The History and Popularity of the Three Stooges

The Three Stooges are known around the world by people of all ages. The Three Stooges are most commonly known for their extremely funny and comical short films. Throughout the history of the Stooges a lot of changes have occurred; however, even though they are no longer in existence the popularity of the Three Stooges is still as high as ever.

The Three Stooges developed in the early 1930’s with the help of a man named Ted Healy. Ted Healy was one of the original Three Stooges. This is the time when the character of Curly was first developed. After a number of years together the new Three Stooges, Larry, Curly, and Mo, decided to end their partnership with Mr. Healy.

After parting ways with Ted Healy the remaining Three Stooges partnered up with Columbia pictures to produce a number of short films. Their short films would typically last around twenty minutes; however, the length of the each short film often varied. By 1960 the Three Stooges had developed almost two hundred short films.

In the middle their success between 1940 and 1960 Three Stooges had an unexpected trauma to deal with. The character of Curly suffered a stoke. The stroke left him unable to perform with the remaining stooges; therefore, they sought a replacement. Shemp Howard was the brother of one of the existing Three Stooges and he had also performed with the group before. Shemp Howard then filled the missing gap in the Three Stooges.

Around 1949 the Three Stooges tried to make a television show; however, the pilot was not picked up by a television network. To this day it is still unknown why the television show was not picked up because at the time the Stooges where extremely popular in most of America.

In the 1950’s America was becoming more interested in television shows and Columbia pictures was beginning to realize that their popular Three Stooges were slowly declining in popularity. Instead of working with the group to revise their skits Columbia pictures ended its partnership with the group.

The Three Stooges continued to try and keep their group going by developing a new television series; however, many of the members were met with difficult circumstances. In 1974 it was reported that Larry form the Three Stooges suffered a stroke that later led to his demise. Emil Sita replaced Larry for a number of films; however, the group decided to no longer continue on.

Skip ahead to today and the Three Stooges are still as popular as today as they were in their original time. All members of the Three Stooges have since passed away; however, their short films were syndicated and later released on VHS tapes and DVDs. In addition to the traditional short films, a cartoon series was also developed based on the comedy. Three Stooges movies and memorabilia can be purchased all over the internet and it is still a hot seller.

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