SHEMP!: The Biography of The Three Stooges’ Shemp Howard, The Face of Film Comedy

by Burt Kearns

Shemp Howard not only had one of the most distinctive faces of the twentieth century. He was also one of the most influential comic actors of Old Hollywood. An original member of the Three Stooges, Shemp—along with his brother Moe and actor-violinist Larry Fine—perfected a brand of raucous, lowbrow, slapstick comedy that had audiences rolling in the aisles of vaudeville houses, Broadway theaters, and movie palaces, and left an indelible imprint on the face of popular entertainment. Then he walked away... and the new Three Stooges—Moe, Larry, and brother Curly—made history.

But Shemp didn’t disappear. He made Hollywood history on his own, in a successful and until now unexplored career in more than a hundred movie shorts and features. He appeared in comedies, dramas, mysteries, Westerns, and musicals alongside the biggest stars of the Golden Age, including W.C. Fields, John Wayne, James Stewart, William Powell, Lon Chaney, Jr., Myrna Loy, and Marlene Dietrich.

SHEMP! is the first book to challenge the “official” version of Three Stooges history that’s been repeated for decades, shattering myths as it uncovers the surprising and often unsettling facts behind the man’s unlikely how the child of Jewish immigrants, racked with severe anxiety and phobias could conquer vaudeville, Broadway, and Hollywood. And it’s more than a author Burt Kearns digs into the shorts and feature films Shemp did on his own—more than a hundred of them—and, through interviews with fans, family members, scholars, experts, filmmakers, and celebrities, examines the “cult of Shemp” that thrives today.

Genres: Film

264 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 1, 2024

Reviews

[Peter Landau · Rating 5 out of 5]

My secret shame is not liking the Three Stooges. I was too refined for their lowbrow antics. Thank you, Bert Kearns. Shemp! The Biography of the Three Stooges’ Shemp Howard, the Face of Film Comedy has shown me the error of my ways.

[EVAN · Rating 5 out of 5]

It’s more than a biography. It’s more than a love letter to a man whose name is a punchline and an insult. It’s a Shempifesto, designed to trigger a true appreciation of the work of Shemp Howard.

Burt Kearns has a written an incredibly detailed, well researched biography of Shemp. To most of us (including me, before reading this book), Shemp was a pale substitute for his brother Curly, a joke - a view promulgated by Moe. Kearns carefully debunks every lie, every exaggeration in books written by Moe and his family, showing how Shemp was probably the most well rounded talent of the three brothers and the one who could’ve had the longest career as a character actor, had he not rejoined the act out of fraternal obligation.

This will, as Kliph Nesteroff says, be the seminal book in Critical Shemp theory.

[Brett · Rating 4 out of 5]

Long overdue biography of Shemp. Made me realise that Shemp and Joe Besser were the only Stooges to make any sort of mark on their own. My favourite moments in Shemp’s Stooge films are the little asides he mutters just as the scene is ending. My biggest complaint of the book is, whilst the debunking of Moe’s version of events is necessary, this book seems to go a bit overboard in making Moe a calculating manipulator. I suspect the truth is somewhere in between.
Now I need a Joe DeRita biography.

[Stephanie Wienke · Rating 4 out of 5]

SHEMP! by Burt Kearns is a deep dive int Shemp Howard’s life based off the little information we have of him, film records, and disproving details given in other accounts of his life. You can tell the author is passionate about the subject. I’ve loved the stooges since I was a kid and really enjoyed this book. I learned more details about Shemp’s career that I never knew as. I always focused on the stooges versus other aspects of their lives. At times, however, I was pulled out of the narrative when the author was disproving things said about Shemp, especially things said by Moe. Overall, a great dive into Shemp’s career.

Thank you to the publishers and to NetGalley for an advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

[Chris Cox, a librarian · Rating 5 out of 5]

The often neglected Stooge Shemp Howard gets his props here and hopefully anyone venturing through these pages will come out of it with a new respect for the eldest Howard brother.

I didn't realize Shemp had such a varied film career before joining the stooges (an attempt at a comedy team with Lon Chaney Jr.?) but this made me want to check some of his old film appearances.

I'm giving the book five stars just out of appreciation for all the research Mr. Kearns did here.

Oh, and Moe Howard was a bit of a dick.

[Ryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great history of the Three Stooges with a focus on Shemp Howard. I had no idea that he was such a well respected comedic actor and now want to go and find some of his non-Stooge works, or that his relationship with his brother Moe was not always the best. Overall an enjoyable read, but some of the chapters fleshing out his non-Stooges years felt very repetitive and thus a little dry. Not really the author's fault as there's only so many ways you can discuss how he earned roles, what the features were about, and how they were received.

[Renee · Rating 4 out of 5]

A nice reevaluation of Shemp Howard. I have not yet read Moe's memoir, but he apparently painted Shemp as a neurotic wimp who couldn't handle being a Stooge. Whether he was driven by mean-spiritedness or a desire to pump himself up as the head Stooge will be decided once I read that book. Kearns presents a different Shemp. A man who was the first in his family to become a professional actor and who left the Stooges to forge his own career. I agree with Billy West that Shemp rejoined the Stooges later in life because it was a promise of steady work at a time when the film industry was changing. Kearns treats Shemp as more of a genius than he actually was which is why I'm only giving this four stars. I think Shemp had the potential to be a great character actor, but lacked the luck to be given the right roles that would have elevated him.

[Lisa Yelichek · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an interesting story and gave me an interesting perspective of the Stooges. I grew up watching these movies and shows and have loved watching them again when I can find one.

[David Blake · Rating 3 out of 5]

A little heavy on the Moe bashing, but still entertaining. I'd give it a "woo-woo" out of a "woo-woo-woo-woo"!

[Sandbox World · Rating 5 out of 5]

To me, Shemp Howard was the most talented Stooge, setting himself apart from the others and willing to push the boundaries beyond what was expected. While Curly’s slapstick antics made him beloved, Shemp’s versatility and adventurous spirit truly distinguished him. What surprised me the most was discovering that, unlike his fellow Stooges who largely remained confined to the “Stooge Universe,” Shemp had an impressive career outside of the group.

Shemp Howard was not only one of the most recognizable faces of the 20th century but was also one of its most talented and influential comedic actors and showbiz personalities. Alongside his brother Moe and the comedic violinist Larry Fine, Shemp was an original member of the trio that would become famous as the Three Stooges. However, in 1932, Shemp left the group to carve out his path, playing by his own rules and showing an independence rarely seen at the time.

Shemp Howard was once famously promoted as “The Ugliest Man in the Movies,” a humorous label that belied his incredible talent as a comic actor. His unique name, “Shemp,” came about during his childhood, thanks to his mother. Whenever she called out his given name, “Sam,” her thick Lithuanian accent and sharp way of speaking caused it to sound like “Shemp.” The nickname stuck, and he carried it with him throughout his life and career.

Despite his reputation as a Stooge, Shemp’s work outside the group highlighted his versatility as a performer. His ability to command the screen on his own, while maintaining his roots with the Stooges, speaks to his significant contribution to comedy during Hollywood’s Golden Age. Through its exploration of Shemp’s extensive solo work and the modern “cult of Shemp” that continues to thrive, Kearns’ SHEMP! finally cements Shemp Howard’s rightful place in the annals of cinematic history, elevating him as a performer whose influence extends far beyond the Three Stooges.

[Dan · Rating 5 out of 5]

The finest Stooge biography of our age, a tribute to the most underappreciated yet possibly funniest of the Howard brothers, and an eternal rebuke to the bores who produce work like Stoogeology.

Curly: An Illustrated Biography of the Superstooge and Larry: The Stooge in the Middle, both written by relatives, were the ones to beat. Turning Kearns, an experienced biographer, loose on Shemp has done the trick, even though he clearly dislikes Moe as both boss Stooge and memoirist. Moe painted Shemp as a hopeless neurotic and, in Kearns' telling, not only seized control of the act early on from his elder brother, the star at that point, but essentially killed both Shemp and Curly via overwork and stroke-inducing blows to the head.

To which one can only say (a) the story of Shemp being discharged (heh) from the Army for bedwetting may have been a lie, but Kearns himself notes the testimony from friends and relatives that Shemp was a kind of walking panic attack; (b) relentless touring was a major source of their income, and it's hard to believe Shemp and Curly would have preferred sitting around to working; and (c) it's unlikely that they understood the long-term risks of making a living in slapstick, and in any case we wouldn't be here, 50 years after the last of the Howards died, talking about the Stooges if it wasn't for the violent comedy.

And yet ... Kearns has done brilliant work reconstructing the life of Shemp, who wrote no autobiography and gave few interviews. The book also serves as a history of the Stooges as a whole, a portrait of life among the unsung contract players of '30s Hollywood, a debunking (where needed) of previous Stooge scholarship, and a re-creation of memorable moments from Shemp's non-Stooge years in the movies. My own feeling is that he was better as a member of the family act than as a solo performer -- I watched "Private Buckaroo" last night, and he comes off as a Grade B William Demarest -- but Kearns is right to wonder how Shemp would have done as the Cowardly Lion or as one of director Preston Sturges' regulars. (That group included the actual William Demarest, which would have forced him to play a different, maybe funnier, character.)

UPDATE: I couldn't decide at first if the book's opening sentence, a rather vivid imagining of its subject's birth -- "It seems only right that it would have been 'Shemp' from the very beginning: 'Shemp' from the moment of that final push, when he emerged, covered in vermix caseosa, the white creamy biofilm not unlike the Brylcreem that would later drip from his center-parted hair down his sweaty, rumpled, freckled, pockmarked mug ..." -- was a waking nightmare or a burst of creative brilliance. But it's obviously both.

[Joe Besserfan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Instead of naming his book "Shemp! The Biography of The Three Stooges' Shemp Howard, The Face of Film Comedy", author Burt Kearns should have just named it "I Hate Moe". Kearns bashing of Shemps' younger brother Moe is non-stop. The inaccuracies in Larry Fine's and Joe Bessers' books are not treated nearly as harshly as the ones in Moe's. It's not even close. That said, I enjoyed this book. Over the years my fascination with the lives of The Three Stooges. Burt Kearn's "Shemp!" tells Shemp's story very well.

[Mattschratz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Burt Kearns gives the eldest acting Howard brother some well-deserved re-shemp-tion.

[Kevin Monsell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyable read…Shemp was a good man, a good Stooge.

[Fred · Rating 3 out of 5]

Man, Moe was a real joik...

[Kathy · Rating 1 out of 5]

I purchased this thinking it would be about the life of Shemp Howard and his career in Hollywood. It's not, its mostly about his brother Moe who dominates the book.

[Alex Robinson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Shemp is the George Harrison of the Three Stooges. Seeing Shemp’s mug awkwardly pasted in the opening credits of a short was the equivalent of hearing the start of a sitar drone on a Beatle album. Eventually, of course, with repeated exposure you realize while maybe not your favorites, Harrison & Howard have their own unique vibes they bring to the table.
Or is Shemp Paul McCartney, as they were both replaced by doubles after their untimely deaths?

[Keith Pizzo · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fantastic look at the original third Stooge. Many of the stories associated with the Stooges aren't exactly true. Burt Kearns is like a private investigator who digs deep to find the facts.

"Shemp is no Curly," is what a lot of people say. It is true, but he doesn't have to be. He brings his own comedic style to the group and that is what makes him stand out.

He stood out when he was originally with the Stooges. Some reviews called him out as the "funniest of the group." Shemp went out on his own and had a very successful career before he rejoined the Stooges in the 1940's. Newspapers raved about his work. There is more to Shemp than meets the eye and this book shares it all.

A must read for Stooges fans and folks who love early comedy.