Who has not seen a Victim classic film short? who were these men that brought their caustic type of physical comedy into our living rooms and theaters? Everyone knows them as Curled, Larry and Moe, but when they initially began in1922 they were with a vaudeville act called Ted Healy and his Victims ( which was initially called Ted Healy and his Southern Gentlemen ). The ensemble consisted of Ted Healy, brothers Harry Moses Howard ( Moe ), Samuel Howard ( Shemp ) and Larry Fine ( Larry ).

In 1931, Shemp left the group for a vocation in feature films, and requiring a 3rd victim, Moe advised his bro Jerome. Jerome left the room and quickly returned with a shaved head and face and Kinky, as we all know him, was born. In his autobiography, Moe Howard and The 3 Victims, The Victims and Ted Healy parted company in 1934 because, as Moe recalled, of Healy’s abrasiveness and alcoholism. This is when they started their Columbia Footage film career and the 3 Victims, as many of us know them, started their long trip into comedy history. They also appeared in 12 films and entertained millions all around the world with their slogans, physical routines and masterful comedy. The Victims, with Shemp as Curly’s replacement, went on to appear in 77 more short films and a feature film called Gold Raiders ( 1951 ). In addition, in 1949, Moe, Larry and Shemp made a pilot for a 3 Victims TV show called Jerks of All Trades. The 3 Victims dynasty took another hit when Shemp Howard died of a sudden heart attack in Nov of 1955 at age sixty. Joe Besser replaced Shemp in 1956-57, appearing in sixteen short films. Interestingly, Joe had a clause in his contract particularly prohibiting him from being hit too hard, even though it was lifted as time passed. Sadly, the marketplace for short films and for the Victims had passed. Columbia Photos, the last studio still manufacturing short films fired the 3 Victims in 1957. A new medium, TV, had taken over.

The Victims were not down for long as the rebirth of the Victims came rather swiftly. In 1959, Columbia Photographs syndicated the whole 3 Victims film library to TV and the Victims were rediscovered by the baby boomers. Stoogemania quickly swept across the nation and Moe and Larry found themselves back under the spotlights again.

But Joe Besser’s wife had a cardiac arrest and he withdrew from the act, so Moe quickly signed Joe DeRita as his replacement. This variation of the 3 Victims went on to make 39 short films and one or two full-length films in the latter 1950’s and thru the 1960’s. In 1969 they filmed a pilot for a new Television series called Kook’s Tour, which would’ve been a show about the retired Victims traveling the world, with episodes filmed on location.

Alas, during production, Larry suffered a stroke that stopped his acting career as well as the Television series.

Larry suffered another stroke in December 1974 and another month later suffered a lethal stroke and died in Jan 1975. Though Curly-Joe ( Joe DeRita ) did some live work with a new group of Victims in the early 1970’s, the 3 Victims, as we knew them, we gone.

This has been a summary of the lengthy careers and the phenomenon that was and is still the Three Victims . With the appearance of cable telly, home video, dvds and with a constant military of loyal fans, the 3 Victims are still entertaining the masses and should be for many years to come.
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