SHEMP!

Burt Kearns is an author, journalist, and film and television producer, dubbed by Vanity Fair as “a show business and pop culture savant.” His books include Marlon Brando: Hollywood Rebel, Lawrence Tierney: Hollywood’s Real Life Tough Guy,The Show Won’t Go On, and the memoir, Tabloid Baby. His screenwork includes The Seventh Python, Conspiracy Theory with Jesse Ventura, and Kardashian: The Man Who Saved O.J. Simpson. He also cowrote and produced, along with Academy Award winner Albert S. Ruddy, the Burt Reynolds comedy movie, Cloud 9. He lives in Los Angeles.

Born Schmuel Horvitz in 1895 to Lithuanian Jewish immigrants, comic and character actor Shemp Howard was the elder brother of Three Stooges performers Moe and Curly (nonrelative Larry Fine was the third). But to most, he is known as the ‘fourth wheel’ Stooge who replaced his popular brother Curly in 1946. Kearns argues—and argues, and argues—that despite being overshadowed by his brothers, Shemp was the Stooge’s ‘original star’ who helped give birth to the comedy trio. As youths, both Shemp and his younger brother Moe demonstrated an aptitude for comedy, though it was Moe who, at age 11, struck out first into the world of acting. By 1910, they were a duo in a blackface act; when they managed to land gigs with both the RKO and Loew vaudeville circuits, they evaded the ban on double-booking by doing the same act in whiteface for Loew. Invited onstage at a performance by Moe and fellow comedian Ted Healy in 1923, Shemp incited a ‘roughhouse ruckus,’ and from then on, the act was known as ‘Ted Healy and His Stooges.’ Shemp, Moe, and comedian Larry Fine eventually launched their own vaudeville act in 1930. They rejoined their old boss in 1932, but Shemp quit less than two weeks later after a financial dispute with Healy, to be replaced by Curly. Shemp began a solo acting career at Vitaphone studios in Brooklyn. In the 1940s, he landed significant character actor roles at major Hollywood studios and played alongside screen legends like Marlene Dietrich and John Wayne. Through extensive research that includes interviews with film experts, family members, and fellow celebrities, Kearns strives… to demonstrate that ‘underrated, underappreciated’ Shemp Howard was a ‘comedic superlative’ who deserves a place on the ‘Mount Rushmore of comedy’ and a gifted character actor who was his own man before he was a Stooge. An illuminating… reworking of the Stooges mythology.

— Kirkus Reviews

"This is the only book you will ever need to read about anything. Burn all the other books — there is ONLY Shemp!"

— Patton Oswalt

“SHEMP! examines every question about the Three Stooges that was in the recesses of my mind, through the character I believe made them a unit. SHEMP! realizes who Shemp was: the actor, the Stooge, and the man -- and why it’s cool to love him. A fascinating and fun book. And it’s not really long, which makes it even better!”

— Richard Kind

Shemp! A word that says it all! And this book says everything else! I honestly cannot imagine a better written or more thorough chronicling of the life and times of Shemp, in all his glory, than this one. If you must read one book about Shemp, make it SHEMP! by Burt Kearns. What are you waiting for? Get started!

— Merrill Markoe, humorist, author, and Emmy-winning televison writer (The David Letterman Show)

"Shemp Howard triggers strong emotions among the Stooge fans who have been debating his merits for a generation. And now Burt Kearns presents what we all knew was inevitable: A primer for the teaching of Critical Shemp Theory."

— Kliph Nesteroff, Author of The Comedians: Drunks, Thieves, Scoundrels, and the History of American Comedy