Sources conflict on Ted Healy's precise birth name and birthplace, but according to baptismal records, he was born Ernest Lea Nash on October 1,1896, in Kaufman, Texas, to Charles McKinney Nash and Mary Eugenia Nash.
23 Facts About Ted Healy
2.
Ted Healy attended Holy Innocents School in Houston before the family, including his elder sister, Elizabeth Marcia Nash, who later appeared in two 1930s films in small roles under the stage name Marcia Healy, moved to New York in 1908.
3.
Ted Healy's act was a hit, and he soon expanded his role as a comedian and master of ceremonies.
4.
Ted Healy added performers to his stage show, including his new wife, Betty Brown, and his German shepherd dog.
5.
Since Howard was not an acrobat, Healy cast his old friend as a stooge.
6.
Ted Healy brought some of the routines he developed with the Howard brothers, using three comics under contract to Carroll,.
7.
Ted Healy came up with the idea to spotlight his stooges in a new act, with the emphasis on comedy and slapstick humor.
8.
Fox Films hired Healy to costar in the film Soup to Nuts, and Ted brought Moe, Shemp, Larry, and Fred Sanborn with him.
9.
In late August 1930, the Stooges and Healy parted ways after a dispute over a movie contract.
10.
Moe, Larry, and Shemp rejoined Ted 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, Curly Howard.
11.
In late spring 1933, Ted Healy was contracted by MGM, and the act once more headed to Hollywood, this time to stay.
12.
On his own, Ted Healy was given major roles in MGM features such as Bombshell with Jean Harlow and Operator 13 with Marion Davies and Gary Cooper.
13.
Ted Healy appeared in a succession of films for MGM from 1934 to 1937 and was loaned to 20th Century-Fox and Warner Bros.
14.
Ted 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.
15.
Ted Healy was reportedly celebrating the birth of his son, an event he had eagerly anticipated, according to Moe Howard.
16.
Ted Healy always loved kids and often gave Christmas parties for underprivileged youngsters and spent hundreds of dollars on toys.
17.
Ted Healy related an "incoherent story" of being attacked at the Trocadero but could not identify his assailant.
18.
Ted Healy later modified his story, stating that a heavily intoxicated Healy had picked a fight with him and the two had briefly scuffled and then shook hands and parted ways.
19.
Ted Healy was a prodigious spender; despite a weekly salary of $1,700, he died in debt.
20.
Ted Healy indulged in numerous personal luxuries and paid his assistant performers' salaries out of his own pocket.
21.
Ted Healy was financially generous to friends when they were out of work; for example, while unemployed, Frisco lived at an expensive hotel on Healy's tab.
22.
Ted Healy remained hospitalized for some time after Healy died, leaving their house unattended; as a result, it was burglarized and looted of everything of value.
23.
Ted Healy is interred at Calvary Cemetery in Los Angeles, California, along with his mother and sister.