Editing Shemp Howard (section)

===Solo years===
After leaving the Three Stooges, Shemp Howard, like many New York City-based performers, found work at Vitaphone. Originally playing bit roles in their six two-reel [[Roscoe Arbuckle]] comedies made from 1932 to 1933, showing off his comical appearance, he was given speaking roles and supporting parts almost immediately. He was featured with studio comics [[Jack Haley]], [[Ben Blue]] and [[Gus Shy]]; then co-starred with [[Harry Gribbon]], [[Daphne Pollard]], and Johnnie Berkes, and finally starred in his own two-reel comedies.{{Citation needed |date=June 2023}} The independently produced ''[[Convention Girl]]'' (1935) featured Shemp in a very rare straight role as a blackmailer and would-be murderer.{{citation needed|date=March 2022}}

Shemp preferred to improvise dialogue and jokes, which became his trademark. In late 1935, Vitaphone was licensed to produce two-reel short comedies based on the ''[[Joe Palooka]]'' comic strip. Shemp was cast as Knobby Walsh, and although only a supporting character, he became the comic focus of the series, with Johnnie Berkes and Lee Weber as his foils. He co-starred in the first seven shorts, released in 1936–1937. Nine of them were produced, the last two done after Shemp's departure from Vitaphone.{{citation needed|date=March 2022}}

Howard unsuccessfully attempted to lead his own group of "stooges" in the [[The Van Beuren Corporation|Van Beuren]] musical comedy short ''[[The Knife of the Party]]''. In 1937, he followed his brothers' lead, moved to the West Coast, and landed supporting actor roles at several studios, mainly [[Columbia Pictures]] and [[Universal Pictures|Universal]]. He worked exclusively at Universal from August 1940 to August 1943, performing with such comics as [[W. C. Fields]], and with comedy duos [[Abbott and Costello]] and [[Olsen and Johnson]]. He lent comic relief to [[Charlie Chan]] and [[The Thin Man]] murder mysteries. He appeared in several Universal B-musicals of the early 1940s, including ''[[Private Buckaroo]]'' (1942), ''[[Strictly in the Groove]]'' (1942), ''How's About It?'' (1943), ''[[Moonlight and Cactus (1944 film)|Moonlight and Cactus]]'' (1944) and ''[[San Antonio Rose (film)|San Antonio Rose]]'' (1941); in the latter of which he was paired with [[Lon Chaney Jr.]] as a faux Abbott and Costello. Most of these projects took advantage of his improvisational skills. When Broadway comedian [[Frank Fay (American actor)|Frank Fay]] walked out on a series of feature films teaming him with [[Billy Gilbert]], Gilbert called on his closest friend, Shemp Howard, to replace him in three B-comedy features for [[Monogram Pictures]], filmed in 1944–45. He also played a few serious parts, such as his supporting role in ''[[Pittsburgh (1942 film)|Pittsburgh]]'' (1942), starring [[Marlene Dietrich]] and [[John Wayne]].{{citation needed|date=March 2022}}