The King Of Stooges

"One of the nicest compliments I'd received for my now-dead Ted Healy page was that Ted, were he alive, would likely have slapped my back hard enough to sting, bought me a stiff drink, and then done something absolutely horrible and emotionally scarring to me." Aaron Neathery

For post #1301, we shine the spotlight on a still controversial showbiz great from comedy, vaudeville and classic movies, Ted Healy (1896-1937).

We're a tad surprised the wiseguy co-founder of The Three Stooges, whose life is covered in detail in Bill Cassara's terrific book Nobody's Stooge has never been profiled here at Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog.

It is difficult to describe the extent to which the fast-talking and at times abrasive comedian, whose success originating the role of sharp-tongued master of ceremonies paralleled the sarcastic and caustic Frank Fay and preceded fellow m.c. comics Milton Berle and Bob Hope was an ever-reckless wild and crazy guy: gambler, boozer, carouser, womanizer and pyromaniac, but also generous to friends and charitable organizations, especially those directly helping children. One thinks of Chris Farley, but the rotund and larger-than-life physical comedian of the 1990's was, while equally out of control, in general was a much nicer guy than Ted. Alas, all these decades later, alcoholism and substance abuse still can be called "Comedians' Disease."

Born Clarence Ernest Lee Nash in Kaufman, Texas on October 1, 1896, Ted Healy overcame a very tough upbringing that included more than its share of deprivation to become the highest paid performer in vaudeville, at first as part of a team with his wife Betty Brown. The duo appeared on Broadway, among other extravaganzas, in the Shubert Brothers' The Passing Show of 1926. Among the various Stooges joining them for individual gags in the late 1920's as Ted's "Racketeers" and "Country Gentlemen" were Moe Howard, Shemp Howard and Larry Fine.

The Wikipedia entry on Ted Healy elaborates: Howard's brother Shemp joined the act as a heckler in early 1924, but both Howards temporarily left show business in mid 1925. Ted and Betty were hired in June 1925 to star in the Broadway revue Earl Carroll Vanities of 1925. Ted brought some of the routines he developed with the Howard brothers, using three comics under contract to Carroll, (Dave Chasen, Kenneth Lackey, and Lou Warren). After a contract dispute whereby it was determined that Carroll was in the wrong, Ted and Betty left "Vanities" in October 1925 with Lou Warren and relaunched their Syncopated Toes revue, now retitled Fun in the Healy Manner. By January 1926 Shemp Howard had returned, and they successfully toured the country through the summer of 1926.

Ted and Betty received another Broadway opportunity, this time from the Shubert Brothers, who hired them for The Passing Show of 1926, with Ted bringing Shemp and Lou along. Passing only enjoyed a preview tour and did not open on Broadway, but the Shuberts and Healy retooled the show into the successful A Night in Spain, with Phil Baker joining the Healys as its stars. For Spain, Ted utilized four stooges in some scenes: Shemp, Lou Warren, brother-in-law Sam "Moody" Braun, and Dick Hakins. Arriving on Broadway in May 1927 after four months of successful previews, Hakins fell ill and was replaced by comedy/specialty dancer Bobby Pinkus. In November 1927, Spain began a national tour with four months at Chicago's Four Cohans Theatre. Larry Fine, who had been working as the lead performer and house MC at Chicago's Rainbo Gardens nightclub and restaurant, was added to Healy's group of comics in late March 1928.

Rather amazingly, Ted's silver screen debut actually took place in SILENTS, before he joined forces onstage with Moe, Larry and Shemp or Curly, in Wise Guys Prefer Brunettes, a Hal Roach Studios short subject directed by Stan Laurel (yes, that Stan Laurel) and featuring Pathé and Samuel Goldwyn starlet Helene Chadwick, supported by Ted and perennial Laurel & Hardy nemesis Jimmie Finlayson.



Although it would be a decade later, in his last appearances in Warner Brothers features, before the full realization of what Healy's gruff silver screen persona could be, Ted's talent, charisma and edgy intensity are already notable in this Hal Roach "All-Star" comedy.

Ted Healy, who hired Moe Howard, Shemp Howard, Larry Fine and (later) Jerry "Curly" Howard, started working with his childhood pal Moe way back in 1912 and administered the first of a gazillion onstage slaps. It was the team's success in A Night In Venice, the "New Musical Extravaganza," choreographed by Busby Berkeley and Chester Hale, produced by The Messrs. Shubert at NYC's Sam S. Shubert Theatre in 1929 that led to the Stooges' talkie debut in the Fox feature SOUP TO NUTS. In both, diminutive goofball comic and xylophonist Freddie Sanborn was added to the team, at this point known as Ted Healy and his Southern Gentlemen.



The following presents the vaudeville act of the Ted Healy & His Stooges. It's a routine that gets repeated in their subsequent appearances in MGM films. Behold, the first silver screen slaps!



The team, with Jerry "Curly" Howard replacing his older brother Shemp, who signed with Vitaphone "Big V" Comedies, then appeared as comic relief in feature films for MGM and Universal. Believe it or not, Moe, Larry, Curly and Ted were actually in the same movie with MGM mega-stars Joan Crawford and Clark Gable!



In Meet The Baron, they are among a slew of comics supporting radio star Jack "Baron Munchausen" Pearl.

Ted & The Stooges, Durante and versatile character actress Edna May Oliver, who played the Margaret Dumont role in several Wheeler & Woolsey films, end up with the memorable scenes in Meet The Baron.



Ted & the boys also appear in the backstage scenario Myrt And Marge, directed by the very prolific comedy writer Al Boasberg (1892-1937).



The MGM short subjects are a hodgepodge, several alternating vaudeville routines by Ted Healy & His Stooges with production numbers from early talkie musicals, many featuring the Albertina Rasch Dancers.

The Stooges are billed as "Howard, Fine & Howard."

Added to the annals of Stoogedom in the MGM films was eccentric dancer and even more eccentric comedienne Marion Wright a.k.a. Bonny Bonnell. She's the fairy godmother in the aforementioned very pre-Code bedtime story NERTSERY RHYMES and performs a wildly over-the-top dance number, starting at 8:16, in BEER AND PRETZELS (released theatrically on August 26, 1933). It's off-the-wall and one for the books.

London After Midnight is still missing but the third MGM Ted & Stooges short, Hello Pop, released to movie theatres on September 16, 1933, actually turned up after decades as a lost film! Ted, Moe, Larry, Curly and female Stooge Bonny Bonnell are on hand, along with ubiquitous character actor Henry Armetta.



First saw the following opus, Plane Nuts, one of those hybrids of Stooge vaudeville and campy production numbers from musicals (in this case, the 1931 feature Flying High) in a Three Stooges tribute program at San Francisco's long closed Avenue Theatre way back in the 1980's.

The audience, expecting a Columbia Three Stooges comedy along the lines of Del Lord masterpieces Pardon My Scotch and Dizzy Doctors, booed. These days, I find Plane Nuts and the other Ted-Stooges-Bonny short subjects quite entertaining!

Strangest of all the Healy & Stooges MGMs: THE BIG IDEA. Ted's comedic style makes one think of Milton Berle. Moe, Larry and Curly barely appear in it at all. Bonny Bonnell is actually funny in the role of a deranged cleaning lady. Also in the cast of THE BIG IDEA: Muriel Evans, the beautiful and wry supporting player from Charley Chase's Hal Roach Studios comedy short subjects, westerns and MGM features, who seems more than a tad too normal for this bent opus.

The Stooges and Healy went their separate ways in 1934. Shemp starred in short subjects for Vitaphone. Jules White's Columbia Shorts Department signed Moe, Larry and Curly, where they worked with such super talented comedy director/writers as Del Lord, Jack "Preston Black" White and Charley Chase.



Ted developed his comic character actor chops further in movies - both comedies and dramas - for MGM and Warner Brothers, with Varsity Show and Hollywood Hotel proving to be standouts.

The very enjoyable Varsity Show includes a rousing and downright amazing musical number that begins with the legendary dance team of Buck & Bubbles, and includes Dick Powell, Johnny "Scat" Davis and very funny moments in which Ted Healy, Mabel Todd and Sterling Holloway also indulge in a bit of terpsichore.



Varsity Show closes with a customarily spectacular Busby Berkeley production number.



We at Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog consider the best silver screen performance of Ted Healy to be in Hollywood Hotel.



In both Hollywood Hotel and Varsity Show, Ted met his zany match when he was teamed with Mabel Todd, the ultra-goofy comedienne and singer who co-starred with Morey Amsterdam among the cast of the Al Pierce & His Gang radio show.



The funniest Mabel Todd bits this writer has seen are from Hollywood Hotel.



Further illustrating that chemistry between the blustery Healy and the daffy Todd: the complete version of the "Let That Be A Lesson To You" number. In this comedy buff's opinion, the following very enjoyable number from Hollywood Hotel, LET THAT BE A LESSON 2 YOU, is Healy's greatest appearance on celluloid. He works beautifullu with the film's star Dick Powell, as well as Mr. Slow Burn himself Edgar Kennedy. Throughout Hollywood Hotel, an excellent roster of movie comedians have a blast, as does singer Johnny "Scat" Davis.





Hard-boiled Ted and uber-wacky Mabel play off each other quite well and it is a shame that due to Healy's untimely death on December 21, 1937, the mug and the zany did not work together any more. The moviegoing audience must have approved of the Healy-Todd team, as they were slated to appear again as comic relief in Gold Diggers In Paris.



While Ted formed the Three Stooges act, it's apparent that he, emphatically, is funnier as a solo comic, WITHOUT his Stooges/Racketeers/Country Gentlemen or such second string proto-Stooges as Dick Hakins, Sammy Wolfe and Paul "Mousie" Garner. His death was a tragedy worthy of film noir and, alas, he died in 1937, before that genre got going. Healy did quite well playing character roles in such MGM features as the 1936 epic San Francisco, so perhaps, as his fellow wiseguy Lee Tracy did, he could have found a niche in 1940's cinema. Would have been very interesting to see Ted end the 1930's and 1940's playing character roles in Warner Bros. crime pictures. That's conjecture, just as where John Belushi's career would have gone had he survived is conjecture.

In closing acknowledgements, must note, in addition to Bill Cassara's book, the Ted Healy filmography from threestooges.net, a good entry on Stooge Wiki, as well as a series of articles posted by the aforementioned Aaron Neathery on the long-gone but not forgotten Third Banana blog (especially Ted Healy: In Memoriam, posted on December 21, 2006 and The Mystery of Bonnie Bonnell, posted May 20, 2006).

Known as the Clark & McCullough historian, Mr. Neathery also maintained a Ted Healy page way back in the 'oughts and was quite taken aback by the vehement and vitriolic trashing of Healy - "the kind of scorn usually reserved for serial killers and politicians" - by fervent Stoogephiles. As noted, I have witnessed this at screenings where the MGM "Howard, Fine & Howard" films were programmed alongside 1930's Columbia 2-reelers - and agreed with this unenthusiastic assessment until I saw Ted Healy's stellar post-Stooge work as a character actor and solo comic.

As our last post, plugging the Orinda Theater's September 23 classic movie night, lo and behold, was Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog post #1300, we are pleased as pomegranates to tip the beat-up top hat to Ted Healy, King of Stooges, for post #1301.