Growing up and watching The Three Stooges on TV was what I, like many other boys my age, never missed doing. Later in the day, when the kids in the neighborhood would all gather outside to play baseball in the streets or to ride bicycles, we would never give up the chance to try out our newly learned skills (the girls never understood what we thought was soooo funny)...

Someone would be Curly, someone would be Larry and everyone seemed to fight for the position of Moe (probably because Moe did all the hitting). For some reason, I always wanted to be Larry. Larry was the funnier of the three to me. Sure, Curly would lay down on the ground and spin around in circles yelling "nuck, nuck, nuck," but the sound of Larry's hair being ripped out sent waves of laughter through my body. He seemed like a human cartoon that always regenerated and never got hurt.

I loved Eddie's article because he wrote about so much about Larry that I didn't know. It just brings me closer to who they were and what Larry and the trio went through to get to where they were.

I long for those days of my childhood where I didn't have to be forced to join in at P.E. in school or spend a fortune at a health club... a simple 15 minute Three Stooges short was instruction enough!

I was fortunate enough (because of working for NBC) to have met Barbara Eden on many occasions, way back in those Jeannie years. I somehow never managed to meet Larry Hagman, though I would hear a lot of strange stories (mostly about his mean or stubborn attitude).
Recently I discovered that Miss Eden had written her autobiography. The pages she wrote on Larry Hagman were the most interesting. It somehow reinforced that fact that Hagman had his moments, but Barbara never seemed to take it in stride.
Now, after reading Eddie's interesting article, I am introduced to the side of Larry Hagman that I never know. A warm, compassionate man that somehow I never connected with him. Thanks Eddie for painting a truer and more well-rounded image of Larry Hagman. I want to go back and watch those Jeannie episodes again - with a different perspective (thanks to Eddie and his article!)

I haven't seen the movie "Lincoln" yet, but it looks like the kind of movie the country needs to see right now.

It's claimed that the younger generations may be smarter than we were at their age, but I really have my doubts...

I don't think kids today have a clue as to what our nations history en-capsules. Sure, they know that Abe Lincoln was one of the Presidents and maybe they have heard along the way that he "freed the slaves", but If it's not a movie, video game, DVD or on the Internet, the younger generation is not exposed to it or anything else they should really know.

It's sad that lessons have to be taught using means of ‘entertainment' today, and so many people change real history in the name of "Entertainment" I'm glad to hear Eddie report that this is a good movie and not just some piece of fluff.

Thanks Mr. Deezen, I will make sure that it's one of the movies I catch this season!

Very interesting article on The Marx Brothers movie "Duck Soup". People don't seem to talk about or discuss the importance that the Marx Bros had in American Films as they once did.

I remember back about in about 1970, I had the unique experience of being able to get into a place called "National Screen Service". This was the place that distributed all the movie materials to the theaters when the movie would be coming and when it was playing... the posters, the still photos, the lobby cards and the upcoming trailers.

When the theater was finished displaying the materials for the film, they were required to send all items back to National Screen. There, they either destroyed some of the older items, or filed things away in what looked like a HUGE warehouse-type library.

Well, at the time I was able to get inside (rare for the average person) I was looking for Elvis memorabilia (okay... I was young). I remember seeing the 1-sheet poster for "Duck Soup" hanging with clothes-pins from a wire suspended above the rows and rows of paper from zillions of "other" movies on metal shelves. I could have bought the poster for a mere $5.00

Do you have any idea what that poster would be worth today?

MULTIPLE THOUSANDS !!!!

CRAP!!!!

... Good article though...

Okay... am I the only one who really doesn't get "into" Bruce Springsteen?... I mean, I don't have anything against him... I just don't like his rough voice and song melodies. Maybe that's why I never listened to the lyrics and what they meant. I think if B.S. WROTE what he felt in prose on paper instead of singing it, I would have maybe paid better attention.

I guess that's why I find Eddie's article so interesting. It tells people like me, who usually cringe and turn the station when I hear a Springsteen song come on, what I am missing.

Just so you know... it's not just Springsteen... there were other "poets" of song that I also have a hard time listening to, even though they spoke for a generation: Bob Dylan, Joe Cocker and Janis Joplin just to mention three others. Their pain seems to be felt by others, but their voices brought pain to me.

Of course, I NEVER REALLY wondered if that girl did tie that Yellow Ribbon 'Round the Old Oak Tree or what happened by the time Glen got to Phoenix, or if Madonna is really a Virgin. I guess my taste lies somewhere in the middle - more along the lines of Neil Diamond and his melody of stories.

Thanks Eddie for letting me know what I am missing. I just might give Bruce another try.

Wow... Eddie, you NEED to write a book! Your stories are filled with trivia and facts that I would never have known if it weren't for you!!! You could do a whole book on just The Beatles alone........ SIX books even !!!

It's funny that given the fact The Beatles were such a huge entity in everyday life, there was so much that most of us never even knew about them. They seemed to burst onto the scene and take over every facet of society from radio, TV, magazines, news... even making musical history, breaking records for sales and concert attendance, and changing modern day culture with the way they wore their hair and clothes.

Your articles are so entertaining! It's a little like re-living those days and discovering new and exciting facts. I feel like a kid again, thumbing through my new issue of whatever magazines I could grab to read all about John, Paul, George and Ringo (and newly discovered Jimmy, thanks to Eddie)!

It's strange... growing up during the Beatles era and seeing their earlier films and buying their records, I never did see "Let it Be". I don't know why.

Maybe as a member of the public, I felt the changes too. Maybe the drug and social issues became uncomfortable for me. After all, I enjoyed the "sweet" sound and feel of The Beatles and their music: "And I Love Her", "That Boy", "If I Fell"... that's the group I fell in love with.

Sure there were things I wanted to speak out about, just like all kids my age... but I couldn't quite grasp the direction each of the members seemed to be heading. They weren't a 'collective' four anymore. I wanted clarity in finding a path to follow and individually their paths were heading in opposite and confusing directions for me.
By the time "Let it Be" came around, I had let it be myself.

After all these years, I had forgotten this chapter of The Beatles legacy, but thanks to Eddie, I think I'll go back and catch up on just what it was I missed.

The Dodgers were the "in" team and baseball was the "in" sport when I grew up in the Los Angeles area as a kid in the 50's-60's. Kofax, Drysdale, Brewer, Kekich... they were all names that every kid knew. During recess in school, the big thing was to trade baseball cards and collect as many Sandy Kofax and Don Drysdale cards as possible. Now I wished I had kept them all.
Thanks Eddie for taking me back a bit!!!

Gosh Eddie, another great insight to the Beatles legacy!
I was (and to a point, still am) a "record collector". It all started back about the time the Beach Boys were catching the wave out out and The Beatles were twisting and shouting their way in. It wasn't just the Beatles I collected by any means, it was everything and everybody from early Doo-wop, through Elvis to Patsy Cline and Glen Campbell in country to to Led Zepplin in rock and Olivia Newton-John in Pop to Devo in weird.

I somewhere along the way managed to collect two copies of the famous "butcher cover", both un-peeled. Back in the late 1970's they were each worth quite a lot. Some record guides listed their worth as much as $300.00 each! Wow... that was pretty good back then. But as all record collector know, there comes a time for trading and selling. I loved the songs, but for $600.00, I saw the dollar signs that would enable me to buy even more records!
I could kick myself today... Beatles records have soared in value (sad to say, Elvis records keep going down?!?!). Now I wish I kept one of those covers, just to say "Eddie - I have one!!!)

It's funny... I grew up a HUGE Wizard of Oz fan. I'd walk around school and do all the voices... "I do believe in spooks" as the cowardly lion... or "They threw my arms over there and my legs over there" as the scarecrow... or "How 'bout a little fire, scarecrow?" in the wicked witches voice.
As much as I loved The Wizard of Oz, I was annoyed every time that little dog appeared. He just broke my concentration from the scene and took my attention away. I don't think he was unattractive, I just think he was a really bad actor.

Wish I had that kind of time!

A Helmut

Back to The Future was one of the best films of all time!!! I just heard that Michael J Fox is returning to network television this coming season on NBC!

Even though their shorts were made a decade or two before my childhood, The Three Stooges were just as popular when I was growing up. Every boy loved their slapstick humor, but for some reason, most girls couldn't stand the Stooges and their brand of comedy. I also thought the "sound effects" of Moe pulling Larry's hair out, or Curley's "Whew! Whew! Whew!" noise, or the extra loud sound that resonated when one slapped the other was a key element to their productions. It's also funny how the song "Three Blind Mice" became synonyms with their shorts.
I had seen so many Stooges films, that I never remembered which ones came first, or when Shep, Curly and Curly Joe exchanged places. Thanks Eddie for putting into perspective when their first film was made!
Throughout the decades, their fame kept continuing...one film the group appeared in, but is not widely mentioned, is a Dean Martin movie from as late as 1963 called "4 For Texas" where the boys played painting deliverymen - and it was just last year the Farrelly Brothers released a brand new Three Stooges movie with new actors playing the roles of the original Stooges. It was a pretty good attempt, leaving in all the "little" things the Stooges were noted for, but as a The Stooges Fan, nothing could ever take the place of those original guys!

Eddie - Wasn't there a controversy over whether Paul was dead or not?