Ted Healy

Sources conflict on Healy's precise birth name and birthplace, but according to baptism records, he was born Ernest (or Earnest) Lea Nash on October 1, 1896, in Kaufman, Texas. He attended Holy Innocents School in Houston before the family, including his sister, Marcia, moved to New York in 1908. While in New York, he attended high school at De La Salle Institute. Nash initially intended to become a businessman but eventually decided on the stage.

Nash made his first foray into show business in 1912 at the age of 15. Moses Horwitz (later known as Moe Howard) was his childhood friend and they joined the Annette Kellerman Diving Girls, a vaudeville act that included four boys. The act ended quickly after an accident on stage, and Nash and Howard went their separate ways. Nash developed a vaudeville act and adopted the stage name Ted Healy.

Healy's first wife was dancer and singer Betty Brown (born Elizabeth Braun), whom he married in 1922, one week after they met. The couple worked together in vaudeville, then divorced in 1932 after Brown sued heiress Mary Brown Warburton for "alienation of her husband's affections".

The Healys' revue toured, listed on the marquee as Syncopated Toes, and when some of his acrobats quit in late 1923, Moe Howard answered the advertisement for replacements. Since Howard was not an acrobat, Healy cast his old friend as a stooge (a purported member of the audience who is picked, ostensibly at random, to come onstage). In the routine, Howard's appearance would end with Healy losing his trousers.

Howard's brother Shemp joined the act as a heckler in early 1924, but both Howards temporarily retired from show business by mid-1925. Ted and Betty were hired in June 1925 to star in the Broadway revue Earl Carroll Vanities of 1925. Ted brought some of the routines he developed with the Howard brothers, using three comics under contract to Carroll, Dave Chasen, Kenneth Lackey, and Lou Warren. After a contract dispute whereby it was determined that Carroll was in the wrong, Ted and Betty left "Vanities" in October 1925 with Lou Warren and relaunched their "Syncopated Toes" revue, now retitled Fun in the Healy Manner. By January 1926, Shemp Howard had returned, and they successfully toured the country through the summer of 1926. Ted and Betty received another Broadway opportunity, this time from the Shubert Brothers, who hired them for The Passing Show of 1926, with Ted bringing Shemp and Lou along. "Passing" only enjoyed a preview tour and did not open on Broadway, but the Shuberts and Healy retooled the show into the successful A Night in Spain, with Phil Baker joining the Healys as its stars. For "Spain," Ted now utilized four stooges in some scenes, Shemp, Lou Warren, brother-in-law Sam "Moody" Braun, and Dick Hakins. Arriving on Broadway in May 1927 after four months of successful previews, Hakins fell ill and was replaced by comedy/specialty dancer Bobby Pinkus. In November 1927, "Spain" began a national tour with four months at Chicago's 4 Cohans Grand Opera House. Larry Fine, who had been working as the lead performer and house M.C. at Chicago's Rainbo Gardens nightclub and restaurant, was added to Healy's group of comics in late March 1928.

In the decades that followed, many comedy stars, including Milton Berle, Bob Hope, and Red Skelton, cited Healy as a mentor and significant influence on their careers. "Back in 1925, Ted Healy took me aside and gave me some wonderful advice," Berle told Walter Winchell, in 1955. "'Milton, always play to the public. Never mind playing to the theatrical crowd. Don't try to impress the trumpet player in the pit. Entertain the people and you'll get rich and famous.'" Alex Gard's caricature of Healy was the first of several hundred displayed at Sardi's restaurant in New York City's Theater District.

During the run of A Night in Spain, Ted and Betty also performed a song-and-dance stage act in nightclubs and other theaters after the evening curtain went down on "Spain." But the Healys split in 1928, and Ted came up with the idea to spotlight his stooges in a new act, with the emphasis on comedy and slapstick humor. Concurrent with their performances in Venice, Healy booked himself and his troupe in additional shows as '"Ted Healy & His Southern Gentlemen" and later as "Ted Healy & His Racketeers". A Night in Venice had a shortened road tour after Broadway and closed in March 1930, largely owing to the economic impact of the Depression.

The Shuberts hired Ted to star in their new show A Night in Venice, with Moe Howard returning to show biz and joining Ted at his home in Connecticut to develop some comedy bits for the revue, which began rehearsals in January 1929. Shemp Howard also came back, but Larry Fine was in Atlantic City with his wife, waiting for the birth of his daughter. Healy hired comedy xylophonist Fred Sanborn as a third comic in Fine's place. Circa mid-February, Larry contacted Healy and was welcomed to join the "Venice" cast.

Healy hired replacement stooges, consisting of Eddie Moran (soon replaced by Richard "Dick" Hakins), Jack Wolf (father of sportscaster Warner Wolf), and Paul "Mousie" Garner, in early 1931. This group appeared in two Broadway plays, with Healy co-starring in The Gang's All Here and Billy Rose's Crazy Quilt.

Moe, Larry, and Shemp rejoined Healy's act in late July 1932, but Shemp left on August 19 to pursue a solo career and was replaced by his younger brother, Jerry Howard, renamed Curly Howard. The switch from Shemp to Curly happened very quickly, and on August 27, 1932, only eight days after Shemp departed, "Ted Healy with Howard, Fine & Howard" premiered Curly at the RKO Palace in Cleveland, Ohio. The new lineup's personal appearances headlined many of the prime nightclubs and movie palaces nationally for the next several months. In late spring 1933, Ted was contracted by MGM, and the act once more headed to Hollywood, this time to stay. Over the next year, Ted's comedy team appeared in several MGM shorts, and even supported stars like Clark Gable and Joan Crawford in features like Dancing Lady. On his own, Healy was given major roles in MGM features like Bombshell with Jean Harlow and Operator 13 with Marion Davies and Gary Cooper. In March 1934, Fine and the Howards permanently and amicably parted professional ways with Ted Healy and began working at Columbia Studios as "The Three Stooges."

Healy's second marriage was to UCLA coed Betty Hickman. After introducing himself, Healy proposed immediately, and the couple became engaged the following day. They were married in Yuma, Arizona, on May 15, 1936, after a midnight elopement by plane. Hickman was granted a divorce on October 7, 1936, which was nullified after a reconciliation. Their son, John Jacob, was born on December 17, 1937, four days before Healy's death.

In 1937, Marcia Healy would make one film with the post-Healy Stooges, The Sitter Downers and she also had a part in The Great Ziegfeld (filmed 1935–36).

Healy died on December 21, 1937, at the age of 41, after an evening of celebration at the Trocadero nightclub on the Sunset Strip in Los Angeles. He was reportedly celebrating the birth of his son, an event he had eagerly anticipated, according to Moe Howard. "He was nuts about kids", wrote Howard. "He used to visit our homes and envied the fact that we were all married and had children. Healy always loved kids and often gave Christmas parties for underprivileged youngsters and spent hundreds of dollars on toys."