Soitenly!

Television gave new life to old short films that had been rotting away on a shelf after being seen once or twice (if reissued).

Not all of them, of course. There were musical series, newsreels, travelogues. They were of no use to television.

Cartoons and two-reel comedies were. Kids would eat them up. They could be run over and over and over. TV brought more fame (and life) to Bugs Bunny and Mickey Mouse than theatres ever did.

Of all the comedy series produced in the sound era, perhaps the one that benefited the most from constant airings on television was The Three Stooges.

Self-appointed do-gooder groups HATED the Stooges. So much pointless violence! But Columbia Pictures, which ground out the Stooges shorts, found gold in those old films. Thanks to television, the studio discovered millions and millions of kids loved them. They were silly. And no one really got hurt in them.

Their fans are still loyal. No doubt you don’t have to go far on the internet to find a debate over which replacement Stooge was the best/worst.

Columbia got out the pick-axes and started mining more Stooges gold. Here’s an Associated Press column from May 28, 1959.

Three Stooges Are Amazed At Popularity
Comedians Were On 'Finished' List Year and Half Ago
By BOB THOMAS
AP Movie-TV Writer
HOLLYWOOD (AP)—Here's evidence of how fantastic show business can be: the Three Stooges are starring in a feature movie.
A year and a half ago, the Stooges were finished, washed up. They had come to the end of a record stand of 24 years at Columbia Pictures making shorts. Their knockabout comedy was considered passe, the market for short subjects had vanished.
Then it happened.
Released to TV
The Columbia subsidiary, Screen Gems, released the first batch of old Stooge comedies to TV. Wham! The Stooges, a show business team for a third of a century, found themselves at the height of their fame.
When they were making shorts, they earned $70,000 from the filming and picked up an equal amount on personal appearances. This year they are already guaranteed a $275,000 gross, and the figure may go much higher.
The boys have returned to Columbia, but not to make shorts. They are filming "Have Rocket, Will Travel," their first feature as a starring team. Back in the '30s. they appeared with their old boss Ted Healy in some MGM movies. And more recently they have done some quickie musicals.
“But this is the first time we've been starred in a feature,” said Moe Howard proudly. "And we're getting 25 per cent of the take."
Moe is the leader of the Stooges. He's the one with the black bangs. Larry Fine has the operatic hair-do and Joe Derita is the fat one who takes most of the knocks. He was preceded in his post by Moe's brothers, Curly and Shemp, both now deceased, and comic Joe Besser.
Leisurely Pace
I found the trio on a stage with a mass of space-travel props. Unlike the days when they were making shorts, their pace was almost leisurely. They've got a shooting schedule of 10 days and may go 11. They used to make the two-reelers in as little as two days.
"It's fantastic what has happened to us," Moe mused. "We've got more offers than we can handle. Now we're doing all kinds of merchandizing—hats and other things with our faces on them. We've got an advance from a bubble gum outfit that is bigger than they gave the entire National League!"
Flat Salary
The Stooges made 218 comedies and profit not a cent from their showings on TV. Not directly, that is. Like Laurel and Hardy and other comedy pioneers, they worked for flat salaries. But the results of their newfound popularity are considerable.
"We're the only act that is bringing kids into night clubs," Moe said. "The kids are bringing parents who had never been inside night clubs themselves. We play matinees for the kids and give them three shows. First, we come through the audience and greet each kid personally, then we do the act, then we sign autographs.
"A lot of trouble, yes. But let me tell you, those kids are okay. Look what they've done for us!"

In this era of residuals, it is unfathomable that film actors were paid like fast food cooks—you get paid per shift, whether you flip a burger once or ten times. But that’s how it was. Granted, no one foresaw life for a John Nesbitt Passing Parade, an RKO Pathe Sportscope with Andre Baruch, or a Stooges comedy after it appeared once in a theatre. Larry talked to the North American Newspaper Alliance about it in a column printed on May 3, 1968.

Three Stooges Know How Cruel Television Can Be
By HAROLD HEFFERNAN
HOLLYWOOD (NANA) — Three fellows who know better than anyone how cruel television can be are Moe Howard, Larry Fine and Joe De Rita, famed the world over as “The Three Stooges.”
When TV struck a heavy blow at the motion picture business 20 years ago, it began reaching out for every available old movie with which to feed its insatiable demands for day and night entertainment. Short comedies were in particular demand, and the two-reel knockabout slap-stickers— 228 of them— starring the Three Stooges became the hottest item on the market.
They were run and rerun until the sprocket holes were chewed to bits and new prints were rushed into TV projectors. A brand new generation was paying homage to the three zany clowns.
“The Three Stooges” were sitting atop the world— but in name only!
“Everyone got the idea we must be piling up millions,” said Larry Fine, the mad one with the wild fuzzy hair, the specialist in face slapping and anatomical dropkicks. “But the sad fact is we weren’t getting one thin dime. We were going broke and were out of work as we watched all the furor our comedies were creating.”
The demand for more Stooge movies became so great that Columbia Pictures, which produced the original shorts, called them back to inaugurate a series of feature comedies. Among these were “The Three Stooges Meet the Gunslingers,” “The Three Stooges Meet Hercules,” and "Have Rocket Will Travel.”
Their sixth feature-length film now shooting at Allied Artists Studio is something of a space epic titled “Flying to the Moon Looking for Green Cheese.” Marquee title appeal isn’t so important with this trio— just as long as the “Stooge” magnet goes up in the bulbs.
The reason the Stooges, along with other stars of their era— including Laurel and Hardy —never were able to cash in on the fat TV returns traces back 15 or more years to the lack of a definite plan of action on the part of the Screen Actors Guild in obtaining a residual sharing agreement with the studios selling products to TV.
Only in rare special instances were actors able to cut themselves in on the gravy train. Actually, it was not until Feb. 1, 1960, that contracts were completed whereby those participating in pictures made after that date, not before, were to share in the TV runs.
"We were at least 12 years late in forcing TV to cough up a share of the proceeds," said Fine, who figures he and his partners should have cut a melon of at least $2 million during the blacked-out period.
"A lot of us were really hard hit. While TV stations all over were burning out our old comedies, the studios weren't interested in giving us more films to make simply because we were being overexposed. It was a rank double-cross all around."
If any team was harder hit than the Stooges, it had to be the hilarious combine of Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy. The arrival of TV found the two at the sunset of their career. Both were suffering from crippling afflictions.
Comedy-maker Hal Roach sold 60 of their famous shorts and features for a staggering sum, yet the two stars died more famous than ever and virtually penniless.
On the other hand, Bill (Hop-along Cassidy) Boyd engineered a special profit-sharing deal before his western features began flooding the airwaves and today he’s living but his life in Palm Springs luxury.
Another kind of the late show, John Wayne, never received a dollar from his 25 features still flashing through the tubes, but fortunately, the Duke and all his heirs are not ever likely to be in need of residuals.
Fine, whose troupe is an offshoot of the famous “Ted Healy and His Stooges” musical comedy act of the 1930s, places blame for the actors’ belated TV deal directly upon the governor of California.
“Ronald Reagan Was president of the Screen Actors Guild at this most critical point in the TV negotiations,” he charges “He sold the old-time actors down the river while he feathered his own nest by arranging to receive 50 per cent of all revenues of the shows he made for General Electric and the Borax people who sponsored ‘Death Valley Days.’ ”

Columbia Pictures had no pretentions about the Stooges films. It churned them out, spending less and less on them as time went on. The Stooges had no pretentions, either. Their humour was low-brow and hokey. They were anti-pretention. Maybe that's why they made people laugh. And still do.