Customer Reviews

Beyond the Laughter...: A Daughter's Story of Curly's Post Three Stooges Years

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2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(30)

 

 

I am shocked that a book such as this could reach the light of day.

As writer, producer and director of "Stooges: The Men Behind the Mayhem"
I can say with absolute certainty, and complete authority, that this story is a farce.

The content is total fabrication -- submitted without one stitch of evidence. There are no photographs. There are no documents. There are no dates. There is nothing adduced here to connect this twisted flight of fantasy with anything that resembles reality. The wild and irresponsible claims made in these pages have no documented validity whatsoever.

Had the author done some homework (historical research about the Stooges, or contacting members of the Howard family) she would have immediately realized that she had been taken in by an unscrupulous charlatan or, giving the interviewee a modicum of latitude, a seriously mislead individual.

It is impossible to address all of the ridiculous claims made in this tome, so here are the highlights;

1. Curly's real name was Jerome Lester Horowitz until he officially changed his last name to Howard. His nickname was "Babe", and he was known professionally as "Curly".

2. Curly was NEVER known as "Larry Fine". Actor Larry Fine was the only person in the act ever billed as Larry Fine.

3. Curly was NOT Catholic he was JEWISH.

4. Curly was the youngest brother of Irving, Jack, Moe and Shemp Howard -- birth records, income tax and social security documents bear this out. It is FACT. Despite claims to the contrary Moe Howard, in nearly every interview, mentioned that Curly was his youngest brother. Furthermore, Curly had NO sisters.

5. The Howard family lived in NY, NOT Georgia.

6. Curly was no longer a member of the Stooges when they were fired from Columbia. He was dead. Joe Besser was the actor working with the Stooges at that time.

7. The Howard family was NOT Italian, they were Lithuanian.

8. Neither Curly nor the Horowitz/Howard family were ever part of the Mafia, Italian or otherwise.

9. Curly Howard had no knowledge of the JFK assassination -- as he died on January 18,1952 from cerebral arterio sclerosis. Medical records and coroner reports prove this fact.

10. Curly Howard never met Mario Puzo, and he did not write the story that eventually became "The Godfather" novel. He couldn't write anything -- because he was DEAD.

The list, unfortunately, goes on and on.

This book does a disservice to film historians everywhere, and will undoubtedly cause no small amount of grief for the TRUE RELATIVES of Curly Howard -- his two LIVING daughters.

I suggest that readers, interested in the REAL history of the Stooges, look into books published by Jeff Forrester. They are based on firsthand accounts and documented FACT, not innuendo and supposition.

Unless you're in the mood for a total work of fiction --
Avoid this book like the plague, Reader.

This book is absolutely fiction in every sense. You want truth....here is some truth, my Great Uncle was in Vaudville and new Curly very well. He has always been up front and not exaggerated, always saying we weren't best of friends but did remain friendly for many many years. He still has actual photos of he and curly together also with Moe and Shemp spanning several years in the thirties and forties and even a couple from 1951 shortly before Curly passed on. You can see the progression in his photos as Curly had stroke after stroke, it's painfully obvious. I made Uncle read the book and it literally took me three weeks to convince him it wasn't something I printed as an April Fools joke. Everything he told me about Curly when I was a child has later been supported by books that have been published....Curly loved dogs, loved to drink and party,had a very loving and tender relationship with both Moe and Shemp, loved his daughters, and his true love was his last wife Valerie. I mean my God he told me Curly's youngest daughter's name was Janie back in the seventies before any of this stuff was written. He has always said of all the stars he mingled with back in the day Curly Howard was his favorite and when he finally realized I wasn't putting him on and this book was "real" the poor old guy nearly passed on himself. Even in his nineties he wants to strangle the author for defacing his friend. How can anyone believe this crap??? one does not even need the personal pictures I have access to.....look at all the other stooge books......hundreds and hundreds of Moe, Curly, Shemp, Larry, Curly's parents pictures. As a society have we become this STUPID that a person could read this book and choose to believe it? if yes, then I am in a word....HORRIFIED! I read this book and was insulted for two reasons....one is as I have said I am lucky enough to have someone close to me who new the man and secondly I consider Curly Howard as important a figure in entertainment history as Elvis.....he is without a doubt the single most popular comic figure of all time world wide and he does not deserve to be dragged through the mud like this. How many children for the last almost century has Curly Howard made smile and feel good????? it's countless people. I ask for myslef, my Great Uncle Mike and all Stooge fans that Moes daughter Joan Maurer and Curly's real daughters do something to stop this pathetic excuse for a human being from writing anything else like this trash.

DR

I'm a long time Stooge fan and a fairly good authority on facets of their life and career. I'm also a mental health professional and can comfortably say that the person(s) who wrote this tawdry attempt at sensationalism are severly personality disordered. None of this stands up to even the most elementary evaluation. I suppose the "revealing of proof" promised "when the time is right" will also discuss the "lost" stooges movie made at Roswel, New Mexico where the Stooges are the doctors who botch the ailien autopsy. Shame on the the perpetrators and supporters of this garbage for not having the consience to make an honest living but rather trying to cash in on a fabrication.

I'm sorry, but this book just can't be true. There's too much evidence about Curly Howard's life to believe any of this book. As a Three Stooges fan, and especially a Curly Howard fan, I'm outraged. After Curly had his major stroke on the set at Columbia Studios, he continued to have several series of them. He was also married at the time, with a new baby, and became paralyzed on the right side of his body. There's no way that he could've fathered anymore childern, let alone run from the mob; he could barely walk. Just the fact that everyone knows that Curly died in 1952, and that this book says he died in 1975,is a joke. There are even pictures of Mr. Howard's ACTUAL gravesite. Are we to disregard what history has presented to us because someone says, "I don't have any proof, but I'm honest. Please believe me"?

Also, Curly, as well as the rest of the Howard family were not Catholic Italian. They were Lithuainian and Jewish. Curly was even Bar Mitzvah'ed, and it says so in his CERTIFIED biography, by his niece, Joan Howard Maurer. I am good friends with Ms. Maurer, and it is safe to say that she too, is outraged by the fabrication. The mere thought of Curly having mob ties is laughable, because anybody that knows about Curly's personal life can tell you that he was immature and a bit childish (sorry Curly. We still love ya though!).

Although, I'll give the author credit for spinning a good yarn. As far as fiction goes, it's a good story, but to pass this piece of literature off as biographical information, I think, is an insult to Curly's real daughters. I think Curly's heirs sould take action on this.

when i bought this book, i thought it might shed some light on curly's real years after his stroke until his death in 1952.instead i got some conspiracy theory, and a load of rubbish, which this person has totally made up. it says stuff such as curly wasn't moe or shemp's brother, and that he died in the 80s. it also makes out that curly wrote the godfather. please!! if you are a diehard stooge fan this book won't make any sense to you. if this woman wanted to make her fantasy more realistic she should have at least got important facts and dates right, but she hasn't. if you really want to learn more about the lives of the stooges, try good and truthful books by the forrester brothers, and moe howard's autobiography, 'moe howard and the three stooges.' dear me this book really should not have been written, but if you still want to fork out the money for it, i'm telling you, it really will be your loss. don't waste two hours of your life reading this trash. shame on the demented women who wrote this pile of garbage.

The Author of this book should be ashamed of herself for trying to make money off the great name that was Curly Howard. I hope she is sued by the families of Curly Howard and Moe Howard for writting this c**p fantasy. I having read the book, "Moe Howard and The Three Stooges" written by Moe Howard before his death in 1975 was more than a little upset to read the obvious lies and discrepancies in her book about Curly. I would of prefered a boring truth about Curly's post Three Stooges days than this garbage. If you had ever read any other book by one of the Howards or Fineburgs (actual relatives to the Stooges) you would know that this is someone just trying to make a buck off a well loved comic genius who cannot defend himself against these lies. Shame on you.

This book has to be a total fabrication. First of all, note the lack of saying it is Curly Howard she is talking about. There is no mention of that. It is all about "he was a stooge". Sorry but that reeks of somebody not wanting a lawsuit.

Secondly, it is common knowledge that Curly was sickly, and left the short movie business being replaced by Shemp and died shortly after that.

I am mad I bought the book thinking I would find out what Curly did after he couldn't to the shorts anymore, only to find out somebody wrote some book that alledges all this stuff.

For those of you that wonder why this is not on TV, you should figure like I did that this is the best book of fiction written about a person you could ever read.

It is a good yarn, but remember the facts. None of this could have happened.

The book states that Curly was never a member of the Howard family. Why then, is Curly's grave located directly behind the grave of Sol and Jenny Horowitz, even though the other stooges are buried in other cemetaries? This seems more than unusual for someone who was not a member of the family. Furthermore, with a simple internet search, you can see photographs of his grave, as well as photos of his death certificate. There is no evidence at all to prove that anything in this book ever happened. To accept it all as fact is pure stupidity.

After reading the book and some of the reviews posted here, I just had to have my say. It is somewhat disconcerting as to how some people will believe anything at the drop of a hat. Why has absolutely none of this information surfaced until now, 50 years after Curly's "supposed" death? Even in the Kennedy assasination, rumors began circulating almost immediately. I have read several biographies concerning the Three Stooges over the last 30 years (to include Moe Howard's "Moe Howard and the Three Stooges"), and none of these works even hint at anything contained in "Beyond the Laughter." Some of these books contain photos of Curly as a child and teenager with other members of the Horowitz (Howard) family. Are we to believe that these turn-of-the-century photos were faked? On another note, I would like to hear Mario Puzo's estate's response to the allegation that Curly actually wrote "The Godfather." There is just too much in this book that purports to be true without any real evidence to back it up. To be fair, maybe someday certain elements of the book may turn out to be true and I will be forced to eat my derby with a "N'yuk N'yuk" and "Woo Woo," however until that time I see this book as nothing more than a mediocre "X-Files" episode.

I read the book and I find it very hard to believe.
I read a ton of other books on Curly which seem true.
This book claims Curly did not die in the early fifties but in the seventies. But Curly did die in the early fifties as there is proof!
This book does not even talk about Curly's famous brothers, Moe and Shemp, his strokes, nor his real wifes!
I think this book is only a "work" to make money off of the famous Curly name.