Them’s fightin’ words in my country! A hurrah for Stooge underdog Shemp Howard
On Nov. 22, 1955, at 11:35 p.m. PST, eternal Three Stooges underdog Shemp Howard was riffing wisecracks in a taxicab backseat. On the way home from a boxing match held at the Hollywood [American] Legion Stadium in Los Angeles, the spontaneous 60-year-old comedian had excitedly shadow-boxed from his ringside seat, putting on a better exhibition than the competitors onstage. Suddenly slumping over, his freshly lit cigar singed buddy Al Winston’s thigh. The death certificate listed a massive heart attack, although Shemp’s wife Babe, 28-year-old son Mort, and daughter-in-law Geri Greenbaum insisted a cerebral hemorrhage was the culprit. The grief-stricken family faced Thanksgiving just two days later [incidentally on this same date eight years later President John F. Kennedy was felled by an assassin’s bullet].
A gentle ‘fraidy cat on and off screen who shuddered at the mere mention of driving, the self-proclaimed “Ugliest Man in Hollywood” was cajoled to accept improvisational ball of energy-younger brother Curly Howard’s unattainable mantle following a devastating series of strokes in May 1946. Shemp had in actuality been a founding Stooge during their vaudeville tenure in the 1920s supporting inebriated straightman Ted Healy, years before Curly was given the keys to the kingdom of Moronika. Along with domineering…
