When I think of my favorite drag performers,  I think of RuPaul, Lady Bunny, CoCo Peru and The Three Stooges.

THE THREE STOOGES??!!??

Yes, The Three Stooges.  The slap-happy slapstick comedians appeared in drag in a handful of their 190  short-subject comedies from 1934 to 1959.

The first of these was titled Pop Goes the Easel in 1935, and featured Curly, Larry and Moe dressing in drag to escape a plain-clothes detective while hiding out in an art studio…

This was followed in the very next episode called Uncivil Warriors, with Moe, Larry and Curly portraying Civil War spies for the Union and sent behind Southern lines to gain secrets from the Union army.  This is classic Curly in drag…

In  Movie Maniacs (1936) the boys travel to Hollywood to make their big break in the  movies and in true Stooge style are mistaken for studio big shots, who ultimately try to take over the filming.  Another classic Curly drag performance…

Five films later, in Whoops, I’m an Indian! (1936) The Stooges are caught cheating at roulette and disguise themselves as Indians. Curly is mistaken as an Indian girl and gets married to Pierre….

Two more years go by before we catch a glimpse of The Three Stooges in drag, with Mutts to You! in 1938.  The stooges are operators of a dog laundry who find what they think is an abandoned baby.  Next thing they know, they’re wanted for kidnapping forcing Curly to pose as the baby’s mother…

Another two years pass before we see any stooges in drag with the release of Nutty But Nice in 1940.  This time the stooges operate a restaurant who try to help a little girl who falls ill when her father, a bail bondsman, disappears.  This clip features all Three Stooges in a cute scene dressed as little girls…

In 1941, the Stooges portray bumbling window washers in All the World’s A Stooge, who,  when about to be fired, run into billionaire Ajax Bullion, who’s wife wants to adopt some refugee children.  When the stooges introduce themselves as “refugees” he decides to dress them as children and take them home to his wife, hoping she’ll think twice about the whole thing!  Features classic Larry in drag…

Matri-phony of 1942 features our Stooges as Roman pottery shop owners who hide a young lady from the grabby Roman Emporer “Octupous Grabus”, who is in search of a new bride.  To help the girl, Moe and Larry enlist Curly to impersonate the girl.  And when the near-sighted Emporer’s glasses are “accidentally broken on purpose” they think he’ll never know the difference!! Another great Curly drag performance…

Larry takes another solo turn in drag for 1943′s  Higher Than A Kite. This time around we find the boys working for the motor-pool of the Royal Air Force during WWII, who after a series of mishaps, find themselves behind enemy lines and quickly disguise themselves as German Officers.  Well,  Moe and Curly do anyway….

While fooling around in a recording studio, and playfully lip synching to a record, Curly is mistaken for a lovely Soprano opera singer and is asked to sing at a society party in Micro-Phonies (1946)…

In their 95th comedy short, and Curly’s third-to-last,  Rhythm and Weep (1946), The Boys are unsuccessful actors who decide to end it all by jumping off a skyscraper.  That is, until they meet three beautiful dancers about to do the same thing.  While atop the building, they meet an eccentric millionaire pianis who is looking for a talented act and promises a lot of money if they are good.  They put on a show,  and the following is just a taste of the stooges in drag between acts, introducing the three lady dancers…

Sadly, due to health problems, Curly was forced to leave the Three Stooges in 1947, and Moe asked brother to he and Curly, Shemp to join the act, or should I say rejoin the act, since it was Shemp who performed with Moe and Larry as Stooges back in the Vaudeville days, but left the troupe when he could no longer take all the slaps and pokes, and was replaced by Curly.

Shemp performed with Moe and Larry in 73 Three Stooges comedy shorts until his untimely death in 1955, and in only one where all three appeared in drag.  Self-Made Maids was released in 1950, and featured no supporting players!  Moe, Larry and Shemp played themselves and their girlfriends Moella, Shempetta, and Lorraine!  In this story, Moe Larry and Shemp are artists who plan want so badly to marry their girlfriends and decide to ask their father (played by Moe in a triple role) for their hand…

And finally,  after Shemps death  and the edition of Joe Besser to the group as “third stooge”,  Moe appeared in drag one more time in Hoofs and Goofs released in 1957.  The story centers on Joe’s mourning of their dearly departed sister Bertie, and reading a book on reincarnation insisting that their sister could come back some day in another form.  Moe and Larry decide to humor him by making him think she will meet them downtown the following day, in some form or another. When they go downtown, they meet up with a horse attached to a wagon who, to their amazement, turns out to be their sister Bertie reincarnated.  At the end, though,  it appears that Joe dreamt the whole thing (or did he?) and that their sister Bertie is alive and well…and played by Moe….

So, yes, when I think of the best drag performers I think of RuPaul, Lady Bunny, CoCo Peru and The Three Stooges, just to name a few.

Until Next Time, you knuckleheads!

Michael Queenstown

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