Editing Curly Howard (section)

==Career==

===The Three Stooges===
{{Further|The Three Stooges}}
[[File:Curlydisorder.jpg|thumb|Curly playing with [[bubblegum]] in ''[[Disorder in the Court]]'' in 1936]]
Howard's first on-stage appearance was as a comedy musical conductor in 1928 for the Orville Knapp orchestra; Howard would conduct the ensemble with his arms flailing, unaware that he was losing his pants. Moe later recalled that his performances usually overshadowed those of the band.<ref name="Scrapbook"/> Though he enjoyed the gig, he watched as brothers Moe and Shemp with partner [[Larry Fine]] made it big as some of Ted Healy's "[[Double act|Stooges]]". Vaudeville star Healy had a very popular stage act, in which he would try to tell jokes or sing, only to have his noisy assistants (or "stooges", in show-business parlance) wander on stage and interrupt or heckle him and cause disturbances from the audience. Meanwhile, Healy and company appeared in their first feature film, [[Rube Goldberg]]'s ''[[Soup to Nuts]]'' (1930).<ref name="Fleming">{{cite book| last = Fleming| first = Michael| title = The Three Stooges: An Illustrated History, From Amalgamated Morons to American Icons| publisher = [[Broadway Books]]| year = 2002 | orig-year = 1999| location = New York | pages = 22, 21, 23, 25, 33, 49, 50| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=iPIAAAAACAAJ | isbn = 0-7679-0556-3}}</ref>

Shemp Howard, however, soon tired of Healy's abrasiveness, bad temper, and alcoholism.<ref name="Scrapbook"/> In 1932, he was offered a contract at the [[Vitaphone]] Studios in Brooklyn. With Shemp gone, Moe suggested that his kid brother Jerry could fill the third-stooge role, and Jerry ran through his Orville Knapp act but Healy was unimpressed: "Is that all he can do? Let his pants fall down? Get me a real comedian, not this amateur. He doesn't even look right!"<ref>Morris Feinberg with Bob Davis, ''Larry, The Stooge in the Middle'', San Francisco: Last Gasp Publishing, 1984, p. 101.</ref> Healy felt that Jerry, with his thick, chestnut hair and elegant waxed mustache, looked too good for a low comedian. Howard left the room and returned minutes later with his head shaven (the mustache remained very briefly). Moe and Larry started improvising with this new character:

:'''Moe:''' Hey, Curly!

:'''Larry:''' What did you call him?

:'''Moe:''' Curly.

:'''Larry:''' That's all right. I thought you said ''girlie!''

That exchange sold the act to Healy, and Jerry Horwitz became Curly Howard. In one of the few interviews Curly Howard gave in his lifetime, he complained about the loss of his hair: "I had to shave it off right down to the skin."<ref name="Scrapbook"/>

In 1934, MGM was building Healy up as a solo comedian in feature films, and Moe saw the writing on the wall. Healy alone was under contract to the studio; his Stooges answered to Healy, who paid each of them only $100 a week. When Healy's lucrative MGM contract was up for renewal on March 6, 1934, Moe proposed that Healy and his stooges should split: "Let's just break up. No hard feelings, no sneaking around. Just a good, clean split."<ref>Feinberg and Davis, p. 110.</ref>  Healy agreed, and left to pursue his own career. That same year, with "The Three Stooges" as the act's new name, they signed to appear in two-reel comedy [[short subject]]s for [[Columbia Pictures]]. Their third short, ''[[Men in Black (1934 film)|Men in Black]]'', was nominated for the "Best Short Subject" Academy Award. It lost to the pioneer [[Technicolor]] featurette ''[[La Cucaracha (1934 film)|La Cucaracha]]'', but it did establish The Three Stooges as new comedy stars. It also won the Stooges movie-star salaries: Columbia paid each of them $2,500 per short subject (an exceptional sum; Columbia usually paid $500 to $1,000 per short).<ref>Okuda and Watz, p. 49.</ref> The Stooges soon became the studio's most popular short-subject attraction, with Curly playing an integral part in the trio's work.<ref name="Scrapbook"/>

====Prime years====
[[File:Three Stooges 1937.jpg|thumb|Left to right: [[Larry Fine]], Howard, and [[Moe Howard]] in 1937]]
Howard's childlike mannerisms and natural comedic charm made him a hit with audiences, particularly children. He was known in the act for having an "indestructible" head, which always won out by breaking anything that assaulted it, including saws and hammers (resulting in his characteristic quip, "Oh, look!" when the item is shown damaged while his head is intact).  Although Howard had no formal acting training, his comedic skills were exceptional. Often, directors let the camera roll freely and let Howard improvise. [[Jules White]], in particular, left gaps in the Stooge scripts where he could improvise for several minutes.<ref name="Scrapbook"/> In later years, White commented: "If we wrote a scene and needed a little something extra, I'd say to Curly, 'Look, we've got a gap to fill this in with a "woo-woo" or some other bit of business', and he never disappointed us."<ref name="Okuda 1986 63">{{cite book| last = Okuda| first = Ted | author-link = Ted Okuda|author2=Watz, Edward| title = The Columbia Comedy Shorts| publisher = McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers| year = 1986| pages =63| isbn = 0-89950-181-8}}</ref>

By the time the Stooges hit their peak in the late 1930s, their films had almost become vehicles for Howard's unbridled comic performances. Classics such as ''[[A Plumbing We Will Go]]'' (1940), ''[[We Want Our Mummy]]'' (1938), ''[[An Ache in Every Stake]]'' (1941), ''[[Cactus Makes Perfect (film)|Cactus Makes Perfect]]'' (1942), and their most violent short, ''[[They Stooge to Conga]]'' (1943), display his ability to take inanimate objects (food, tools, pipes, etc.) and turn them into ingenious comic props.<ref name="Scrapbook"/> Moe Howard later confirmed that when Curly forgot his lines, that merely allowed him to improvise on the spot so that the "take" (or scene) could continue uninterrupted:

{{blockquote|If we were going through a scene and Curly forgot his words for a moment, and then, you know, rather than stand, get pale and stop, you never knew what he was going to do. On one occasion, however, he would drop down to the floor and spin around ten times like a top until he finally remembered what he had to say.<ref name="A&E">[[A&E Network]]'s [[Biography (TV series)|Biography]]</ref>}}

Howard also developed a set of [[New York accent|Brooklyn-accented]] reactions and expressions that the other Stooges would imitate long after he had left the act:<ref>{{cite book| last = Seely | first = Peter |author2=Gail W. Pieper | title =Stoogeology: Essays on the Three Stooges | publisher = McFarland | year = 2007| location = Jefferson, N.C.| pages =9 | url =https://books.google.com/books?id=kPVWBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA9 | isbn = 978-0786429202}}</ref>

* "Nyuk, nyuk, nyuk" – his trademark laugh, accompanied by manic finger-snapping (snapping your fingers before cupping your hand and slapping the other hand down), often used to amuse himself
* "Woob, woob, woob!" – cheering used when he was either happy, scared, dazed, or flirting with a "dame"
* "Hmmm!" – an under-the-breath, high-pitched sound meant to express frustration
* "Nyahh-ahhh-ahhh!" – a scared reaction, which was most often used by the other Stooges after Curly's departure
* "La-Dee" or simply "La, la, laaa" – his singing used when he was acting innocently right before taking out an enemy
* "Ruff Ruff" – a dog bark, used to express anger, showing defiance, barking at an attractive dame, and/or giving an enemy a final push before departing the scene
* "Ha-cha-cha!" – a take on Jimmy Durante's catchphrase
* "I'm a victim of soikemstance [circumstance]!" – used to deflect blame from himself
* "Soitenly!" ("certainly")
* "I'll moider (murder) you!"
* "Huff huff huff!" – sharp, huffing exhales either due to excitement or meant to provoke a foe
* "Ah-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba!" – a sort of nonsense, high-pitched yelling that signified being scared or overly excited, which was used during his later years
* "Indubitably" – an expression used to feign an intelligent response
* Nervous teeth chattering, which made the sound of a small hammer striking a chisel
* "Oh! A WISE guy, eh?" – an annoyed response
* "Oh, look!" – a surprised remark, usually pointing out a saw or hammer which was damaged when it came into contact with his hard head. 
* "Say a few syllables!" – to another (injured) Stooge, usually Moe
* Occasionally, the Stooges faced a problem that required deep thought, whereupon Curly would bang his head on a wall several times, then shout, "I got it! I got it!" Moe would ask, "What have you got?" Curly's answer: "A terrific headache."
* Despite his mispronunciations, he had an uncanny ability to instantly spell big words, such as "chrysanthemum", if asked. The gag was that Curly never did it, when something important was at stake. In one scene, the Stooges were in a situation where this talent might have landed them a job, but Curly had missed his opportunity. Moe's reaction would be to growl, "Where were you a minute ago?" and then smack him.

On several occasions, Moe Howard was convinced that rising star [[Lou Costello]] (a close friend of Shemp's) was stealing material from his brother.<ref name=moe/> Costello was known to acquire prints of the Stooges' films from Columbia Pictures on occasion, presumably to study him. Inevitably, Curly Howard's routines would appear in ''[[Abbott and Costello]]'' feature films, much to Moe's chagrin.<ref name=moe/> (It did not help that Columbia Pictures president [[Harry Cohn]] would not allow the Stooges to make feature-length films like contemporaries [[Laurel and Hardy]], the [[Marx Brothers]], and Abbott and Costello.)<ref>Bob Bernet [http://web2.airmail.net/willdogs/ My Pal Moe] ''web2.airmail.net/willdogs'' {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130522070102/http://web2.airmail.net/willdogs/ |date=May 22, 2013 }}</ref>

Curly was the only "third Stooge" who never made a series of his short films, without Moe or Larry, either before joining the Stooges or after leaving. Shemp and subsequent Stooges [[Joe Besser]] and [[Joe DeRita]] (referred to during his stint with the Stooges as "Curly Joe DeRita") each starred in their solo series of theatrical short subjects.