I love pictures of folks reading comics. It's a neat peek into the past when comics were an everyday part of the mainstream culture and not just a sometimes-profitable-for-the-next-big-movie offshoot of pop-culture.
Above the last incarnation of the Three Stooges (Joe DeRita, Moe Howard, and Emil Sitka) from 1971 read some Dell and Gold Key comics from the early 60's. Below are the comics they are reading. Apparently Sitka, taking the place of Larry Fine, was part of the Stooges only for this publicity shoot.
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Longtime stooge to the Stooges, Sitka was cast to replace Larry in the act for a gig in the exploitation film eventually called BLAZING STEWARDESSES (with a great Gray Morrow poster). The loud outfits here were for the movie where they were to play silly, swinging bachelors. Not long after this costume test/photo shoot, Moe got sick and died. The third Stooge role was replaced endlessly and they were at last trying to replace the second Stooge role but everyone had enough sense to know you couldn't replace the Head Stooge!
ReplyDeleteHarry and Jimmy Ritz, the Ritz Brothers, were hauled out of retirement to take the Stooge roles in the exploitation film and their painfully unfunny scenes are all over YouTube! Thanks to Moe's timing, the Stooges career dodged a bullet!
Thanks a heap for the info. I admire acts that want to keep working, but sometimes it's just time to lay it down.
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