Joe Besser
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| Joe Besser | |
|---|---|
| Born | August 12, 1907 St. Louis, Missouri |
Joe Besser (August 12, 1907 – March 1, 1988) was an American comedian, known for his impish humor, and is now best remembered for his brief stint as part of the Three Stooges.
He was born in St Louis, making him the only main Stooge member not born on the East coast. He was the ninth child of Morris and Fanny Besser (Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe). He had seven older sisters, and an older brother Manny who was in show business. From a young age, Joe was also fascinated with show business, especially the magic act of Howard Thurston that came annually. For years, he asked Thurston if he could join the act, and Thurston kept telling him to wait until he was older. When he was twelve, Thurston allowed Besser to play a minor audience plant (as in, "stooge"). Besser was so excited by this, he snuck into Thurston's train after the St. Louis run of the show was over, and was discovered the next day sleeping on top of the lion's cage in Detroit.
Thurston gave in, informed Besser's parents of the situation, and trained him as an assistant. The first act involved pulling a rabbit out of a hat. The trick involved two rabbits, one hidden in a pocket of Thurston's cape. But young Besser was so nervous that he botched badly, pulling out the rabbit from the cape at the same time as the other rabbit was on display, before the trick had been performed. The audience roared with laughter, and Besser from then on was assigned comic mishap roles only.
Besser ended up in vaudeville, doing comedy in general, and was a headliner. He specialized in playing a bratty, whiny child, and his catchphrases "You crazy you!" and "Not so fast!" became well known.
In 1932, he married the dancer Erna Kay, real name Erna Dora Kretschmer, known as "Ernie". They were neighbors and friends of Lou Costello, of Abbott and Costello fame. He was in demand in movies, radio, and eventually television. One of his most famous roles was "Stinky", the bratty child dressed in an oversized Little Lord Fauntleroy outfit, shorts, and a flat top hat with overhang. He played that for the first season of The Abbott and Costello Show.
When Shemp Howard died of a sudden heart attack in November 1955, Moe Howard, after unsuccessfully trying to pry Joe De Rita from his contractual obligations, recruited Besser to join the Three Stooges. He agreed, but had a clause in his contract prohibiting being hit excessively, insisting that his humor was more about comedic revenge for being bullied. "I usually played the kind of character who would hit others back," Besser once recalled. In these final 16 Stooge shorts, Besser continued to play the same character he had developed over his long career, rather than trying to imitate Shemp or Curly. In 1958, Columbia Pictures ended their "shorts" film making, and the Three Stooges were without a contract. Moe Howard and Larry Fine discussed plans to tour with a live act, but Besser declined. In later years, Moe Howard explained this was because Besser's wife, Ernie, had suffered a heart attack. Besser was unwilling to leave his wife, and he quit the Stooges. Some have suggested that this story may have been at least partly a public-relations ploy to save face, and various accounts have indicated either that Besser no longer was interested in continuing as a member of the Stooges (later in life, he expressed dismay that fans only recognized him as a former Stooge and were unfamiliar with the rest of his body of work) or that Howard and Fine had considered him a temporary ringer at best, and not an "official" member of the act. (Although a contract signed by Moe Howard and the other Stooges legally gave Moe approval over any new members to join the act, Columbia Pictures executives had final say over any actor who would appear alongside Moe and Larry in films, and they had insisted Moe select a performer already under contract at the studio.) Besser was replaced by Joe De Rita, who shaved his head and took the character name "Curly-Joe."
Besser returned to films and television, most notably as the superintendent "Jillson" for four seasons (1961 - 1965) of The Joey Bishop Show, and the voice of Babu the genie in the animated I Dream of Jeannie series. He also made occasional appearances on the ABC late-night series, also called The Joey Bishop Show between 1967 and 1969.
The majority of Stooge Fans tend to turn a blind eye to the Besser-era shorts. This coldness cannot be lain at Besser's feet alone. Though his type of childish comedy did not fit the Stooge mold comfortably, the truth was that Moe and Larry were older, and the constant profusion of recycled scripts and stock footage hurt the quality of Besser's Stooge output. A minor contingent of Stooge fans feel Besser brought his own (quite amusing) character to the role and feel he did right in not trying to replicate Curly or Shemp, who he met with the other Stooges in 1932 and had especially formed a friendship with.
Besser recalled this friendship in an emotional speech referring to "the four boys" (Moe, Larry, Curly, and Shemp) up in heaven looking down on the event of the dedication of a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on August, 1983. He was the only official Stooge to speak at the event, as Joe De Rita was ill at the time, although he outlived Besser by five years. Would-be Stooge Emil Sitka was also in attendance.
Considered a kind man, Besser enjoyed meeting fans of all ages as well as giving his time to the children of his community. He died of heart failure on March 1, 1988.
[edit] Further reading
- Once a Stooge, Always a Stooge; by Jeff Lenburg, Joe Besser, and Greg Lenburg [1], (Knightsbridge Publishing Co., 1990).
- Moe Howard and the Three Stooges; by Moe Howard [2], (Citadel Press, 1977).
- The Complete Three Stooges: The Official Filmography and Three Stooges Companion; by Jon Solomon [3], (Comedy III Productions, Inc., 2002).
- The Three Stooges Scrapbook; by Jeff Lenburg, Joan Howard Maurer, Greg Lenburg [4](Citadel Press, 1994).
- The Three Stooges: An Illustrated History, From Amalgamated Morons to American Icons; by Michael Fleming [5](Broadway Publishing, 2002).
