Curly Howard
Curly Howard was the most famous stooge of all time, his funny sayings which mainly consisted of gibberish along with his child like behavior caught the eyes of stooge fans everywhere.
His real name was Jerome Lester Horowitz, he was born on October 22,1903 in Bath Beach a summer resort in a section of Brooklyn. His parent’s names were Jennie and Solomon Horowitz, before having him they had four other children making him the youngest of five. At birth he weigh a whopping eight and a half pounds!
Curly was nothing like his brothers, his brothers being troublemakers; in fact he was labeled as quiet. Curly was not a very intelligent child, on the other hand he was a great athlete, he was known for his talents especially in basketball. But Curly never graduated school, instead he did many anonymous jobs.
Curly’s passion was song and dance, he was at one time a well-known ballroom dancer, that is until Moe persuaded him to become a comedian. But the only time he fulfilled that dream was when he landed a job as a conductor in the Orville Knapp Band.
His first wife he married at a young age, her name is not known, of course the parents objected due to Curly’s young age but he went through it anyway. Consequently they decide to annul the marriage six months later.
His Brothers persuaded him more and more to become a comedian, he would watch most of their acts when under the management of Ted Healy. It was in 1932 during J.J. Shubert’s Passing Show when Curly was given the opportunity to join, Healy and Shubert had an argument then Healy walked of the stage accompanied by Moe and Larry not Shemp. Shemp had not liked Healy’s fights in the first place, but he had dealt with them. So when this happened he left, the stooge act making one opening. In the same day they asked Curly to become their third stooge. But in order to join he had to shave his hair and mustache off, he was eager to do so.
Curly almost immediately became the star of the show. They started off with a few shorts with MGM, later there fame started to rise and they left MGM and went to Columbia, where they still did slapstick comedy shorts.
But the more famous they got the more heavily Curly drank, he was depressed because he thought that his shaven head robbed him of his masculinity. But soon Moe helped him manage his money as well as his income tax return.
Curly’s number one weakness was women, evidently he thought he did not know how to speak to them, so he would converse with just about anyone. Little did he know that if he had just been himself he would have had no trouble talking to women. He was married to several more women after his first annulment. He married Elaine Ackerman on June 7,1937, he had on child with her his first in fact, her name was Marilyn. Elaine files for divorce on July 11, 1940.
After his divorce he started to drink heavily, consequently he gained a lot of wait and then was diagnosed with hypertension, a retinal hemorrhage, and obesity. He was finally dismissed from the hospital on February 9, 1945.
A couple months later Curly met a woman by the name Marion Buxbaum, they were married in New York on October 17, 1945. This relationship was scandalous, she tried to suck him dry, the first three months were miserable, and three months later Curly sued for divorce.
From here on his heath began to decline. On May 6, 1946 He suffered a stroke during the filming of one of the Stooge shorts. He left the team to recover from the illness. After recovering Curly met a woman by the name of Valerie Newman he married her on July 31, 1947. Valerie gave birth to Curly’s second child Janie.
In 1949 Curly suffered his second series of strokes, due to the strokes Curly was confined to a wheelchair and was only allowed to eat boiled rice and apples. This was meant to bring down Curly’s weight and blood pressure. His weight then decreased dramatically.
He was returned to the hospital from 1950-1952. When he returned home he was confined to bed, and Valerie nursed him. In February 1952 he was sent to a nursing home called the colonial house, in Los Angeles. Later that year he suffered a stroke, then Moe moved him out of the nursing home.
In April 1952 Curly moved to North Hollywood Hospital and Sanatorium. But Curly was kicked out because he was becoming a problem to the staff due to mental deterioration. Moe was told to put curly in a mental Hospital but Moe wouldn’t do it. Moe then moved Curly to Baldy View Sanitarium in San Gabriel. He died 11 days later on Jan 18, 1952.
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