The Other Curly's

Joe Besser

After Shemp Howard died in 1956, the Stooges replaced him with Joe Besser. Joe Besser was born in Saint Louis, Missouri on August 12, 1907 to Fannie and Morris Besser. His parents were Orthodox Jews and moved to the United States from Poland in 1895 where Morris worked as a baker. By 1928 he was well on his way to being a solo comedian. While on tour he was introduced to Erna Dora Kretschmer (Erna Kay) whom he married on November 18, 1932. Erna Kay served as a choreographer on the 1929 Paramount film "The Coconuts," which featured the Marx Brothers. Around 1940, Joe took Columbia Pictures contractee Jimmy Little on tour as his straight man. Soon Joe became a headliner on the Orpheum, RKO, Paramount, and Loew's theater circuits. He also appeared on the Broadway stage. Eventually Columbia Pictures signed Joe to an exclusive contract and cast him in features and Comedy two reelers. Slowly making his climb to stardom, radio comedians like Jack Benny, Fred Allen, Eddie Cantor, and Milton Berle were all clamoring to have him on their shows. Besser made frequent appearances on the Jack Benny Show, The Fred Allen Show, The Eddie Cantor Show, Tonight on Broadway, The Vaughan Monroe Show, and from 1945 to 1949 he played with Milton Berle on Let Yourself Go. Besser made many comedy shorts for Columbia before joining The Three Stooges in 1956. Joe left the Stooges in 1958 and went on to star in feature films and had a successful television career. On March 1, 1988, Joe passed away in his North Hollywood home of heart failure. Fourteen months later, his wife Erna died on July 1, 1989.

Joe DeRita

Joe DeRita's real name was Joseph Wardell. He was born July 12, 1909 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Joe was the only one of the Stooges to come from a show biz family. His mother, Florenz DeRita, was a dancer and his father, Frank Wardell, was a stage technician. Joe was in show business from the age of seven. Joe's roles included the title role in the stage version of "Peck's Bad Boy" with his mother and father. In 1921 Joe went into burlesque because vaudeville was just about gone. Joe's film debut was in "The Doughgirls" in 1944 with Ann Sheridan for Warner Brothers. After the war, Joe made guest appearances on radio shows including Burns & Allen and guest appearances in films and televisions shows such as The Desilu Playhouse, This is Alice, and Bachelor Father. Joe appeared in columbia shorts such as "Slappily Married" and "The Good Bad Egg," these shorts featured some of the same supporting actors who were in the Stooge Shorts. In 1958 the Columbia short subjects department was disbanded, and The Three Stooges no longer had a contract with Columbia. Joe Besser did not want to travel with the act so Moe and Larry needed a third stooge. Joe DeRita was asked to join the act, and at this time the Stooges formed Comedy III Productions, Inc., a company which still holds The Three Stooges rights and manages their affairs. In 1958 Columbia released the old Three Stooges shorts to television and there was an immediate resurgence of popularity of the Stooges. The Stooges with Curly Joe as the third Stooge made numerous personal appearances all around the country and made six full length feature motion pictures. This period of time from 1958 and throughout the 60's was described by Larry Fine as the Stooges' golden years. While filming "Kook's Tour" in 1970 Larry suffered a stroke which left him paralyzed on the left side of his body. There was some talk of replacing Larry with Emil Sitka, but The Three Stooges never performed together again. Curly Joe formed an act called The New Three Stooges with Mousie Garner and Frank Mitchell, but the act only made a few appearances. Joe was just too old to do the Stooge shtick anymore. Curly-Joe married Jean DeRita in 1966 and they were married 25 years until his death. Joe DeRita died on July 3, 1993 at the Motion Picture Hospital in Los Angeles. He was the last stooge.