he was losing his pants. Moe later recalled that his performances usually overshadowed those of the band.[1] Though he enjoyed the gig, he watched as brothers Moe and Shemp with partnerLarry Fine made it big as some of Ted Healy's "Stooges". Vaudeville star Healy had a very popular stage act, in which he would try to tell jokes or sing, only to have his noisy assistants (or "stooges", in show-business parlance) wander on stage and interrupt or heckle him and cause disturbances from the audience. Meanwhile, Healy and company appeared in their first feature film,Rube Goldberg'sSoup to Nuts (1930).[6]
Shemp Howard, however, soon tired of Healy's abrasiveness, bad temper, and alcoholism.[1] In 1932, he was offered a contract at theVitaphone Studios in Brooklyn. With Shemp gone, Moe suggested that his kid brother Jerry could fill the third-stooge role, and Jerry ran through his Orville Knapp act but Healy was unimpressed: "Is that all he can do? Let his pants fall down? Get me a real comedian, not this amateur. He doesn't even look right!"[7] Healy felt that Jerry, with his thick, chestnut hair and elegant waxed mustache, looked too good for a low comedian. Howard left the room and returned minutes later with his head shaven (the mustache remained very briefly). Moe and Larry started improvising with this new character:
That exchange sold the act to Healy, and Jerry Horwitz became Curly Howard. In one of the few interviews Curly Howard gave in his lifetime, he complained about the loss of his hair: "I had to shave it off right down to the skin."[1]
In 1934, MGM was building Healy up as a solo comedian in feature films, and Moe saw the writing on the wall. Healy alone was under contract to the studio; his Stooges answered to Healy, who paid each of them only $100 a week. When Healy's lucrative MGM contract was up for renewal on March 6, 1934, Moe proposed that Healy and his stooges should split: "Let's just break up. No hard feelings, no sneaking around. Just a good, clean split."[8] Healy agreed, and left to pursue his own career. That same year, with "The Three Stooges" as the act's new name, they signed to appear in two-reel comedyshort subjects forColumbia Pictures. Their third short,Men in Black, was nominated for the "Best Short Subject" Academy Award. It lost to the pioneerTechnicolor featuretteLa Cucaracha, but it did establish The Three Stooges as new comedy stars. It also won the Stooges movie-star salaries: Columbia paid each of them $2,500 per short subject (an exceptional sum; Columbia usually paid $500 to $1,000 per short).[9] The Stooges soon became the studio's most popular short-subject attraction, with Curly playing an integral part in the trio's work.[1]
Howard's childlike mannerisms and natural comedic charm made him a hit with audiences, particularly children. He was known in the act for having an "indestructible" head, which always won out by breaking anything that assaulted it, including saws and hammers (resulting in his characteristic quip, "Oh, look!" when the item is shown damaged while his head is intact). Although Howard had no formal acting training, his comedic skills were exceptional. Often, directors let the camera roll freely and let Howard improvise.Jules White, in particular, left gaps in the Stooge scripts where he could improvise for several minutes.[1] In later years, White commented: "If we wrote a scene and needed a little something extra, I'd say to Curly, 'Look, we've got a gap to fill this in with a "woo-woo" or some other bit of business', and he never disappointed us."[2]
By the time the Stooges hit their peak in the late 1930s, their films had almost become vehicles for Howard's unbridled comic performances. Classics such asA Plumbing We Will Go (1940),We Want Our Mummy (1938),An Ache in Every Stake (1941),Cactus Makes Perfect (1942), and their most violent short,They Stooge to Conga (1943), display his ability to take inanimate objects (food, tools, pipes, etc.) and turn them into ingenious comic props.[1] Moe Howard later confirmed that when Curly forgot his lines, that merely allowed him to improvise on the spot so that the "take" (or scene) could continue uninterrupted:
If we were going through a scene and Curly forgot his words for a moment, and then, you know, rather than stand, get pale and stop, you never knew what he was going to do. On one occasion, however, he would drop down to the floor and spin around ten times like a top until he finally remembered what he had to say.[10]
Howard also developed a set ofBrooklyn-accented reactions and expressions that the other Stooges would imitate long after he had left the act:[11]
On several occasions, Moe Howard was convinced that rising starLou Costello (a close friend of Shemp's) was stealing material from his brother.[3] Costello was known to acquire prints of the Stooges' films from Columbia Pictures on occasion, presumably to study him. Inevitably, Curly Howard's routines would appear inAbbott and Costello feature films, much to Moe's chagrin.[3] (It did not help that Columbia Pictures presidentHarry Cohn would not allow the Stooges to make feature-length films like contemporariesLaurel and Hardy, theMarx Brothers, and Abbott and Costello.)[12]
Curly was the only "third Stooge" who never made a series of his short films, without Moe or Larry, either before joining the Stooges or after leaving. Shemp and subsequent StoogesJoe Besser andJoe DeRita (referred to during his stint with the Stooges as "Curly Joe DeRita") each starred in their solo series of theatrical short subjects.
By 1944, Curly Howard's energy began to wane. His performances in films such asIdle Roomers (1944) andBooby Dupes (1945) present a Curly whose voice was deeper and his actions slower. It is believed that Howard suffered the first of several strokes between the production ofIdiots Deluxe (October 1944) andIf a Body Meets a Body (March 1945). Following the completion of the feature-lengthRockin' in the Rockies (December 1944), he was persuaded by Moe Howard to seek medical attention and was admitted toCottage Hospital inSanta Barbara, California, on January 23, 1945. There, he received diagnoses of severehypertension,retinal hemorrhage, andobesity, necessitating a period of convalescence. Consequently, only five short films were released in 1945, a notable reduction from the usual six to eight per year.
Despite Moe Howard's appeals to Harry Cohn to grant his brother an extended leave to recuperate, Cohn refused to disrupt the production schedule of the profitable Stooges shorts.[6] The team was afforded a hiatus of five months between August 1945 and January 1946, during which they undertook a demanding two-month live performance engagement in New York City, performing daily. During this period, Howard met Marion Buxbaum, whom he married on October 17, 1945, after a two-week courtship.[1]
Upon returning to Los Angeles in late November 1945, Howard's health had deteriorated significantly. Despite two months of relative rest, the team's 1946 production schedule at Columbia resumed in late January, involving only 24 days of filming between February and early May. Even with an additional eight weeks of respite during this timeframe, Howard's physical and mental state continued to decline.[1]
By early 1946, Howard's voice had grown increasingly coarse, and he struggled to recall even the most rudimentary dialogue. He exhibited significant weight loss and pronounced facial lines, reflecting the toll of his deteriorating health.[1]
Half-Wits Holiday, released in 1947, was Howard's final appearance as an official member of The Three Stooges. During filming on May 6, 1946, he suffered a severestroke while sitting in director Jules White's chair, waiting to film the last scene of the day. When called by the assistant director to take the stage, he did not answer. Moe looked for his brother; he found him with his head dropped to his chest. Moe later recalled that his mouth was distorted, and he was unable to speak, only able to cry. Moe immediately alerted White, leading the latter to rework the scene quickly, dividing the action between Moe and Larry while Curly was rushed to the hospital,[13] where Moe joined him after the filming. Howard spent several weeks at theMotion Picture Country House inWoodland Hills before returning home for further recovery.[1]
In January 1946, Shemp had been recruited to substitute for a resting Curly during live performances inNew Orleans.[14] After Curly's stroke, Shemp agreed to replace him in the Columbia shorts, but only until his younger brother was well enough to rejoin the act. An extant copy of the Stooges' 1947 Columbia Pictures contract was signed by all four Stooges and stipulated that Shemp's joining "in place and stead of Jerry Howard" would be only temporary until Curly recovered sufficiently to return to work full-time.[6] However, Curly's health continued to worsen and it became clear that he would not be returning. As a result, Shemp's involvement became permanent.[citation needed]
Howard, partially recovered and with his hair regrown, made a brief cameo appearance in January 1947 as a train passenger barking in his sleep in the third film after brother Shemp's return,Hold That Lion! (1947). It was the only film that featured Larry Fine and all three Howard brothers – Moe, Shemp, and Curly – simultaneously; director White later said he spontaneously staged the bit during Curly's impromptu visit to the soundstage:
It was a spur-of-the-moment idea. Curly was visiting the set; this was sometime after his stroke. Apparently he came in on his own, since I didn't see a nurse with him. He was sitting around, reading a newspaper. As I walked in, the newspaper he had in front of his face came down and he waved hello to me. I thought it would be funny to have him do a bit in the picture and he was happy to do it.[13]
In June 1948, Howard filmed a second cameo as an angry chef for the shortMalice in the Palace (1949), but due to his illness, his performance was not deemed good enough, and his scenes were cut. A lobby card for the short shows him with the other Stooges, although he never appeared in the final release.[citation needed]
Still not fully recovered from his stroke, Howard met Valerie Newman and married her on July 31, 1947. A friend, Irma Leveton, later recalled, "Valerie was the only decent thing that happened to Curly and the only one that really cared about him."[1] Although his health continued to decline after the marriage, Valerie gave birth to a daughter, Janie, in 1948.[10]
Later that year, Howard suffered a second massive stroke, which left him partially paralyzed. He used a wheelchair by 1950 and was fed boiled rice and apples as part of his diet to reduce his weight (and blood pressure). Valerie admitted him into theMotion Picture & Television Fund's Country House and Hospital on August 29, 1950. He was released after several months of treatment and medical tests, although he returned periodically until his death.[1]
In February 1951, Howard entered a nursing home, where he suffered another stroke a month later. In April, he went to live at the North Hollywood Hospital and Sanitarium.[1]
In December 1951, the North Hollywood Hospital and Sanitarium supervisor told the Howard family that Curly was becoming a problem to the nursing staff at the facility because of his mental deterioration. They admitted they could no longer care for him and suggested he be placed in a mental hospital. Moe refused and relocated him to the Baldy View Sanitarium inSan Gabriel, California.[1]
On January 7, 1952, Moe was contacted on the Columbia set while filmingHe Cooked His Goose to help move Curly for what would be the last time. This proved unsuccessful, and Curly died eleven days later, on January 18, 1952.[15] He lived the shortest life of the Stooges, dying at the age of 48. He was given a Jewish funeral and was buried at the Western Jewish Institute section ofHome of Peace Cemetery inEast Los Angeles, California.[1] His older brothers Shemp and Benjamin would also be interred there in 1955 and 1976 respectively, near parents Jennie and Solomon.[citation needed]
Offscreen, Howard's demeanor stood in stark contrast to his exuberant onscreen persona. A reserved and introspective individual, he largely avoided social interactions unless under the influence of alcohol, a habit that became more pronounced as the pressures of his career intensified. Howard rarely exhibited the boisterous behavior that defined his public image, except in the presence of family, while performing, or during episodes of inebriation. He was, however, widely recognized for his compassion, particularly his tendency to care for stray dogs.[1]
Howard had four marriages and two children:
Curly Howard's first marriage was short-lived, ending in divorce within five months and preceding his rise to fame with the Three Stooges. On June 7, 1937—the twelfth anniversary of his brother Moe's marriage to Helen—Howard wed Elaine Ackerman. The union produced one daughter, Marilyn, in 1938, but the couple divorced in June 1940. Following the separation, Howard's health began to decline, marked by significant weight gain and the onset of hypertension.
Howard struggled with deep insecurities related to his shaved head, which he believed rendered him unattractive to women. To manage his feelings of inadequacy, he increasingly resorted to excessive drinking and indulgent social behavior. In public, he often wore a hat to project an image of masculinity, lamenting that his bare head made him feel juvenile. Despite his self-esteem issues, Howard remained highly popular with women, though many sought to exploit his generosity and affable nature.[6]
Moe's son-in-lawNorman Maurer noted "he was a pushover for women. If a pretty girl went up to him and gave him a spiel, Curly would marry her. Then she would take his money and run off. It was the same when areal estate agent would come up and say 'I have a house for you'; Curly would sell his current home and buy another one."[1]
DuringWorld War II, the Stooges' filming schedule was suspended for seven months each year to facilitate personal appearances. During these periods, the trio frequently performed for service members, a demanding schedule that exacerbated Curly's deteriorating health. While Howard abstained from alcohol during performances, as Moe strictly prohibited it, his post-work activities often involved excessive indulgence in nightclubs, where he ate, drank, and socialized to cope with professional stress. Howard's financial habits were equally extravagant. He spent lavishly on wine, food, women, and real estate, frequently finding himself in precarious financial situations, often nearing bankruptcy. Moe Howard ultimately intervened to manage his brother's finances, assisting with budgeting and even preparing Curly's income tax returns..[1]
Howard found solace in the companionship of dogs, frequently forming bonds with stray animals during the Stooges' travels. He often adopted homeless dogs encountered on tour, transporting them from town to town until suitable homes could be secured.[6] When not engaged in performances, Howard maintained several pet dogs at his residence, reflecting his enduring affection for animals.[16]
Moe urged Curly to find himself a wife, hoping it would persuade his brother to finally settle down and allow his health to improve somewhat. After a two-week courtship, he married Marion Buxbaum on October 17, 1945, a union that lasted nine months. The divorce proceeding was bitter, exacerbated by exploitative, sensationalist media coverage, which worsened his already fragile health. The divorce was finalized in July 1946, two months after he suffered his career-ending stroke.[1]
On July 31, 1947, he married Valerie Newman. They had one daughter, Janie (born in 1948), and remained married until his death.[1]
Curly Howard is considered by many fans and critics alike to be their favorite member of the Three Stooges.[6] In a 1972 interview; Larry Fine recalled, "Personally, I thought Curly was the greatest because he was a natural comedian who had no formal training. Whatever he did, he made up on the spur of the moment. When we lost Curly, we took a hit."[17] Curly's mannerisms, behavior, and personality along with his catchphrases have become a part of American popular culture.Steve Allen called him one of the "few true but seldom recognized comedy geniuses."[16]
TheTed Okuda and Edward Watz's bookThe Columbia Comedy Shorts puts Howard's appeal and legacy in critical perspective:
Few comics have come close to equaling the pure energy and genuine sense of fun Curly was able to project. He was merriment personified, a creature of frantic action whose only concern was to satisfy his immediate cravings. Allowing his emotions to dominate, and making no attempt whatsoever to hide his true feelings, he would chuckle self-indulgently at his own cleverness. When confronted with a problem, he would grunt, slap his face, and tackle the obstacle with all the tenacity of a six-year-old child.[2]
All are guest appearances except the compilation featureStop! Look! and Laugh!; the Stooges never starred in their own feature film during Curly Howard's lifetime.
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