Three Stooges In Person at the Premiere

At the ripe old age of 6 3/4, I attended the world premiere of "Have Rocket Will Travel" in August 1959 at a theater near the boardwalk in Atlantic City, New Jersey. I was standing on a long ticket line outside the theater, when the Three Stooges pulled up in a Model T, honking the bulb horn. They parked at the curb at the end of the ticket line, and walked past us kids about 10 feet away, waving and smiling. We were transfixed by being in the presence of these celebrities whose images and antics had been burned on our consciousness through TV. Inside the theater, they performed a 10 minute stage show before the movie, with eye pokes, ear twists, and head bangs perfectly synchronized with offstage sound effects. (I later learned that this was how Moe and Larry had gotten started, in vaudeville, 30 years before.) What a day!