When I’m not feeling too well I resort to my emergency supply of old VCR tapes. I have two types I watch which I find as comforting as eating a plate of macaroni and cheese or a bowl of chocolate pudding topped with Reddi Wip.
They are the Three Stooges and the Monkees.
Sally Starr introduced me to the Three Stooges more than 50 years ago on Channel 6’s Popeye Theater. Like many Stooge fans, I prefer their short films that feature Jerome (Curly) Howard.
Jan. 18 is the anniversary of the death of Curly in 1952. As serious Stooge fans are aware, Curly had a stroke on the set of the film “Half Wits Holiday,” in 1946 which ended his career. Curly had been in decline for two years before his debilitating stroke.
Ardent Stooge fans can see his deepening voice and slower actions in his final films. He lasted until 1952 although he was in and out of hospitals and nursing homes toward the end of his life. Various published accounts indicate Curly had high blood pressure and ate and drank to excess. He died at the age of 48.
Curly was replaced by his brother Shemp who was not quite a funny.
Curly made 98 short films, which are considered to be the best of the Stooges’ career which stretched from the 1930s through the 1960s.
I am enough of a knucklehead to have made a trip to the Stoogeum in Ambler, Pa., the world’s only museum of Three Stooges memorabilia. It is only open on Thursdays and contains close to 100,000 pieces of Stooge memorabilia.
To me it was well worth the driving trip from Cape May County. Google “Stoogeum” if you are interested in a visit.
The 10,000-square-foot, three-story building museum houses “anything and everything Stooge.” Artifacts from 1918 to the present are on exhibit, including several interactive displays. The Stoogeum also contains a research library, a 16mm film storage vault and an 85-seat theater used for film screenings, lectures and special presentations.
I also have to admit that I have been a fan of the Monkees for 46 years. I was lucky enough to have tickets to the Monkees’ concert at the Keswick Theatre in Glenside, Pa. last December. The Monkees were on a 15-city tour featuring the return of Mike Nesmith.
The Monkees lost one of their members, Davy Jones, when he suffered a heart attack at the age of 66 last February. For many Monkee fans, like myself, I figured that would be the end of the band.
The Monkees toured as a three-piece band with Jones, Micky Dolenz and Peter Tork on and off in the 80s and occasionally in the 90s. Nesmith rejoined the band in 1996 to record a new Monkees album entitled “Justus,” film a television special and play a few shows in England before departing the group for 16 years.
Nesmith, Dolenz and Tork gathered together at Jones’ memorial service and apparently agreed to a short tour in his honor.
The audience at the Keswick Theatre went nuts for the Monkees from the second the house lights dimmed and they walked on stage after a number of video clips played on a big screen including a group of commercials they did for Rice Krispies, Kool Aid and Yardley Black Label.
Nesmith in particular seemed to be adored by the audience, who were mainly in their 40s and 50s. He did not wear his well-known green wool hat, although some audience members wore such an adornment.
While the Monkees have aged in appearance as one may expect, they may actually be better musicians today than they were in the 1960s. An additional 40 years of playing will improve any musician.
The show lasted two hours and was the most complete history of their music from their introductory album through their unsuccessful movie “Head.” They played most their “Headquarters” album which was the first Monkees album that gave them control of the songwriting and most of all, allowed them to play their own instruments.
The concert was dominated by Nesmith songs which began appearing on the Monkees first album. Interestingly enough his songs were country rock before music the genre existed.
Nesmith played a 12-string hollow body Gretsch “Country Gentlemen,” through most of the December concert. If you are a Monkee fan, you may have attended the Micky Dolenz concert in Wildwood in 2006. The audience that night was treated to an impromptu appearance on stage of Tork, who was hired to visit Cool Scoops Ice Cream in North Wildwood as part of the Sensational 60’s weekend.
I never met or interviewed a Beatle, but I had the opportunity to spend a half hour interviewing Dolenz and Tork.
At first Dolenz seemed bored with my questioning. I suppose I was hitting him with the same questions he had heard a million times like “Did you enjoy being a child actor on the television series ‘Circus Boy?’”
Then I asked him why his drum kit was set up for a left-handed drummer but not quite correctly. That broke the ice. He explained he held his sticks like a right-handed person but needed to use his left foot to play the bass drum pedal because that was his dominant foot.
I asked him if he would play drums during the Wildwood show and he told me “You know, I think I will, I love to play the drums.” I felt partially responsible for Dolenz playing drums during that concert since I had suggested it.
I’ve never interviewed any of the children of the Three Stooges but I am on the lookout for their email addresses. Stay tuned.
