Three Little Pigskins

The scene called for The Three Stooges, disguised as college football players, to pose with the ball in front of two photographers on the sidelines in the middle of the game. The script then had them gang tackled by several opposing players, members of the Loyola Marymount University football squad. The production of December 1934's "Three Little Pigskins," was already tough on the body for the three comedians, which Moe later described it as "a humdinger of bangs and bruises." Curly had earlier broke a leg riding down a dumbwaiter one story up, and Larry lost a tooth when an actor mistakenly punched him in the face. Now they were asked by director Raymond McCarey to be piled on by much bigger boys than they.

Larry Fine was the most vocal about being a participant of that pile-up. "Look, we can't do this scene," Larry told McCarey. "We're not stuntmen and if one of those gorillas falls on us, we'll never be able to finish the picture. We've never used stunt doubles before but we certainly need them now." The director felt the three were a durable bunch and felt the scene was safe for the three comics. "Listen, fellows, you know how to take a fall," McCarey responded. "You've done enough of them. It'll take hours to find doubles for you. Besides, we can't afford them. Don't worry, you won't get hurt." Moe backed up Larry's stand by telling the director, "You're darn right we won't get hurt. We're not doing the scene."

McCarey was able to rustle up three lookalikes in an hour and dressed them up in football gear. After the hard-hitting football players steamrolled over the three extras and the two photographers, the tally of the carnage began: two of the Stooges' replacements and the two photographers all sustained broken limbs. Only the one dressed as Curly remained unscathed since he wore extra padding to duplicate the actor's girth. Moe later wrote that "McCarey was speechless and sat in his director's chair with his head in his hands." "Three Little Pigskins" was one of Lucille Ball's earliest screen credits. The 23-year-older wore a platinum blonde hairdo and was one of three gangsters' girlfriends who recruited the Stooges to play a game the criminals heavily bet on. One classic scene has the Stooges, dressed in women's night attire to get out of their wet clothes, spray seltzer water on each other. Ball, whose specialized in physical comedy, was asked years later if she gathered any tricks of the trade from the three comedians."The only thing I learned from The Three Stooges was how to duck," she remembered. "And I still got wet!" This was the only Stooges' short she appeared.

1934 was the year where a great many new viewers were introduced to the three comics. The trio's new form of comedy that harkened back to the silent movie knockabout-fare with a dose of slapstick was quickly getting scores of passionate fans. The success of their four funny shorts during the year assured Columbia Pictures the Stooges would remain with the studio as long as they wanted.