September 2022 Auction Ends Thursday, September 29th, 5pm Pacific
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 9/29/2022
Moe Howard handwritten pages from the draft of his autobiography, ''Moe Howard & the 3 Stooges''. In this manuscript, titled ''Unusual Happenings'', Howard recalls unique encounters with fans over the years, and also a humorous police encounter, where the policemen mistook a jump rope that Howard bought for his daughter with a .45 revolver.
First page reads in full, ''A mother and her twin blind children came to our dressing room at one of the vaudeville theaters and said her children pleaded with her to bring them to the theatre where we were appearing. They just wanted to come to see if they could pick out each of us by name. They listened to our voices for a while as we told them a funny story, then they each walked towards us, the one felt Curly's close clipped head and said this one is Curly, the other boy felt my hair and asked me a question then he said this one is Moe, they felt Larry's hair and then the one spoke up and said there's only this one left so it must be porcupine, I mean Larry. To me it was heartbreaking, the very next day we went to the office of The Braille Institute and purchased 50 of our autographs in Braille for which we made a generous contribution and we really had plenty of use for them in fact we reordered more. It was very gratifying to see the surprise on these folks faces when we placed the cards in their hands. I feel certain that somewhere in amongst a lot of publicity items, I could find one of those cards.''
Howard continues, ''Another cute thing happened one day I was driving my car along Sunset Blvd. I came to a stop at a red light another car pulled alongside of me on my left. I just happened to turn and look at the other car and saw a young lad about 10 years old, he stared at me then turned to the woman who was driving and said Ma, look at that man in the car, that's Moe of the 3 Stooges, he dyed his hair grey. I laughed allowed [sic] at what he said, he looked at me and laughed and now the car horns were blaring for us to move on which we did.''
Howard titles the other side of the sheet ''Jump Rope'', writing in part, ''It was during the time I was appearing in George White's Scandals with the Stooges that to me a very funny incident happened. It was on a Saturday between the matinee and the night show that I decided to go down to 8th Ave on a wet and rainy afternoon and buy my daughter Joan a jump rope which she said she would like to have, and of course her wish was my command. I purchased a red, white & blue jump rope that had 2 very pretty red handles. I put the jump rope in my back pocket and proceeded to trot thru the rain back to the theatre when I came to the corner of 53rd street there was quite a puddle so I took a running start and with my hand held tight to my back pocket to keep the jump rope from falling out I cleared the puddle, ran to the sidewalk and was grabbed by 2 men and hustled up against the wall of a building. They showed me police badges [crossed out] One said put your hands on top of your head. The other fellow felt [crossed out] my pocket the pocket I was holding my hand on and said you were right Ed, he has 2 guns in his pocket. He made me put my hands on top of my head, by this time there were quite a few people watching I couldn't imagine what was going on, [crossed out] He said to his friend 'It feels like a 45 - suddenly he pulled the handles of the jump rope out of my pocket and the red white and blue rope came with it. The crowd laughed derisively. I then found out they were plain clothes detectives who were the most embarrassed cops in the country. They apologized profusely and hustled themselves away as fast as they could with the laughter of the crowd in their ears, I'm sure.''
Two page manuscript on a single sheet of lined yellow legal paper measures 8'' x 12.5''. Light creasing and toning, overall very good condition.
Moe Howard's Handwritten Manuscript Created for His Autobiography -- Moe Remembers Heartwarming Interactions with Fans, Including Blind Children, and a Humorous Police Encounter
Click above for larger image.