Revealed! Exposing the FAKE SHEMP and Who He Really Was?--Three Stooges! 

Same thing i always say

I was a fan for years before I learned about Joe Palma, the "Fake Shemp".

Curly is my favorite stooge but Shemp is 2nd.

@@TerrickTerran Mine too.

I’m so humbled by the fact that I could enlighten so many people about this information! Thank you so much Carol

Me too..at 59 yrs old now..it's news to me. My sister REALLY looked like Shemp. She's been gone for 20 years already. Even her two boys when they were little ( and introduced to the stooges already) said"..WOW.. you look like Shemp.".😇when she'd just had a shower & her hair was wet. She really had the face, unlike Joe Palma.

I knew that but didn't realize it referred to the Three Stooges, cool

Bruce was also credited as 'Final Shemp' in Darkman.

@Super Blubberpuss my Mom was a little girl when these first came out and she remembers seeing them at matinees. I grew up in NY and on PIX11 Officer Joe Bolton hosted a kids show that showed Three Stooges shorts.

@Super Blubberpussyes..it's for the young and young at heart. 😀

I remember seeing The Three Stooges in theaters before the main attraction until about 1971. I think they stopped so they could use that time for coming attractions and to urge viewers to get refreshments in the lobby.

Ummmm, not a kids audience.

@@randytim512 Officer Joe Bolton and Captain Jack McCarthy ! Old days in NYC ! Thanks for the memories !

I’m glad to hear that, Mark!

One of them actually wrote their funeral into one of their shows. It is the guy's real funeral.

I went through this too. Shemp is by far the funniest Stooge. I came to that realization over many years.

Shemp was funny as well as Curly. I saw Shemp in a couple of serious films on TCM .

I'm a purist so the 3 stooge started & ended with curly....

Curly had a wound from ashotgun in his leg that was the reason why he shuffled sometimes. I learned fighting techniques from these guys. I would never fight anyone. I would walk away. If it got physical then I used techniques used in old slapstick comedies.

So glad you enjoyed it and liked my detailed explanation 😀

It was a stroke that resulted in Curly’s departure from the Stooges. He could not physically perform any longer and in fact was housed in a care facility for a time before he passed.

You’re right! And these are essentially short movies people went to see in the theater so these jokes and scenes still do not go stale. They are Still hilarious. There were no reruns and it was unlikely most saw every single short in the theater. So reusing jokes it OK with me 😀

@@ricknineg You really should stop calling him Joe de-Palma.

I’m a Shemp guy as well. Those glasses he wore 👓 haha

Is the interview on RU-vid? I didn’t know that Joe Palma was in the interview.

Thanks so nice of you to say, Kwami ! I always strive to bring you all what I enjoy and the best quality I can provide. Much appreciated!

No way! It does surprise me that you and other hard-core fans have never heard of it. I have known for some time but have reluctantly chosen to cover it because I thought it would be too obvious for some people. No shame in not knowing but it’s great to know that I can teach people who are great found something new.

You got it! Thanks for the support

Just when I thought I knew a lot about the changes in the Stooges and Shemp. I have not heard of Joe Palma and him being a "Fake Shemp"

Not sure what you mean by Moe was the survivor of them all? Every picture that had Moe also had Larry. In terms of who lived longer, that would be Joe Besser and Joe Derita respectively.

@@mikegee8875 I believe he meant Moe was the last surviving brother

Joe Besser didn’t do an excellent job

Yes I meant the last of the brothers. I am perhaps more forgiving of the differences in the others that filled out the 3rd position. No one is a clone of the others, and each brought their own personality, even Joe Besser.. They all got on with the show and made people laugh.

@@jenniferwhitewolf3784 Yes. Funny thing is in the song Curly Shuffle by Jump in the Saddle they refer to Joe DeRita as fat clone Joe.

Thank you kIndly!

Robert Holmberg-Nope. The contract the boys signed for the 1956 season stipulated that they make eight shorts, but only four were finished at the time Shemp died, so Columbia hired Joe Palma to double for Shemp, thus completing the boys' contract. Moe initially had wanted Joe DeRita as third Stooge, but he was unavailable, so Columbia hired Joe Besser to finish their tenure for the studio, before being fired. Curly Joe was hired to take Joe's place after his wife became ill, and he left the act to care for her.

@@kevinmiller6380 This is a much more accurate account of the changeover from Shemp. I think Rick needs to do a little more research before posting these vids.

At 8:38 that was not Christine McIntire with Kenneth MacDonald, but a body double, as she had retired from acting in 1955. Plus, the clip from Scheming Schemers had Moe and Larry watching K-Mac's character shoving the painting inside the pipe; in the original, it was Shemp who saw this.

Pretty incredible!

Yep! As a kid, I also loved and watched the 3 Stooges And Officer Joe Bolton on WPIX NY. And those Tasty Cakes sponsors…3 cupcakes in a package, I think, or was it 4? I can see those chocolate cupcakes thru the clear celephane now. It was one wide continuous frosting, rather than each cupcake being frosted individually. Hmm, I guess I was a “foodie” as a kid, too!! Haha. I loved that extra bit of chocolate frosting! LOL. I digress, yep I was and am a Stooges fan.

Did you ever watch Sandy Becker as well?

@@markdeimel4869 No, I don’t recall, altho, I remember Sandy Becker. But, I DID WATCH WONDERAMA!! The host was Sonny Fox. It was on Sunday mornings. My friend’s Mom got tix, and we went to the show!! There was a segment where a few kids were picked to sit on the couch, maybe 4 or 5 kids, and talk with Sonny Fox. I was picked, so I got to be there. I had been in a couple of fashion shows at Gertz Dept Stores (Jamaica and Hicksville, NY) and so Sonny Fox asked me to demonstrate walking as a model when I was in the show. I was about 6 years old. I think my parents must have told all my relatives to watch the show on the air date!! LOL. I do recall two of the cool gifts every kid got when we all left the TV studio: a box of Bazooka Bubble gum-I was thrilled !! LOL And, a very cool notebook that was a bit like a clip-board, sort of, because you held it vertically and opened the hard cover vertically AND, it had a very cool, never-seen-before, hidden pencil case at the inside top, which could hold about two pencils, and it had a magnetic closure. It was really very cool. And, if by some miracle, my childhood friend is reading this, hello Deb S. Her Mom J.S. Got the tickets. I do recall the dress I wore to the show-it had a watermelon pocket!! Loved that dress!

I’m glad I was able to surprise you with this video! Hopefully more people will know about Joe Palma

Curly was with Moe, Larry, and Healy when they made Nertsery Rhymes in 1933.

@@ScottGrammer they also made 4 other shorts that year (in addition to movie appearances). The best was 'Beer and Pretzels". On my DVR I have one of the other three that aired on TCM recently, "Plane Nuts".

@@aqureshi73 That's one I don't have. I have seen it though.

Before Shemp left the act one movie was filmed with Moe, Larry and Shemp along with Ted Healey. Soup to Nuts - 1930.

@Strider Telcontar that's right! Because of that fear he was often the target of Teds practical jokes, which weren't too funny to Shemp!

This is the work that I do 😃

@@ricknineg Well, you are very good at it, my friend. Blessings - Judith 🎵🎭🍁

Jessica Mendoza-Atta girl. 👍😄😄😄😄😄😄

Kevin Miller Thanks

You’re so right. It’s a bit painful to watch, I have to say. My heart def hurts for them

@@ricknineg yes.. but back then, it was common for people to be dying and suffereing because of wars, diseases, etc. Diseases and conditions which are now treatable used to be crippling and fatal. In biblical times life expectancy was in the 30's. Up until a few decades ago, a typical lifespan was in the 60's. Before Covid, the lifespan reached 79. Now we have a senile 79 year old, with dementia, who has already suffered significant brain damage with two brain aneurysms, and stutters.. as President of the United States!

@@NicoTineman ...reading "presidential" speeches in a mock-up of the Oval Office to make it easier to read from a teleprompter, while his veep hires child actors to make her look relatable. Talk about "fake Shemps"!

@@AmericanActionReport Well Covid still takes over 80 more than any other age group, beyond that 79 years avg. life expectancy. I wasn't expecting to see these accurate comments down here on a 3 stooges video. It's refreshing to see more and more people, informed, getting it. FJB, LGB!!! You 2, Nico, Jerry, don't forget to have some fun, it's okay to forget about the big guy and his 10%. Hard not to draw parallels though. :-D

​@@pgtmr2713 As you say, don't forget to have some fun. A life of fear and confusion is a life easily led by people who thrive on the fears and confusion of others. Speaking of having fun, for more than a year, I've been making a full-length, totally farcical comedy that has nothing to do with the problems of today. I'm doing it only for fun.

For the time, it was very well executed

Read a stooge book as a kid and knew about joe palma

Unless they used old film tech from the 1930's or 1940's that was cheap to get in 1950 and used the same film as 1950's as in same size and worked in the cameras or they used a special lens that made something look old and worn from 20 years earlier but made recently in the 1950's.

I’m so glad that you enjoyed it and that it all made sense.

Correct, I would say he was an official stooge. Usually they played themselves but he played another stooge haha

To see another great shot of Joe Palma, check out the 3 Stooges short called "If a Body Meets a Body". This short has Curly in it. Joe Palma's the maid the Stooges run into near the end of the short. Notice how he towers over them when he stands up.

Thank You so much! I’m glad that you enjoyed this look at the stooges during one of their most trying times.

They were professionals through and through and the quality of their performances were exceptional as always. But it must have hurt, for sure….even saying his name

Thank you so much! By the way, I just posted a new video about you. Ardath Bey

Ha... you spotted my net-name... The Mummy... always loved the way Boris said that name (ha)

It was well done, for sure