Three Stooges: Goofs and Saddles

[Diane Merkel]

LBHA member Charles Markantes wrote in reference to the December Newsletter:

Donald Schorr's compilation of "Actors Who Portrayed George Custer" overlooked Theodore Lorch. One of my favorite Three Stooges movies, Goofs and Saddles, Columbia Pictures, 1937, was directed by Del Lord and produced by Jules White. Plot Summary: Set in the old west, the stooges are spies for US Calvary; General Muster dispatches the Three Stooges to catch cattle rustlers.

Cast (in credits order)
Curly Howard...Buffalo Billius
Larry Fine...Just Plain Bill
Moe Howard...Wild Bill Hicup

Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Hank Bell...Rustler (uncredited)
Stanley Blystone...Longhorn Pete (uncredited)
George Gray...Bit Part (uncredited)
Ethan Laidlaw...Rustler Boss (uncredited)
Eddie Laughton...Bartender (uncredited)
Theodore Lorch...General Muster (uncredited)
Sometimes Credited As: Theodore Lerch, Ted Lorch, Theodore A. Lorch, Theodore Loren
Sam Lufkin...Bit Part (uncredited)
Hank Mann...Bit Part (uncredited)
Joe Palma...Bit Part (uncredited)
Cy Schindel...Henchman (uncredited)

Theodore Lorch
Date of birth, 29 September 1873, Springfield, Illinois; Date of death, 12 November 1947, Camarillo, California.

Trivia
He is the only actor in the 1929 movie of Show Boat to have had an acting role in the 1936 film. (Helen Morgan both sang and acted in the 1936 film but, in the 1929 one, she appeared only in the prologue to sing the two songs she made famous in the original stage production.) Lorch's very brief appearance as "Simon Legree" in the 1936 Show Boat (a role not in the stage production) was cut from the final print and has never been seen by the public.

Charles also included this beautiful ;D rendition of Home on the Range by the Three Stooges (requires an audio player, such as Real Player or Quicktime):

www.lbha.org/audio/homerange.wav

[stevewilk]

Diane,

It was General "Mustard" and Buffalo "Billiards".

Actually, the soldiers are depicted rather correctly as far as uniforms go. No suspenders or bandanas, no blue shirts. They wear the blouse and forage caps.

[Diane Merkel]

The "official" Three Stooges website has General Muster and Buffalo Billius: www.threestooges.com/. Whichever way = funny!

[stevewilk]

I stand corrected....I had this short on video but the tape got eaten. Anyway there is a scene where the boys send a note by pigeon to the General, only to have the bird return and land on the villian's shoulder. He sees the note and opens it up; the note is signed by Wild Bill Hiccup, etc. All the web checks Idid list it as "Bilious". And I thought I new my Stooge trivia...