August 2021 Auction Ends Thursday, August 26th, 5pm Pacific
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 8/26/2021
Poignant handwritten pages by Moe Howard, part of the draft of his autobiography ''Moe Howard and the Three Stooges'', describing what it was like working with the Stooges after Curly's stroke. Composed in blue and red ballpoint, manuscript reads in part, ''Shemp filled the spot - very nicely. He was an entirely different type but fit in very well. So on we went with Shemp. I felt very low for a long time but never showed it. Every time I smacked or poked Shemp I was seeing Curly. This feeling finally left me and I was able to think clearly again in the writing of our stories and planning gags. Shemp, I and Larry went on personal appearances. We didn't have to break in any material for Shemp was very familiar with the action, the dialogue and the gags. We appeared in many theatres it was 3 shows a day and 4 shows on Saturday and Sunday. The one I will never forget is the Labor Day weekend at the Steel Pier in Atlantic City. We usually did 28 minutes in our theater routine but that weekend at the steel pier we did 12 shows a day we had to cut our act down to 7 minutes fast enough time to enter on stage tell 3 gags, 3 pieces of business and 2 [?]. It was really a horrible condition. Lunch was a sandwich backstage with a glass of orange juice and the same for dinner no time to leave the dressing room. The only reason we did appear at the Steel Pier was that our contract called for 7 days at the Earle Theatre in Philadelphia in Pennsylvania on Sunday so they put in the Steel Pier for the Sunday play date...It got to the point where we would not let them put in the Steel Pier for the Sunday. We didn't mind going to the theatre in Camden as there were only 4 shows there. Even when we appeared at the Stanley Theatre in Pittsburgh we filled in the Sunday at Stuebenville, Ohio. The home of Dean Martin as a boy.
On the verso, Moe continues writing, but the content is crossed out in pencil, likely indicating it wasn't used in the final draft. This part is dated ''1963?'' at top and deals with legal and business problems for The Three Stooges films. In part, ''...It wasn't long before
Skip Steloff sold his distribution rights to a company called T.V. Three headed by a miserable thief called [blank] ? He was to send Norman Maurer a sales and expense report every 6 months. The entire package cost one million three hundred thousand dollars. We never heard a word from T.V. Three which had completely broken our contract. We sued this rat for a return to us of the distribution rights. Our case was tried by a judge who didn't know his mule form a whale...and decided against us...'' Moe then continues with specific information about how they paid their attorney by giving him an ownership stake in their films while they waited for the case to be taken up on appeal. Very interesting document measures 8'' x 12.5'' on sheet of yellow lined legal paper. Very good condition.
Moe Howard's Handwritten Pages From the Draft of His Autobiography -- Moe Writes of Working After Curly's Stroke: ''...Every time I smacked or poked Shemp I was seeing Curly...''
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