Conducting Scholarly Stooge Research

My earliest recollection of The Three Stooges was a show on WPIX in New York City that was hosted by Officer Joe Bolton. Each afternoon Bolton’s show, The Three Stooges Funhouse, would feature several Three Stooges short films along with NYPD safety tips and guest appearances.  

Even though many of the films were over 25 years old, they were new to me and I would flip to Channel 11 each day for a dose of nyuk, nyuk, nyuk. Apparently I wasn’t alone.   

The vaudeville comedians who made their first movie in 1930 were on the brink of extinction in the early 1950’s. Their short subject films had been running in theaters before feature films and the mostly adult audiences were losing their taste for slapstick humor.   

Moe and Larry were beginning to look at other career options when their luck literally turned around. Commercial television was in its infancy and networks provided a limited amount of programming. Local stations were left to fill the gaps, especially in the late afternoon. Columbia Pictures, owners of everything Stooge, sold broadcasting rights for the black and white shorts to the new TV stations.   

Stations across the country bought the syndicated shows and then hired children’s TV personalities such as Officer Joe Bolton and Harlow Hickenlooper (Indianapolis) and Icky Twerp (Dallas) to host the shows. As a result, Moe, Larry and Curly (and Shemp, Joe and Little Joe) were introduced to a new generation of kids.   

The Three Stooges became superstars making appearances at shopping centers and movie theaters in cities that aired their old movie shorts five days a week. It was during this 15+ year surge that most baby boomer boys were exposed to the Stooges.   

Despite their advancing age and the questionable quality of their work in the 60’s, the Three Stooges released ten full length movies and their own cartoon series. These days movies like The Stooges Meet Hercules, Have Rocket Will Travel and Around The World In a Daze are hard to find for good reason. Their best work, however, has been remastered and reissued in a series of DVD sets packaged by Columbia Pictures called The Three Stooges Collection Volume 1-8.   

My interest in the trio was rekindled this year when I heard that a new Three Stooges movie would be released in April. I found an enjoyable book called “One Fine Stooge,” which viewed the Stooge’s long career through the eyes of Larry Fine.   

The book’s references to classic Stooge fare like Women Haters and Dizzy Doctors led me to start collecting the “new” DVDs. I am proud or embarrassed to say that I now own all 8 volumes or 192 short films that span from 1934 – 1959. You might say that watching hours of knucklehead television will be a waste of time. I prefer to call it research.   

I expanded my research this past weekend by sitting through the new Three Stooges movie. For this Stooge fan, the movie was a disappointment but the kids laughed at each hammer to the head and fist to the gut. If it catches on then maybe a new generation of Stooge fans will discover the wonders of those old 15 minute black and white classics once again.

Never Too Old To Rock and Roll

Jethro Tull's Ian Anderson - Then and Now

The classic rock band Jethro Tull released a prophetic song in 1976 called “Too Old To Rock and Roll, Too Young To Die.” Lead singer Ian Anderson was 27 years old at the time and already foreseeing a time when folks might hang up their rock and roll shoes.

The band’s website shows that the 65 year old Anderson is now in the middle of a 70 city tour around Europe and the United States. He’s obviously not “too old” yet. I was 19 years old when the song was released and if asked, I would have confidently stated that 40 is clearly too old to rock and roll. Jerry Lee Lewis was 41 at the time and “ancient” in my book. He played the Richardson Wildflower Festival last summer at the age of 75.

Sitting up close at the Allen Event Center’s Starship – Survivor – John Parr concert recently, I caught myself doing the math. If Mickey Thomas sang “Fooled Around and Fell In Love” in 1976 then how old is the guy? His voice was strong and he bounced around the stage like a 40 year-old. He’s actually 63 and is certainly not too old to rock and roll. Neither were the gray haired fans nearby who were more likely to know the lyrics to the song White Rabbit than their AARP membership number.

My daughter’s 19th birthday was last week. She may tolerate the music in her dad’s car but you won’t find any oldies in her Jeep. Eight months in Lubbock have turned her tastes to country music and those young cowboy stars who dominate the charts. I don’t have the heart to tell her that Jason Aldean is 35 and Dierks Bentley is 37. When she hits my age, Jason will be 70 and George Strait will be playing Billy Bob’s Saloon at age 94.

I never acknowledged the talent of Frank Sinatra when I was a teenager. My parents would argue that he was one of the greatest ever but I couldn’t see beyond his 60+ age. Kids today dismiss Paul McCartney in the same way. How can we blame them although we might argue he is one of the greatest ever.

Baby boomer rock and roll fans have a lot of practice overlooking the visual signs of age. They do it every morning in the mirror. That’s why they don’t complain if Mick Jagger is looking a little ragged at 69 but they expect him to sound close to the Mick Jagger on their IPODs. Most of the time he does and the Rolling Stones are in their 5th decade of touring.

Rock and roll music is the time machine for baby boomers and that’s why none of us will ever be too old to rock and roll. Songs can immediately transport us back to our younger days and most of us are happy to plunk down some money to see those classic rockers in concert one more time. In the future, noisy grandchildren will no longer be the biggest problem in assisted living communities. Instead, the floors will be thumping to the sounds of Aerosmith as hearing impaired residents turn up their Bose sound systems.