Curly, Moe, & Larry!

While browsing a flea market this morning in the nearby park, I spotted this treasure at some distance, but I was surprised that Ceridwen had no idea who the statue represented. As almost all Americans would know, it's The Three Stooges. The trio (in this image) are (L to R): Curly Howard, Moe Howard, and Larry Fine who, from 1925 through the 1960s, entertained us in TV and films with eye-pokes, face-slaps, bops on the head with heavy objects, and being hilarious idiots. I remember my Mom having issues with them for all the violence. It's hard to miss the influence of the Marx Brothers since they started much earlier and were already more famous byt the '20s than the Stooges would ever be. You could say that Moe the stooge was the non-thinking man's answer to Groucho Marx.

Here's a typical episode. All I can say is that it was daily fare during my childhood to watch them, and there were other TV shows from before and during WW2 (The Little Rascals was a major one) that were constantly replayed. They are archaeological items now but as a little boy, I and my friends would imitate the sounds that Curly made, and we'd do it all day long.

Over the years there were other stooges, but these were the main life of the act. Larry was from South Philadelphia (his house has a plaque and a mural for him) but all the others were brothers from Brooklyn, New York.

There's a bit of the Three Stooges in me, I guess. Nothing can be done about it!