(July 12, 1909 - July 3, 1993)
Joe DeRita had contractual obligations otherwise he would have
followed Shemp as the third Stooge.
After Joe Besser's stint he came on to take the third wheel. They
had already had a Stooge named "Joe", and Joe DeRita
kind of looked like Curly, so his name
became, "Curly Joe". They broke in their
"new" act at the Holiday Inn in Bakersfield, CA. It was
six miserable shows in three days. Moe
longed for Curly and Shemp. The second night of the shows, the
manager tried to back out of the deal, or give them a cut in pay.
Moe, being the guy he was, made them perform all the shows for
the original monetary agreement. Night clubs were no longer for
the Stooges brand of humor and their film career was over. Their
act was really meant for vaudeville, but vaudeville was dead.
Were the Stooges?
They learned thought the trade papers that, Columbia Pictures
through Screen Gems, was putting together the first batch of
thirty or forty Stooge Shorts for television. Most of them being
old, dating back to the thirties. Almost overnight, the Three
Stooges became one of the hottest childrens shows on TV, reaching
number one after a matter of weeks. As is the nature of
Hollywood, once its seems that your a success, the offers start
to pour in.
They did more clubs this time, except for children, at three
times the pay they were getting before. They did the Ed Sullivan
Show three times. The first time they appeared on his show, Ed
called the the Three Ritz Brothers. They then did the Steve Allen
Show a few times as well. They did many successful features for
Columbia, from "Have Rocket, Will Travel", to "The
Stooges In Orbit". As well as all the cameos in films like,
"Four For Texas" with Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra.
They toured the country with all of the Columbia features to the
delight of kids everywhere. Who would line up around the block at
every appearance. They even had a Stooges cartoon.
After Larry's death, Moe and Joe were
going to keep the act going with, Emil Sitka. Needless to say it
never panned out. Later, before Moe's death, Joe asked if he
could do the act with two other guys, a comic and an acrobat. Moe
agreed, but the act was not well received, and Joe DeRita gave up
his career as a Stooge.
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