Joe Palma

Joe Palma (March 17, 1905 – August 14, 1994) was an American film actor. Born in New York, New York, Palma appeared in over 120 films between 1937 and 1968.

Early years

Palma grew up in New York City, and worked as a mortician in the Provenzano Funeral Home, owned by his parents. Eventually, Hollywood called, and Palma headed west. He joined the stock company at Columbia Pictures in 1937, and played scores of bit parts over 30 years.^[1]

In the film Rumpus in the Harem, Palma is seen at left doubling for Shemp Howard.

With his lean build, brushed-back hair, and unassuming appearance, Joe Palma almost always played incidental roles, which is probably why he lasted so long as a Columbia contract player. He was usually in the background, and at most, he would be given only a few lines of dialogue. In the 1945 Three Stooges comedy Beer Barrel Polecats, for instance, Palma plays an angry convict who dares Curly Howard to punch him in the nose.

Palma can be glimpsed in all kinds of movies, including crime dramas, musical comedies, costume epics, westerns, serials, and two-reel comedies. Several of his many roles consisted of the following:

• a railroad brakeman picking up runaway Scotty Beckett in The Jolson Story
• a plainclothes detective making a positive identification in the Jean Porter musical Little Miss Broadway
• a bandit defying authority in the Three Stooges' Guns a Poppin!
• a waiter in Sam Katzman's production Rock Around the Clock.

Palma's largest speaking role is probably in the Schilling & Lane short Training for Trouble, in which Palma attempts a Jewish dialect: "This is Goldstein, Goldberg, Goldblatt, and O'Brien, booking agents. O'Brien speaking" (a gag borrowed from the Stooges' A Pain in the Pullman).

"The Fake Shemp"

Today, Palma is best known as Shemp Howard's posthumous double. In 1955, Three Stooges member Shemp Howard died of a sudden heart attack. At the time, the Stooges still had four short films left to deliver on their annual contract with Columbia Pictures. By 1955, budget cuts had forced them to utilize stock footage from previous shorts as a matter of survival. As a result, the Stooges managed to complete the four films without Shemp. To do this, Palma was made up to resemble the late Stooge, complete with wig, and would be filmed only from the back or side. On occasion, Palma was required to add a brief line of dialogue or sound (most notably in Hot Stuff). The few new shots Palma appeared in were then edited together with the recycled footage containing the real Shemp, and new films were born.^[2]

Later years

Palma spent his last years in the entertainment industry as an assistant to Jack Lemmon. He appears as "Mr. Palma," the mailman, in Lemmon's 1964 Columbia comedy Good Neighbor Sam. His final film appearance was as a butcher in Lemmon's 1968 Paramount film The Odd Couple.^[1] He died of natural causes on August 14, 1994.

See also

• Fake Shemp

Selected filmography

• The Odd Couple (1968)
• The Great Race (1965)
• Sappy Bull Fighters (1959)
• Flying Saucer Daffy (1958)
• Fifi Blows Her Top (1958)
• Outer Space Jitters (1957)
• Guns A Poppin (1957)
• Hoofs and Goofs (1957)
• Commotion on the Ocean (1956)
• Scheming Schemers (1956)
• Hot Stuff (1956)
• Rumpus in the Harem (1956)
• Hook a Crook (1955)
• Stone Age Romeos (1955) [archival footage]
• Fling in the Ring (1955)
• Shot in the Frontier (1954)
• Knutzy Knights (1954)
• Pals and Gals
• Musty Musketeers (1954)
• Income Tax Sappy (1954)
• Fraidy Cat (1951)
• Hugs and Mugs (1950)
• Punchy Cowpunchers (1950)
• Malice in the Palace (1949)
• I'm a Monkey's Uncle (1948)
• Fiddlers Three (1948)
• Squareheads of the Round Table (1948)
• Shivering Sherlocks (1948)
• Boston Blackie and the Law (1946)
• Three Little Pirates (1946)
• Three Loan Wolves (1946)
• Beer Barrel Polecats (1946)
• The Bells of St. Mary's (1945)
• A Hit with a Miss (1945)
• If a Body Meets a Body (1945)
• Boston Blackie Booked on Suspicion (1945)
• Pick a Peck of Plumbers
• Louisiana Hayride (1944)
• A Blitz on the Fritz (1943)
• From Nurse to Worse (1940)
• Blondie Brings Up Baby (1939)
• Adventure in Sahara (1938)
• Goofs and Saddles (1937)

References