Letter Writing Campaign For The 3 Stooges Statue in Brooklyn

[unknown]

Brooklyn Should Have A Statue of the Knuckleheads - The Three Stooges!

NYC has a statue of Jackie Gleason as Ralph Kramden at Port Authority,
and for years I thought they should have a statue of Art Carney as Ed
Norton at Dept of Sanitation HQ, also!

There is a statue of Lou Costello in Paterson, NJ, and of course a
Charles Chaplin statue in England.

I was thinking, maybe Brooklyn should honor the Howard brothers
and their close pal and partner, Larry Fine (born in Philly, though) -
The Three Stooges!

The Three Stooges are proud children of Brooklyn and have a
comedy legacy that will last forever, I think a statue of Moe, Larry,
Curly & Shemp would be quite fitting!

Below is a letter suggesting the idea. Please copy & paste it,
personalize it, and send a hard copy to Brooklyn Borough President
Marty Markowitz at the address below - this costs less than 40 cents,
about 1/10th the price of an 8 oz cup of Starbucks Coffee!

Or at the very least, please copy & paste the note into an email,
personalize it, and email it to Mr. Markowitz at
***@brooklynbp.org.

And PLEASE pass this along to interested friends & folks! THANKS!

Lets all write to the Brooklyn Borough President's office and get this
one cooking! Swing It!!!!

[Special thanks go out to my friend Paul who helped compose the letter
below! Gracias!]

Send To:

Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz
209 Joralemon Street
Brooklyn, NY 11201

SAMPLE LETTER

Dear Borough President Markowitz,

I would like to make a suggestion for a new statue and monument in the
Borough of Brooklyn.

One of the most endearing acts in comedy history, The Three Stooges,
has its roots in Brooklyn, New York. Moses 'Moe' Horwitz (b. 1897),
Jerome 'Curly' Horwitz (b. 1903), and Samuel 'Shemp' Horwitz (b. 1895)
were all born and raised sons of Brooklyn. The three would later use
the surname 'Howard' for their stage and film careers.

'The Three Stooges' line-up that most are familiar with is Moe, his
brother Curly, and their partner Louis 'Larry' Feinberg. In fact, the
original version of 'The Three Stooges' was Moe, Larry & Shemp, who
debuted as a trio with popular comedian Ted Healy in 1925. When Shemp
decided to leave the team in 1932 to pursue a successful solo career,
Moe's brother Curly filled the vacancy, forming the most familiar
incarnation of the team. When illness later befell Curly, Shemp
returned to take his place. When Shemp passed away, he was followed by
Joe Besser, who in turn was followed by Curly Joe DaRita. Always at
the core of the team were Moe and Larry.

After learning their craft in vaudeville and dabbling in brief film
appearances as second banana to Healy, The Stooges signed with
Columbia Pictures in 1934 and the rest is movie history. They went on
to star in an amazing 190 comedy shorts for Columbia over the next 24
years, and had the longest continuous major studio contract in
Hollywood history.

With theatrical short subjects phased out by the growing popularity of
television in the 1950s, it seemed The Stooges would fade into
obscurity. However, the very medium that killed the shorts resulted in
a cultural resurgence for The Stooges! By the 1960s, their original
shorts became more widely appreciated due to constant television
exposure. This led to a revitalized career for The Stooges, including
feature films and an animated TV series. To this day, the Stooges
remain a permanent fixture on television and a major success on home
video.

The contributions of The Three Stooges should not be understated.
Their unique brand of comic lunacy has brought laughter to many
generations of fans, and their legacy will continue for generations to
come. They have enjoyed enormous popularity throughout the decades and
have millions of fans all around the world. They are truly film
legends and cultural icons.

I think the Borough of Brooklyn should honor the Horwitz brothers and
their partner Larry Fine with a permanent monument to The Three
Stooges. A statue honoring Moe, Larry, Curly and Shemp would be a
wonderful tribute to their enduring legacy, as well as a popular
fixture in Brooklyn that many people will be sure to visit for years
to come.

Sincerely,

NAME

[h***@brazee.net]

Post by unknown
The Three Stooges are proud children of Brooklyn and have a
comedy legacy that will last forever, I think a statue of Moe, Larry,
Curly & Shemp would be quite fitting!

Doing what?

[unknown]

Post by h***@brazee.net

Post by unknown
The Three Stooges are proud children of Brooklyn and have a
comedy legacy that will last forever, I think a statue of Moe, Larry,
Curly & Shemp would be quite fitting!

Doing what?

I haven't considered that. I would leave that to the creative vision
of the sculptor.

[h***@brazee.net]

Post by unknown

Post by h***@brazee.net

Post by unknown
The Three Stooges are proud children of Brooklyn and have a
comedy legacy that will last forever, I think a statue of Moe, Larry,
Curly & Shemp would be quite fitting!

Doing what?

I haven't considered that. I would leave that to the creative vision
of the sculptor.

Consider it please. I would be fun to see some suggestions. (it wouldn't
work to have any eye poking today).

[Ben Hopkins]

Post by h***@brazee.net

Post by unknown

Post by h***@brazee.net

Post by unknown
The Three Stooges are proud children of Brooklyn and have a
comedy legacy that will last forever, I think a statue of Moe, Larry,
Curly & Shemp would be quite fitting!

Doing what?

I haven't considered that. I would leave that to the creative vision
of the sculptor.

Consider it please. I would be fun to see some suggestions. (it wouldn't
work to have any eye poking today).

How about Curly blocking Moe's eye-poke with the side of his hand (nyuk
nyuk nyuk!), and Larry receiving a back-handed slap from Moe's other
hand? Don't have any idea how to work Shemp into this.

[Mark Steese]

Post by Ben Hopkins

Post by h***@brazee.net

Post by unknown

Post by h***@brazee.net

Post by unknown
The Three Stooges are proud children of Brooklyn and have a
comedy legacy that will last forever, I think a statue of Moe,
Larry, Curly & Shemp would be quite fitting!

Doing what?

I haven't considered that. I would leave that to the creative vision
of the sculptor.

Consider it please. I would be fun to see some suggestions. (it
wouldn't work to have any eye poking today).

How about Curly blocking Moe's eye-poke with the side of his hand
(nyuk nyuk nyuk!), and Larry receiving a back-handed slap from Moe's
other hand?

I don't think it'll work unless a saw or a pair of pliers is involved.

Post by Ben Hopkins
Don't have any idea how to work Shemp into this.

Thus we see the inherent problem in having a group called the Three
Stooges. Hardly seems fair to short-change old Shemp, seeing as how he
was Moe's brother and all...but *Four* Stooges? And if you let in
Shemp, but not Joe Besser and Joe DeRita, somebody'll cry foul, and
before you know it there'll be Six Stooges. And somewhere out there is
a Ted Healy fan who won't rest until *he's* included in the group. And
what about Joe Palma? Oh, it'll make the wrangling over the FDR
monument look like a Sunday School picnic.

[unknown]

On Tue, 22 Jun 2004 05:42:07 -0000, Mark Steese

Post by Mark Steese
Thus we see the inherent problem in having a group called the Three
Stooges. Hardly seems fair to short-change old Shemp, seeing as how he
was Moe's brother and all...but *Four* Stooges?

Shemp belongs in any monument to The Three Stooges. The first
incarnation of the trio (even if they didn't use the name 'Three
Stooges') was More, Larry, & Shemp - all three are charter members and
belong in any monument on that basis alone. That fact (along with the
fact that Larry was both a charter and constant menber of the team
since 1925), in my book, bootstraps Philly native Larry into the
Brooklyn monument to the Stooges.

Moe, Curly, and Shemp of course all belong because of their
contributions to the team over most of their Columbia run, as well as
the fact they were all born in Brooklyn NY, the proposed site of the
statue.

Post by Mark Steese
And if you let in
Shemp, but not Joe Besser and Joe DeRita, somebody'll cry foul, and
before you know it there'll be Six Stooges.

There's no way everyone will be 100% pleased and its always
problematic to excluse people from something like this, you are right,

We can consider Shemp a founding member, even if they weren't
actually 'The Three Stooges' in his first run. He did star in 77
Columbia shorts with Moe and Larry, only 20 less than Curly,
representing the overwhelming majority of the Columbia shorts (174 out
of 190).

Besser only made 16 shorts as a Stooge, and DeRita was only around in
the final run (though enjoyed the benefits of the great Stooge
resurgence of the 1960s and beyond on movies and TV).

The line has to be drawn somewhere - we may as well draw it with
Shemp, though that won't please everyone, you are right.

Post by Mark Steese
And somewhere out there is
a Ted Healy fan who won't rest until *he's* included in the group.

Ted Healy was very influential in his own way, but he wasn't a
Brooklyner (I know, neither was Larry) and the Stooges greatest
success came only after the signed with Columbia, post-Healy. That
makes him a peripheral figure, (though I don't mean that as a
pejorative).

Post by Mark Steese
And
what about Joe Palma? Oh, it'll make the wrangling over the FDR
monument look like a Sunday School picnic.

In an odd way, I think it would be quite fitting for a statue to
'Three Stooges' to be a monument to four men! Pretty 'stoogeiffic,'
if you ask me! ;-)

"Did you hear Brooklyn just did a statue to the Three Stooges and it
has four men?" "Go fgure, the Three Stooges statue has four guys in
it! Haha!!"

That's a Stooge approach to honoring them, I think!

Hey, here's an idea: The statue can be of the four core Stooges I as I
described, but the base can also honor Healy, Besser, and DeRita, as a
compromise. That probably wouldn't make everybody happy but it would
be a fair enough compromise.

You raise great points regarding the problems in excluding Besser & De
Rita in any monument. This way, they wouldn't be excluded in the
monument Not perfect, I know, but a statue of 6 or more men is kinda
silly, I think.

Ultimately it comes down to a judgment call - a statue of Moe, Larry,
& Curly alone does a great disservice to Shemp. But honoring Healy,
Besser, & DeRita makes the project too unweildy. And this way all the
Brooklyn natives are prominently represented.

I'm still mediating on a proposed pose for the statue, too!

[James Neibaur]

Post by Mark Steese
Thus we see the inherent problem in having a group called the Three
Stooges. Hardly seems fair to short-change old Shemp, seeing as how he
was Moe's brother and all...but *Four* Stooges? And if you let in
Shemp, but not Joe Besser and Joe DeRita, somebody'll cry foul, and
before you know it there'll be Six Stooges

I don't know about Besser, who has no survivors, but perhaps DeRita's family
would be unhappy with his exclusion.

Personally, I think a Brooklyn statue should be just the Howard brothers. I
love Philly-born Larry, of course, but the three hometown stooges would be a
more likely tribute.

JN

[h***@brazee.net]

Post by Mark Steese
Thus we see the inherent problem in having a group called the Three
Stooges. Hardly seems fair to short-change old Shemp, seeing as how he
was Moe's brother and all...but *Four* Stooges? And if you let in
Shemp, but not Joe Besser and Joe DeRita, somebody'll cry foul, and
before you know it there'll be Six Stooges. And somewhere out there is
a Ted Healy fan who won't rest until *he's* included in the group. And
what about Joe Palma? Oh, it'll make the wrangling over the FDR
monument look like a Sunday School picnic.

A statue can have one person's face on one side, and another person's face
on the other side. Or it can have a main scene, with some reliefs around
the base.

[..SHERIFF € OF € HONK € HONK...]

Post by h***@brazee.net

Post by unknown

Post by h***@brazee.net

Post by unknown
The Three Stooges are proud children of Brooklyn and have a
comedy legacy that will last forever, I think a statue of Moe, Larry,
Curly & Shemp would be quite fitting!

Doing what?

I haven't considered that. I would leave that to the creative vision
of the sculptor.

Consider it please. I would be fun to see some suggestions. (it wouldn't
work to have any eye poking today).

As long as they were poking each others eyes and not those of a woman, gay,
minority or some other overly-sensitive group, it should be ok ; )