Shemp: The Biography of the Three Stooges’ Shemp Howard, the Face of Film Comedy

Shemp Howard (Schmuel Horwitz), an original member of the Three Stooges, along with his brother, Moe Howard (Moses Harry Horwitz), and Larry Fine (Louis Feinberg), left the trio in 1932 to pursue a solo movie career, only to later return to take the place of his replacement, his brother Jerome Howard (Jerome Lester Horwitz), known as Curly. However, before the Stooges and the screen, there was the vaudeville circuit and an act featuring Moe and Shemp. Kearns (Marlon Brando: Hollywood Rebel) mined a variety of sources, including books, magazines, online material, and audio and video, to craft a complete portrait of a talented character actor who appeared in more than 100 movie shorts and features from comedies to dramas to westerns and even musicals, playing second fiddle to the likes of W.C. Fields, William Powell, Abbott and Costello, and others, all documented in an extensive filmography. Kearns and others quoted within contend that Shemp has never received the recognition he deserved for his entire body of work.