It still happens every now and then all these decades later. It might be on a weekend morning on Turner Classic Movies, or may one of the other dozens (hundreds?) of TV channels these days that run what I like to call 'the good old shows'...and what most younger folks call 'what the heck is that old black and white junk'?

They show up.

The Three Stooges.

It was several years ago a person that doesn't wear as old a skin as I do said 'Geez, that's hokier than Hee-Haw'! To which I proudly replied, 'Yes. Yes it is'. And that is exactly what made them legends.

By the time my folks decided I could occupy a space on the planet, the Stooges were already legends and some might say on their way out. I can recall as a little 'un (cute as a bug's rear-end I might add) my mom taking me and my brother and a few of his friends (it was his birthday) to the movies. It was a Stooges movie, but by then it was already the early 60's and the Stooges had...changed. By then my favorite, Curly, was gone, replaced by Curly Joe. It was still good, still funny, but hey...what happened to Curly?

Well, as it turned out, Curly had a sad end.

It had been decades before, in the 1930's, that the Three Stooges officially became the Three Stooges. And it wasn't all that many years later they were comedy legends. And two of the three were actually brothers! Moe Howard and his little brother Curly made up two-thirds of the trio, joined by Larry Fine. And while Moe was the 'Leader', my favorite was Curly. Sure, go ahead, say it was because I identified most with Curly, I won't argue.

Anyway, by the time I got 'into' the Stooges, Curly was long replaced. So whatever happened to Curly?

Well, Curly had passed away in 1952 at the much too young ago of 48. And it was a sad end to a true comedy legend, as explained in the youtube video below.

But thank goodness, and thanks to a number of TV channels that have the good sense to rerun the nonsense (and fun!) of the Three Stooges.


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