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SHEMP!
The Biography of The Three Stooges' Shemp Howard, The Face of Film Comedy
by Burt Kearns
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Book Presentation:
The definitive biography of the great Shemp Howard, an original member of the Three Stooges, and one of Hollywood's most influential actors that Library Journal calls "a complete portrait of a talented character actor," Booklist praises as "fascinating," Kirkus Reviews describes as an "illuminating… reworking of the Stooges mythology" and Patton Oswalt praises as "the only book you will ever need to read about anything. Burn all the other books - there is ONLY SHEMP!"
Shemp Howard not only had one of the most distinctive faces of the twentieth century, but was also one of its most accomplished, influential comic actors and showbiz personalities. Along with his brother Moe and comedy violinist Larry Fine, Shemp was an original member of the comedy team that became known as the Three Stooges before he quit and set off on his own in 1932.
SHEMP! shows how he made an even greater mark in a successful and until now largely unexplored career in more than a hundred movie shorts and features. He appeared in comedies, dramas, mysteries, Westerns, and musicals alongside the biggest stars of the Golden Age, including W.C. Fields, John Wayne, Jimmy Stewart, Marlene Dietrich, William Powell, Lon Chaney, Jr., Myrna Loy, and the team of Abbott & Costello. Author Burt Kearns challenges the “official” version of Three Stooges history that’s been repeated for decades, shattering myths while uncovering the surprising and often troubling facts behind the man’s unlikely story: how the child of Jewish immigrants, supposedly racked by debilitating phobias, could conquer show business; the behind-the-scenes machinations that pushed him to return to the team; and the circumstances surrounding his untimely death.
Through interviews with fans, family members, experts, filmmakers, and celebrities, SHEMP! unearths treasures in Shemp’s solo work, examines the “cult of Shemp” that thrives today, and confirms Shemp Howard’s deserved place in cinematic history.
About the Author:
Burt Kearns is an author, journalist, and film and television producer, dubbed by Vanity Fair as “a show business and pop culture savant.” His books include Marlon Brando: Hollywood Rebel, Lawrence Tierney: Hollywood’s Real Life Tough Guy,The Show Won’t Go On, and the memoir, Tabloid Baby. His screenwork includes The Seventh Python, Conspiracy Theory with Jesse Ventura, and Kardashian: The Man Who Saved O.J. Simpson. He also cowrote and produced, along with Academy Award winner Albert S. Ruddy, the Burt Reynolds comedy movie, Cloud 9. He lives in Los Angeles.
Press Reviews:
Born Schmuel Horvitz in 1895 to Lithuanian Jewish immigrants, comic and character actor Shemp Howard was the elder brother of Three Stooges performers Moe and Curly (nonrelative Larry Fine was the third). But to most, he is known as the ‘fourth wheel’ Stooge who replaced his popular brother Curly in 1946. Kearns argues—and argues, and argues—that despite being overshadowed by his brothers, Shemp was the Stooge’s ‘original star’ who helped give birth to the comedy trio. As youths, both Shemp and his younger brother Moe demonstrated an aptitude for comedy, though it was Moe who, at age 11, struck out first into the world of acting. By 1910, they were a duo in a blackface act; when they managed to land gigs with both the RKO and Loew vaudeville circuits, they evaded the ban on double-booking by doing the same act in whiteface for Loew. Invited onstage at a performance by Moe and fellow comedian Ted Healy in 1923, Shemp incited a ‘roughhouse ruckus,’ and from then on, the act was known as ‘Ted Healy and His Stooges.’ Shemp, Moe, and comedian Larry Fine eventually launched their own vaudeville act in 1930. They rejoined their old boss in 1932, but Shemp quit less than two weeks later after a financial dispute with Healy, to be replaced by Curly. Shemp began a solo acting career at Vitaphone studios in Brooklyn. In the 1940s, he landed significant character actor roles at major Hollywood studios and played alongside screen legends like Marlene Dietrich and John Wayne. Through extensive research that includes interviews with film experts, family members, and fellow celebrities, Kearns strives… to demonstrate that ‘underrated, underappreciated’ Shemp Howard was a ‘comedic superlative’ who deserves a place on the ‘Mount Rushmore of comedy’ and a gifted character actor who was his own man before he was a Stooge. An illuminating… reworking of the Stooges mythology.
― Kirkus Reviews
Shemp Howard (Schmuel Horwitz), an original member of the Three Stooges, along with his brother, Moe Howard (Moses Harry Horwitz), and Larry Fine (Louis Feinberg), left the trio in 1932 to pursue a solo movie career, only to later return to take the place of his replacement, his brother Jerome Howard (Jerome Lester Horwitz), known as Curly. However, before the Stooges and the screen, there was the vaudeville circuit and an act featuring Moe and Shemp. Kearns mined a variety of sources, including books, magazines, online material, and audio and video, to craft a complete portrait of a talented character actor who appeared in more than 100 movie shorts and features from comedies to dramas to westerns and even musicals, playing second fiddle to the likes of W.C. Fields, William Powell, Abbott and Costello, and others, all documented in an extensive filmography. Kearns and others quoted within contend that Shemp has never received the recognition he deserved for his entire body of work. Fans will "soitenly" enjoy this entertaining and detailed look at Shemp’s career with and without the Three Stooges.
― Library Journal
Known best for his work as a sometime member of the Three Stooges, along with his younger brother, Moe Howard, and comedian Larry Fine, Shemp Howard also had a considerable career as a performer in live theater (on Broadway and on the road) and a supporting actor in a long list of two-reelers and feature films. Journalist and screenwriter Kearns writes with a fan’s passion, and his account of Shemp’s rise from working-class Bensonhurst in Brooklyn and the lower reaches of vaudeville to Broadway and Hollywood is fascinating. Those interested in vaudeville will enjoy Kearns’ detailed descriptions of sketches performed and reviews of shows on the circuit. Kearns’ chronicling of the evolution of the Three Stooges, from a side act in comedian Ted Healy’s much larger productions, in which they were billed as Ted Healy and His Stooges, to a popular if low-brow act in the movies and on television, offers fresh perspectives on an iconic comedy group. Shemp’s relationship with Moe, who dominated the Stooges on stage and off, was complicated, prompting Shemp’s solo adventures, which will be new to many readers.
― Booklist
"This is the only book you will ever need to read about anything. Burn all the other books — there is ONLY Shemp!"
-- Patton Oswalt
"SHEMP! examines every question about the Three Stooges that was in the recesses of my mind, through the character I believe made them a unit. SHEMP! realizes who Shemp was: the actor, the Stooge, and the man -- and why it’s cool to love him. A fascinating and fun book. And it’s not really long, which makes it even better!"
-- Richard Kind
Shemp! A word that says it all! And this book says everything else! I honestly cannot imagine a better written or more thorough chronicling of the life and times of Shemp, in all his glory, than this one. If you must read one book about Shemp, make it SHEMP! by Burt Kearns. What are you waiting for? Get started!
-- Merrill Markoe, humorist, author, and Emmy-winning televison writer (The David Letterman Show)
"Shemp Howard triggers strong emotions among the Stooge fans who have been debating his merits for a generation. And now Burt Kearns presents what we all knew was inevitable: A primer for the teaching of Critical Shemp Theory."
-- Kliph Nesteroff, Author of The Comedians: Drunks, Thieves, Scoundrels, and the History of American Comedy
Shemp! is not revisionist history that elevates its subject at the expense of his younger brothers, Moe and Curly. [Kearns]… merely corrects the record, which heretofore was mostly defined by Moe Howard’s admittedly entertaining print-the-legend autobiography.
― Washington Post
A highly readable piece of film scholarship, SHEMP! is a welcome addition to any comedy devotee’s library.
― Leonard Maltin
See the publisher website: Applause Books
See the complete filmography of The Three Stooges on the website: IMDB ...
> From the same author:
Lawrence Tierney (2022)
Hollywood's Real-Life Tough Guy
by Burt Kearns
Subject: Actor > Lawrence Tierney
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