Trivia: See "Three Stooges"

Trivia: The "middle stooge" in the various incarnations of the Three Stooges, Larry Fine was most recognizable across his four decades in show business by his eccentric frizzed out hair. He occupied the awkward and often ill-defined position of "middle man," his presence necessary to give a gag body and a boost of action, and to keep it going to its conclusion. As an actor in the group's sketches, he was most often characterized as the wide-eyed nebbish, often nearly as surprised as any by-stander character by the physical comedy (and mayhem) taking place. His most memorable catch-phrases included "Moe, I didn't mean it" (usually followed by a slap from Moe), and "I'm a victim of circumstance" (which was used by Curly on occasion as well).And "victim of circumstance" might define his whole entre to the world of performing. He was born Louis Feinberg in Philadelphia, the son of a jeweler. One day while at his father's shop, an accident took place that resulted in his forearm being badly burned with aqua regia, the acid used to test the purity of gold. The doctor who treated him warned his parents that he would have to do something to strengthen the arm or he would lose it. That led to his taking up the violin, an instrument at which he became so proficient that the family considered sending him to Europe for advanced study, a plan that fell apart with the advent of the First World War He began playing the violin in vaudeville under the name Larry Fine, developing a routine in which he would play from a nearly sitting, knees-bent position, kicking his legs alternately. In 1925, he crossed paths with Moe Howard, who was already working, in tandem with his brother Shemp Howard as part of a comedy act with Ted Healy. He became part of the act and remained when Shemp left, to be replaced by another Howard brother, Curly (aka Jerome). The trio eventually left Healy's employ and struck out on their own as the Three Stooges. Over the course of 25 years and 190 short films at Columbia Pictures, they became one of the longest running movie comedy acts (if not always the most respected or beloved, especially by women) in history. Larry Fine's contribution was a mix of violin virtuosity (on display at various times across their history, from Punch Drunks, Disorder In The Court, and "Violent Is The Word For Curly" in the early/middle 1930s to Sweet And Hot in the late 1950s) and zany cluelessness, mixed with an occasional out-of-left-field ad-lib. Larry usually played the wide-eyed middle-stooge, but occasionally the plots of the trio's movies would allow him some variation on this characterization. In "Sweet And Hot," he plays a small-town boy who has made good as a stage producer, and whose intervention sets the plot (focused on characters played by Muriel Landers and Joe Besser) in motion; and in Rockin' In The Rockies, a full-length feature, as a result of a plot that split Moe Howard's character off from the trio, Larry plays the aggressive "head stooge," and is surprisingly good at it. But he was best known as the clueless middle stooge, often referred to by Moe as "porcupine" because of his hair-style. He kept on with the Stooges into the 1960s, but was forced to retire as his health -- damaged by a series of strokes -- deteriorated later in the decade. He passed away in 1975. He was so familiar, that in 1980, five years after his death, his name still turned up in popular culture. In episode two of the sitcom Bosom Buddies, when women's hotel manager Lucille Benson finds Tom Hanks' Kip Wilson in a female tenant's room, she pulls him by the ear down the hall, causing him to exclaim, "Who am I -- Larry Fine?" And in 1983, SCTV presented "Give 'Em Hell, Larry," a short bit (done as a TV promo spot) in which Joe Flaherty portrays James Whitmore (who had previously enjoyed major success playing President Harry Truman in the one-man show "Give 'Em Hell, Harry") performing the one-man show as Larry Fine -- it was among the funniest 60 seconds of television that season.

Trivia: Accidentally shot himself in the left ankle at age 12. Had his first marriage annulled because his mother disapproved of the union. Modeled famous "woo-woo-woo" sound on a similar gimmick used by comic Hugh Herbert Hated shaving his head because he thought it made him less appealing to women. His last film appearance, Hold That Lion, is the only Three Stooges short to co-star Curly along with his two brothers, Moe and Shemp. Was an avid dog lover, often picking up strays while the Stooges traveled and taking them with him from town to town.

Trivia: Comely Suzanne Kaaren was attracting offers from producers and impressarios interested in featuring her in their work from her early teens. Born in New York and trained as a dancer, when she was 15 she came to the attention of Florenz Ziegfeld, who offered to put her into his Follies, and would have but for her parents' refusal to allow it. She entered films in 1934 at the age of 18, usually playing dancers or small speaking roles, and even managed to get a part in M-G-M's The Great Ziegfeld, although most of her work took place in less important films. One of Kaaren's most prominent appearances took place in the Three Stooges vehicle Disorder in the Court, in which she acted and had a superb dance number. She later recalled working with the Three Stooges very fondly, remembering that they were always trying out new gags and bits of physical comedy in front of her on and off the set, to see if they were funny or not. Kaaren did two more movies with the comic trio, Yes, We Have No Bonanza and What's the Matador, sandwiched in between appearances in small (often uncredited) roles in major films such as Idiot's Delight, in which she played one of the nurses that Clark Gable kisses in the hospital sequence. Her biggest role (and best-known movie) was as the heroine in the Bela Lugosi chiller The Devil Bat, a low-budget horror film which, thanks to its public domain status (in which it is often distributed under the name Killer Bats), is still widely shown more than six decade later. Kaaren later married actor Sidney Blackmer and retired from acting. In the 1980s, she made headlines again in New York when she was one of the successful plaintiffs in a lawsuit against real estate mogul Donald Trump, and she returned to acting briefly, in a small uncredited role in the movie The Cotton Club, playing the Duchess of Park Avenue.

Trivia: Relocating from England to the U.S. in the 1920s, dapper, mustachioed Eddie Laughton worked in vaudeville until he was signed by Columbia Pictures in 1935. Laughton spent most of his time in the studio's two-reel comedies, earning his $55 per day in an exhausting variety of roles: hotel clerks, gangsters, snobbish socialites, jealous lovers, train conductors, and, sometimes, just one of the crowd. The Three Stooges, Columbia's top two-reel attraction, were so impressed by Laughton that they hired him as his straight man for their stage appearances. After toting up hundreds of credits in both shorts and features, Laughton left Columbia in 1945 to free-lance. Retiring in 1949, Eddie Laughton died of pneumonia three years later at the age of 49.