Hollywood’s Dirtiest Joke Was How It Treated The Three Stooges Behind the Scenes

The Three Stooges are legends, kings of comedy who took slapstick to wild extremes with bits of physical comedy that would surely have put anyone else in hospitals... or morgues. The classic lineup of Larry Fine, Moe Howard, and a third Stooge: Curly Howard (1932-1946), Shemp Howard (1922-1932, 1947-1955), Joe Besser (1956-1957) and "Curly Joe" DeRita (1958-1970), made dozens of shorts for Columbia Pictures. They earned the studio millions, giving Columbia the leverage to force theaters to play their less-desirable low-rate feature films by denying access to the Stooges' work. But for all their popularity and their box-office successes, the Three Stooges themselves saw a mere pittance of what they brought in. Worse, it was by design, the act of the "Meanest Man in Hollywood."