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That single word evokes an image and brings smiles and laughter to every corner of the globe. It is instantly recognized and in the mind's eye a picture appears of one of the funniest men to ever share his talents. To paraphrase an old adage, it's a word worth a 1,000 pictures or at least the 97 shorts he made with Moe and Larry!
Besides the great timing, his wonderful expressions and priceless bits, Curly made sounds like no one else. His Nyuk! Nyuk! Nyuk! was first heard in 1934's Men In Black, along with his famous Hhhmmm! In The Three Stooges first Columbia short Woman Haters Curly gave us the Woob! Woob! Woob! He added the snarling Rrrufff! to the repertoire in 1937's Dizzy Doctors. Among others is Nyagghhh! Usually used when the Boys were confronted by the bad guys, the monster or whomever or whatever was chasing them!
Of course, there was much more to Curly than his wonderful phrases. The finger wave and the hand wave, especially in front of Moe's face, was a staple of his visual craft. The finger snap followed by the famous cheek finger roll was probably the most memorable of his hand moves and probably the most imitated by fans.
His faces and expressions were remarkable and in 1935's Pardon My Scotch he even showed us the first example of the 'Curly Shuffle'. His footwork was incredibly balanced as any of his 360-degree tiptoe pivot turns illustrate. |
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 The Three Stooges first short for Columbia (Woman Haters) was the only one that gave the boys a screen credit plus the character name. After that, the screen credits were simply Curly Howard, Larry Fine and Moe Howard. Curly was 'Jackie'.
Actually it was 'Curley' until the 1936 short Disorder In The Court.
That same short saw the only appearance by Curly's (and Moe's and Shemp's) father Sol Horwitz in a short.
This bit from the aforementioned Disorder In The Court was perhaps his best piece of business. When you combine the graceful movement between hat and cane, his facial expressions, turning the tables on the clerk and the machine gun bit with the derby and cane you end up with a comedic tour de force.
Not only another great Curly phrase but used quite often as Curly's head does damage to assorted saws, axes, picks, pipes, tools, mallets, hammers, crowbars and all the other implements that Moe and Larry used to bonk, bounce and bend off Curly's head. |
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 The scenes on the golf course from 1935's Three Little Beers are very clever artistic and spatial arrangements that allow the Boys to 'Spread Out' (We just couldn't resist!) away from each other and do individual pieces of business. Curly's scene with the ball washer that he uses to do his laundry is not only funny but also introduces us to Curly singing (La Dee and La Dah) to himself. That will become a staple that he adds to his expressions and movements in many more films.
Curly's ability to blend his facial expression and movements in bit after bit after bit served to showcase his talent and comedic genius. While there are so many that can be used to illustrate the point, there are a few that stand out:
The Present Arms routine in 1940's Boobs In Arms
The Oyster Battle from 1941's Dutiful But Dumb
The Calculator-Adding Tape-From Mouth bit from 1940's No Census, No Feeling
Then there's Curly in drag as Senorita Cucaracha lip synching in 1945's Microphonies. His facial movements and expressions are incredible.
Of course Curly could make any costume work, whether it was a baggy suit, a civil war uniform, a kilt, a tuxedo, a safari jacket or a nightshirt. He could even make wonderful and funny moves when his shoes were cement, watermelons or even guitars! |
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 One of his best costumes was the too tight sweater in 1940's How High Is Up. Curly made amazing noises and faces when confined in his clothes or stuck in a place like the mine entrance in 1942's Cactus Makes Perfect or inside the bayonet bag from Boobs In Arms.
The sweater scene from How High Is Up also showcases Curly's genius in dealing with inanimate objects and surviving help from Larry and Moe.
Curly delivered lots of dialogue that made us all laugh. But some of his lines, malaprops, parts in the three patterns (dialogue exchanges with Larry, Moe and Curly each delivering a part) and his conversations with things truly stand out. Among these verbal classics are 'I'm trying to think but nothing happens' (Calling All Curs 1939).
One of the shortest, but funniest, is 'Goslow' when Curly misreads the Go Slow sign in 1944's Gents Without Cents, the short that has the famous 'Niagara Falls' routine.
 The maharaja scene from 1946's Three Little Pirates between Curly and Moe with the incredible double talk sprinkled with the occasional English word and phrase was actually written by The Three Stooges.
Boxcars (see above) comes from the 1937 short Cash And Carry where the little boy Jimmy asks Curly 'How much is 6 and 6?' Curly replies 'Boxcars'. Ask any friend or family member that visits the dice tables in Las Vegas or Atlantic City and they can explain it to you.
Mayer 'Sonny' Bupp, the actor that played Jimmy, went on to play Kane's son in Citizen Kane. Even More Trivia: In the 1937 short The Sitter Downers, Curly falls from a tree and lands on his love interest Florabell/Dorabell who was played by Ted Healy's sister Marcia Healy. This was her only appearance in a Three Stooges short and her only film credit.
A true Curly classic bit of dialogue comes from 1940's Nutty But Nice as he describes the soup: 'This soup is a marvelous accomplishment. It's a prodigious achievement! You're going to love it. It's putrid!' The delivery and expression of these big words followed by the punch line is wonderful.
Then there's Curly talking to things. Like shaving the ice (1941's An Ache In Every Stake): 'Are you happy or married?'. Of course, Curly didn't need dialogue. Sometimes a small move with props , like separating two eggs (same short) 'said' it all without having to say anything!
'This is the longest room I've ever seen' is another great Curly line (Nurse To Worse 1940) that also shows his agility as he says the line while running in circles and his great timing.
Timing was always one of the keys to the audience appeal of The Three Stooges. Theirs was the best in the business then and now and Curly sure had it, like when he misses the huddle in the prison scene from 1941's So Long, Mr. Chumps or the absolute impeccable timing when he bounces off the wall perfectly back into Moe's arms as they dance off to lunch in 1941's I'll Never Heil Again. |
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 The Three Stooges first parodied Hitler and his regime in their 1940 short You Nazty Spy. This was the first Hollywood film that satirized Hitler and The Boys (plus Director Jules White) all being of Jewish European heritage were very proud of this film.
We mentioned this earlier so here's a real good one from 1940's No Census, No Feeling. The set up: The Boys, as census takers, approach a pretty girl:
Moe: What's your name
Larry: And your address
Curly: And what's more important, what's your phone number!
Ha! Ha! You thought it would be more trivia, didn't you! The 1940 census totaled 132,164,569. Hmmm, maybe after 65+ years it IS trivia!
Whether making a pass at a pretty girl, spritzing seltzer, taking a fall, getting a bonk, slap or whap, spilling the ink or tossing the cream pies, Curly was simply one of the best comedians ever to grace the silver screen.
That was his nickname. He was the youngest of the five Howard brothers. He was born Jerome Lester Horwitz on October 22, 1903 in Bath Beach in Brooklyn. Curly married four times, his first marriage was annulled and his second and third ended in divorce. His second wife, Elaine, bore him his first child, daughter Marilyn. Curly married Valerie Newman in 1947 and gave him his second daughter, Janie. Curly passed away on January 18, 1952 at age 48.
 Curly made 97 shorts with Larry and Moe, the last being Half Wits Holiday, which was made in 1946 and released in 1947. Curly had a serious stroke while making the short (May 1946). How fitting that in this last short Curly is the instigator of one of the Stooges' all time pie fights.
Curly did make a cameo appearance in 1947's Hold That Lion, The Three Stooges 100th Columbia short. That was the only time Larry, Moe, Shemp and Curly appeared on screen together.
More than just a word and here's a picture that's worth a thousand more... |
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