Gregory Freeman: So Much For Polls: Female Fans Of Stooges Speak Out. P-D 9/18/1997

Headline: SO MUCH FOR POLLS: FEMALE FANS OF STOOGES SPEAK OUT
Reporter: By Gregory Freeman

Publication: ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
Last Printed: Thur., Sep. 18, 1997
Section: NEWS, Page: 1B, Edition: FIVE STAR LIFT

WHO WOULD have figured?
I recently wrote a column "outing" myself as a Three Stooges fanatic. In the column, I mentioned that I had conducted the Greg Freeman Official, Unscientific Survey On The Three Stooges and found that women generally were not fans of the trio. I chalked this up to women having grown up and men still living their childhood.

After the column, I was swamped with letters. Men agreed with me about living their childhood. But a considerable number of women wrote as well, assuring me that they were just as much into their childhoods as the men, thankyouverymuch.
I write about some serious issues, and the response I get is a thud. Then I write about the Three Stooges, and everyone gets excited. Does this make some sort of statement about St. Louisans?
Anyway, here's a sampling of letters from fans of the numbskulls.

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"I enjoyed your Sept. 7 column on the Three Stooges, but you were dead-wrong when you suggested that most women weren't interested in them.
   "I've been watching the Stooges shorts ever since I can remember. I'm 38 now, and my husband and I both enjoy them.
   "Furthermore, I'm not the only woman I know who enjoys them. Quite a few of us watch them regularly. In fact, last year several girlfriends and I got together late one Saturday night and had a Three Stooges party.
   "There are a lot of us out here!"

Michelle K.

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"What made you think that women don't enjoy the Stooges? My situation is exactly the opposite of those you described in your column. My husband hates the Stooges and I love them. They come on late on Saturday nights, and he can't understand why I don't want to go to bed. But for me, Saturday nights aren't the same without Moe, Larry and Curly (Sorry, honey)."

Susan B.

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"Thanks for taking me down memory lane with your column about the Three Stooges. They were a favorite when I was a child and they still are.
"Did you ever go to the Varsity Theater in University City and see the Stooges in 3-D when they used to show them there? It was wild!
"Like me, a lot of us women love them boys. I'd love to see more of them."

Julie M.

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"I very much enjoyed your article today. I, too, am a Three Stooges lover from the days of `Captain Eleven and the Three Stooges' on Channel 11. As a young boy, I was totally convinced that the show really took place on a riverboat chugging down the Mississippi, despite the berating of my knowing older brother.
"Later in life, I spent many a happy hour with my son, now 20, watching the Stooges late into the night on countless Saturdays, much past his bedtime. In fact, he would often have to put me to bed. Much like baseball, our common bond through the Stooges has often kept our line of communication open - to this very day.
"I am also blessed to have met and married a woman who loves the Stooges. We often do bits together. I often joke that part of my early attraction to her was her understanding of their comedy, despite her gender. The Stooges have been a constant source of enjoyment throughout my life."

Joseph C.

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"I'm an educated electrical engineer. I love live theater. I like calculus (although I don't understand it all). I read.
"But one of the perks of my job is getting home at 12:30 a.m. because those are the dark hours when I can, without being disturbed by anyone inclined to make me feel guilty, partake in such great TV as The Three Stooges.
"There, I'm out of the closet."

Larry L.

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"I am a Lutheran pastor serving at a local hospital. As I write this, I wear proudly one set of my Three Stooges suspenders.
   "In my training at Lehigh Valley Hospital, a level-one trauma center in Allentown, Penn., I did a lot of on-call in the emergency room. My `uniform' was always the same: Three Stooges tie (I have 6 of them) and Three Stooges suspenders (5 pairs). And though not visible, I wore one of my 6 Three Stooges T-shirts.
   The trauma docs, in the heat of treating patients, would look at my tie, and begin doing the schtick, inviting the residents to join in. So in the name of the holy trinity - Moe, Larry and Curly - be forgiven, and yuk it up.
   This from a pastor who watches faithfully each night on the Family Channel. As I said to my parents (who still wonder where they went wrong), if the Three Stooges are okay for Pat Robertson, who are we to say?

The Rev. Scott D.

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