How many Stooges were there?
Short answer: Moe, Larry, Curly, Shemp, Joe, Curly Joe. 6. Moe and Larry were there for the Stooges’ entire film career, but the position of the “third Stooge” was filled by several people. After Curly left the act, Shemp played the part, and after Shemp, there was Joe, and finally Curly Joe. That makes six. However, in vaudeville there was more than one act calling themselves “Stooges” or even “The Three Stooges”. Furthermore, our Stooges were once part of an act called “Ted Healy and his Three Southern Gentlemen” that consisted of Ted Healy, Moe, Larry, and Shemp. That’s right: Shemp. Soon Shemp moved on to other things, and Curly took his place in 1932, before they ever made their first Columbia short. The long answer? Even more complicated. The name “Three Stooges” was in dispute in the 30’s, and there were no less than twenty so-called ‘Stooges’ groups doing vaudeville and other engagements, enough such that Columbia (actually, Columbia’s lawyers) placed ads in several papers at t
