Forever L.A. by Douglas Keister

Author:Douglas Keister
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Gibbs Smith
Published: 2010-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

Joe Besser

August 12, 1907–March 1, 1988

Forest Lawn Memorial Park–Glendale Dedication Plot (L-4404, space 2A)

Joe Besser was born in St. Louis, Missouri, the ninth child of Jewish immigrants Morris and Fanny Besser. At age 12, he was hired as a “stooge,” but as a plant in the audience as part of Howard Thurston’s magic act. Throughout the 1930s and ’40s, he appeared in a number of Abbot and Costello films as well as Olsen and Johnson Broadway reviews. His character was usually a disagreeable sissy who flew into temper tantrums. He was under contact with Columbia Pictures when Shemp Howard, also under contract at Columbia, died of a sudden heart attack. Although Moe Howard suggested that he and Larry continue on as The Two Stooges, Columbia studio chief Harry Cohn prevailed and hired Joe Besser to replace Shemp.

Rather than adopt the physical comedy of Shemp and Curly, Besser successfully negotiated to keep his submissive whiny character, a move that did not prove popular with most Stooge fans. Joe’s time with the Stooges was brief (spring 1956 to the end of 1957, when the Stooges’ contract was terminated after the death of Harry Cohn); but, much to Besser’s displeasure, his role of Joe eclipsed all of his previous work. He recounted his Stooge identity in his 1984 book titled Not Just a Stooge (reissued following his death as Once a Stooge, Always a Stooge). Moe asked Besser to join The Three Stooges on a tour in 1958, but he declined, citing the ill health of his wife, who suffered a heart attack in late 1957. That opened the door for the last Stooge, Curly-Joe DeRita.

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