So a Stooge strolls out of Bank of America
One of the original Three Stooges literally collided into Dolly Parton’s future lead guitarist. John Beland has enhanced country rock acts as diverse as Linda Ronstadt, Kris Kristofferson, the Flying Burrito Brothers, and Bobby “How I Got to Memphis” Bare. He played Saturday Night Live with soft-spoken “Dream Lover” Rick Nelson in 1979 and created the acoustic six string licks anchoring the demo of Garth Brooks’ monster hit “Friends in Low Places.” Beland posts entertaining anecdotes from his approaching 60-year career steadily on Facebook, which likely planted the seeds for his two memoirs, Best Seat in the House and Pass the Guitar and I’ll Tell You a Story.
When Beland’s dad Clarence was assured he had the prospect of a new job waiting an hour outside of Los Angeles, he uprooted his family from Hometown, Illinois, and boarded a Super Chief train bound for La Puente. The better employment opportunity proved to be a bust, and Clarence “was at his wit’s end and saw himself as a failure,” wrote his son when looking back at the bleak 1967 situation.
“I was pretty miserable and was about to be sent to a continuation school after being truant from high school. The world seemed to be crashing in all around me. My parents were broke and had no friends to count on. The move had been a terrible mistake.
“All I had was a cheap acoustic guitar I had brought on the train journey. It became my best and only friend. So I started writing songs. All I ever wanted to be was a session guitarist, not to play in a famous group or do big tours or be on television. I wanted to be the guy who made the records, chased the hits so to speak.
“I decided to run away from home to Hollywood. My first day there as a 17-year-old kid found me in the parking lot of Capitol Records, staring at the famous tower in wonder. I even slept there. I didn’t know a soul and had 10 bucks to my name. I spent a lot of time dodging the cops, panhandling for ‘spare change,’ and singing at open mic nights in various coffee houses.
“The first ‘star’ I met was none other than the great Larry Fine. And no, I didn’t poke him in the eye. I was walking past the Bank of America on Hollywood Boulevard, reading the names on the Walk of Fame and not paying attention to where I was going. Suddenly, bang! Larry had accidentally knocked me over coming out of the bank. His hair was slicked back and he wore a pinstripe double breasted suit and tie.
“Larry kindly reached down, lifted me up, and was very apologetic. ‘Better watch where you’re walking down this street, son. You could get hurt.’ I looked up and said, ‘Are you Larry of the Three Stooges?’ He smiled and answered, ‘I sure am,’ and walked away.” Since his wife Mabel’s death from a heart attack on May 30, 1967, Fine lived in a small apartment on the corner of La Brea Avenue and Hollywood Boulevard.
At this stage the Three Stooges, led by founding funnymen Moe Howard, Fine, and Curly Howard-Shemp Howard-Joe Besser replacement Curly Joe DeRita, had been entertaining audiences for five decades and were exhibiting signs of antiquity in a fiercely cutthroat young man’s game. A career revival, predicated upon matinee TV reruns of their iconic black and white Columbia short subjects, caught fire in 1959. But they had not been seen in a theatrical release since 1965's madcap The Outlaws Is Coming, and their low budgeted New 3 Stooges cartoons concluded a year later. Besides an occasional summit on ABC’s The Joey Bishop Show [a brief competitor against Johnny Carson in late night], a commercial spot, a Gold Key comic book series, or personal appearance to the delight of untold legions of children, retirement was looming over the horizon. In 1983, eight years after Fine’s death from multiple stroke complications at age 72, the Hollywood Walk of Fame selection committee finally saw fit to award the groundbreaking slapstick trio a star at 1560 Vine Street.
“I had a dream and a goal and so I followed the road that others kindly pointed out to me until I eventually found my place,” affirmed Beland. “From starting out playing on demos all around Hollywood for $20 a song to being signed to the Beatles’ Apple Records by Ringo Starr and playing on major hit records, it’s been a surreal journey.”
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