THREE LITTLE PIGSKINS

 December 8, 1934

Three Little Pigskins is a 1934 Columbia Pictures short subject directed by Raymond McCarey and starring slapstick comedy team The Three Stooges. It is the fourth entry in the series starring the comedians, who released 190 short films for the studio between 1934 and 1959.

Synopsis ~ Moe, Larry and Curly are hired to promote a university football team. They’re soon mistaken for the school’s famous star athletes, “The Three Horsemen.” As the star athletes, they are hired by a gangster to secretly play on his professional team, but of course the boys know nothing about football.

PRINCIPAL CAST

The Three Stooges were an American vaudeville and comedy team active from 1922 until 1970. Their hallmark was physical farce and slapstick. Six Stooges appeared over the act’s run with only three active at any given time. In this film they are: 

• Moe Howard (Moe) born Moses Horwitz in 1897. Died 1975. 
• Larry Fine (Larry) born Larry Feinberg in 1902. Died 1975. 
• Curly Howard (Curly) born Jerome Horwitz in 1903, Moe’s younger brother. Died in 1952. 

This short film is the only time the three worked with Lucille Ball. 

Lucille Ball (Daisy Simms). This is Ball’s 17th film to be released since 1933. It is her 13th in 1934 alone. 

Gertie Green (Lulu Banks) makes the third of her four screen appearances.

Phyllis Crane (Molly Gray) was also seen with Lucille Ball in Broadway Bill and Men of the Night, both in 1934. 

UNCREDITED CAST (in alphabetical order)

Harry Bowen (Boulder Dam PR Man) also appeared with Lucille Ball in The Whole Town’s Talking (1935) and Dummy Ache (1936). 

Lynton Brent (1st Man Panhandled by Moe) appeared with Lucille Ball in seven other films between 1934 and 1939. 

Bobby Burns (Man Panhandled by Larry) also appeared with Lucille Ball and Harry Bowen in Dummy Ache (1936). 

Charles Dorety (2nd Photographer) also appeared with Lucille Ball in His Old Flame (1935). 

Milton Douglas (Henchman) makes his only appearance with Lucille Ball. 

Oscar ‘Dutch’ Hendrian (Referee) did five other films with Lucille Ball between 1934 and 1935. 

William J. Irving (1st Photographer) did five other films with Lucille Ball between 1933 and 1935.

Johnny Kascier (Man Panhandled by Curly) makes his only appearance with Lucille Ball.

Walter Long (Joe Stacks)

also appeared with Lucille Ball in The Whole Town’s Talking (1935).

Roger Moore (Pete, Joe’s Henchman) also appeared with Lucille Ball in Meet the People (1944) and The Fuller Brush Girl (1950). 

The role of Joe is sometimes attributed to Joseph Young.

Jimmy Phillips

(2nd Man Panhandled by Moe) also appeared with Lucille Ball in The Whole Town’s Talking (1935)

Larry Wheat

(3rd Man Panhandled by Moe) appeared with Lucille Ball in Thousands Cheer (1943).

PIGSKIN TRIVIA

Three Little Pigskins was filmed from October 25 to 30, 1934 in and around Los Angeles.    

The film’s title is a multiple pun, derived from the children’s nursery rhyme the Three Little Pigs, along with ‘pigskin’ being a synonym for a football. 

In 1924, Mermaid Comedies produced Pigskin, starring silent comedy short starring Lige Conley. 

In 1936 a film titled Pigskin Parade premiered earning its leading man an Oscar nomination. 

The second half of the film was shot at Gilmore Stadium, and its name on the scoreboard appears in several shots. The Los Angeles stadium was newly built in 1934 and had a seating capacity of 18,000. The football team the Stooges play against was from Loyola Marymount University, a regular tenant of Gilmore Stadium. 

The Cubs on the scoreboard refers to the Westwood Cubs, who had played at the stadium on the October 28, 1934. The Tigers refers to the Occidental Tigers, a college team from Los Angeles.  Neither team appears in the film. 

Coincidentally, the stadium was demolished in 1952 to make way for CBS Television City, a production facility that was opened by Lucille Ball as the network’s reigning star, although “I Love Lucy” never filmed there. One of their major tenants was the Hollywood Stars Baseball team, which Fred Mertz mentions during “In Palm Springs” (ILL S4;E26) in March 1955. 

There is also a shot that includes a billboard for Gilmore Oil, including its trademark symbol, a red lion.

The Gilmore Oil Company was an independent oil company in California founded by Arthur Fremont Gilmore, whom the stadium was named for. At its peak, they operated over three thousand gas stations on the West Coast. In the 1940s, the company was acquired and then merged into a group which eventually became Mobil.

The address 6317 Yucca Street on the poster behind Curly and Moe was the actual location of filming. Coincidentally, it  is about a quarter mile from the Stooges’ Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. the location is now the Los Angeles campus of The American Musical and Dramatic Academy (AMDA).

Boulder Dam College is a fictional school. Boulder Dam is located in Clark County, Nevada and was under construction at the time of filming. It named Boulder Dam in 1933 and dedicated in 1935 and opened in 1936. It was renamed Hoover Dam in 1946. 

Beyond the stadium can be glimpsed the Fairfax Theatre sign. The Fairfax Theatre opened in 1930 as part of a larger retail complex.  The theatre was ‘triplexed’ in the 1980s but closed for good in 2010 after roof damage from heavy rains. The owner was unwilling to make repairs although the façade still remains.  

Later in her career, Lucille Ball (apparently referring to the seltzer squirting scene) would remark, 

“The only thing I learned from The Three Stooges was how to duck. I still got wet!”

While Lucille Ball was filming Three Little Pigskins, The Affairs of Cellini, in which she played an uncredited lady in waiting, was in wide release, having premiered in late August 1934. 

Moe Howard once called Three Little Pigskins “a humdinger of bangs and bruises,” as it marked the first time the Stooges flatly refused to perform a stunt. In the film, during the game the boys are stopped by photographers to pose for a picture, when the football players then tackle them. The team consisted of genuine college football players, and the Stooges were afraid of being hurt. Larry Fine, the smallest and lightest of the three, told director Raymond McCarey, “We’ve never used stunt doubles before but we certainly need them now.“ 

The fact that both Curly and Larry had been hurt a few days earlier (Curly broke his leg riding down the dumbwaiter and Larry lost a tooth due to a mistimed punch) reinforced the trio’s decision to opt out of the scene.

Less than an hour after the exchange, the studio found three stunt doubles made up to look like the Stooges. Two of the three were seriously injured as were all four photographers.

A planned concluding scene had the Stooges, years later, telling the story to their sons. It is unknown if this scene was ever filmed, but publicity photos exist of the Stooges, each with a young actor, all made up and dressed to resemble their older counterparts.

In 1996, Exclusive Premiere created limited edition action figures of the Stooges in costumes from the film. 

PIGSKIN PROGRESS

As a young model and actress, Lucille Ball didn’t just take film jobs. Here she poses with Billie Seward at Bovard Field in Los Angeles.

In 1949, Lucille Ball and Victor Mature starred in a film about a professional football player, Easy Living.

Ball’s radio show “My Favorite Husband” tackled gridiron gimmickry in 1950. 

For a further look at Lucy and the Gridiron, click here!