Our talented team at Yellowstone Heritage and Research Center (HRC) solved a fun mystery recently. Here’s Mel Cutietta’s, research librarian, recount of events.
“Working as a research librarian at the HRC is a fascinating job. We preserve and maintain our library, archival, and museum collections, and occasionally receive interesting questions from the public. One such question came to us with a photo attached – The Three Stooges and three Park Rangers in full uniform. We were asked to identify the rangers.
With such little information, searching our collections was difficult. So, I turned to my web browser. I stumbled upon a 2-year-old Reddit post from user u/CaptainOutstanding. The post was a different photo with the caption: ‘My grandpa worked as a park ranger in Yellowstone, where he took this photo of The Three Stooges when they visited. 1969.’
Larry Fine, Joe DeRita, Moe Howard
Comparing the two photos, I noticed they were wearing the same clothing. Although the photo on Reddit didn’t have any rangers in it, all three stooges were wearing the traditional NPS flat ranger hat. I messaged u/CaptainOutstanding and explained who I was. He responded almost immediately, and was able to identify his grandfather, Stewart Orgill, as the middle ranger. With a name, I was able to locate this photograph in our museum collection (amidst thousands of other very cool photographs), and found the other two rangers listed as R. Schultz (right) and S. Connelly (L). Success!
I was also touched to hear that u/CaptainOutstanding had not seen this photo before. They shared the photo update with their family and on Reddit again, and it received an overwhelming response!
As a research librarian, my goal is to connect people with the history and stories of Yellowstone, and this made my year. If you have research questions about Yellowstone, or a connection to the park you want to explore further, all of us here are more than happy to help you!”
nps.gov/yell/learn/historyculture/collections.htm
ht/ illustr8r
Curly was my favorite, but he passed away in 1952.
Curly was great! I was a 3 stooges fan. I missed the school bus several times when I was 8-10 years old because I always figured I didn’t need to go to the bus stop until a commercial. I was right most of the time.
A FRIEND OF MINE AND FELLOW STUDENT AT PACIFIC PALISADES HS WAS AN AMBULANCE DRIVER/PARAMEDIC WHO HAD THE HONOR OF TAKUNG MOE FROM THE REST HOME IN BRENTWOOD TO THE HOSPITAL FOR HIS LAST DAYS AND SAID HE WAS AS KIND, GENEROUS, FUNNY AND PERSONABLE AS A GENTLEMAN COULD BE…
RIP GUYS
Who wrote this? Oh a wise guy huh?
hey Moe!
nyuck, yuck, yuck
One of my childhood memories was seeing the Stooges on stage at some show (maybe the Shriner’s Circus?) my Grandpa took me and my cousins to see.
I remember laughing like all hell.
I remember asking my Grandpa several time “Is that really the Three Stooges?” and he said it absolutely is them and remember this for the rest of your life.
And I have.
Curly was my favorite, Shemp not so much. One of our local drive in theaters would occasionally have all night 3 Stooges marathons and sometimes all night old classic cartoon festivals back in the 70’s. It was a great time for drive in theaters back then. I am still a bigger Marx Brothers fan over the 3 Stooges, Groucho and his brothers would always crack me up and still do.
Sheep, the thinking man’s stooge.
Shemp that is.
Great entertainment!
At least we know they were more intelligent than today’s three stooges (A. Baldwin, S. Penn, and that Jason Bourne guy)..
I never liked The Three Stooges. They made me nervous and I didn’t like how they treated each other. Moe was the worst.
If at first you don’t succeed, keep on suckin’ til you do succeed!
I think the Three Stooges were a boy thing. My brother loved them; me, not so much. And I found that most girls I knew didn’t like their brand of physically abusive slapstick. And amazing as it seems, most of those boys grew up to be perfectly nice gentlemen. (Contrary to all of the crap being spewed today about toxic masculinity, et cetera.)
@The Obsolete Man – you mean https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gnPWJOJYVKc
Wild Bill;
” If at first you don’t succeed, keep on suckin’ til you do succeed!”
I would add;
You could become Vice President to a senile, demented pervert and maybe president.
Back when Kids were not so stupid that they would eat Tide Pods…
Or “plank” on balconies.
I don’t think that the 3 Stooges would’ve ever been stupid enough to plank on a balcony. Planking is not akin to slapstick it’s just sheer plain stupidity.
For some reason my mom didn’t like the idea of me watching them and later on they wouldn’t let me go see Easy Rider.
I remember my parents watching Ed Sullivan, my dad watching roller derby and wrestling and me and my brother Roy Rogers.
Can you imagine if you were waiting for Old Faithful and the Three Stooges walked up next to you?
Left Coast Dan: they were all there in that movie weren’t they?
Hours and hours of good, clean American fun.
RIP all of yez.
Very cool!