# 3 stooges prop question **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 17, 2001, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/3-stooges-prop-question/62300 "2001-04-17T16:40:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Knighted\_Vorpal\_Sword](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ac91a4/32.png) [@Knighted\_Vorpal\_Sword](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knighted_Vorpal_Sword)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2001, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/3-stooges-prop-question/62300/1 "2001-04-17T16:40:53Z")
There is a prop called a “letter press” which is used in many of the 3 stooges shorts. It looks like a vice, parallel to the desk it’s on. There is a big round handle which is turned and it makes the press close. Does anyone know what this device was actually used for? ---
**Author:** ![screech-owl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/82dd89/32.png) [@screech-owl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/screech-owl)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2001, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/3-stooges-prop-question/62300/2 "2001-04-17T17:34:18Z")
IIRC, and I haven’t watched a 3S flick in some time, and I could very well be wrong: What you describe is very similar to a mini-printing press my father used to use, pre-computers, back in the days of hand-set press and Linotype[sup]TM[/sup] (basically ancient history - about 30 years ago). Instead of using the huge presses normally used for preparing newpaper ads, these presses were smaller and used for pamphlets and brochures. The type was set in the bottom tray, rolled with an ink roller, the paper set on top, and the vice screwed down, pressing a block of wood onto the paper so that the area was covered evenly. This was repeated for each brochure. Very time-consuming. Do you remember which movies or episodes so I don’t have to go through my whole collection to look for an example? ---
**Author:** ![Knighted\_Vorpal\_Sword](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ac91a4/32.png) [@Knighted\_Vorpal\_Sword](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knighted_Vorpal_Sword)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2001, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/3-stooges-prop-question/62300/3 "2001-04-17T18:55:20Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by screech-owl \* > \*\*Do you remember which movies or episodes so I don’t have to go through my whole collection to look for an example? \*\* There’s an episode where Shemp has to get married within 6 hours to inherit $500,000 from his late uncle. Towards the end, a huge fight breaks out between all the ladies he proposed to. One of them puts Shemp’s head in the letter press and squeezes it until he says he’ll marry her. ---
**Author:** ![Chas.E](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e99b99/32.png) [@Chas.E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chas.E)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2001, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/3-stooges-prop-question/62300/4 "2001-04-17T20:45:01Z")
I actually own a small letterpress, and I assure you that nothing resembling a letterpress ever appeared in any 3 stooges film I ever saw. But I think I know what device you’re talking about. A bookmaker friend of mine has such a machine, it is two flat blocks in a frame with a big round handle at the top, turn the wheel and the blocks get closer together. She told me that this is a bookmakers device for folding paper in preparation for binding. It could also be used for folding stacks of paper, for example, a batch of folded business letters. ---
**Author:** ![Shiva](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/85e7bf/32.png) [@Shiva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shiva)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2001, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/3-stooges-prop-question/62300/5 "2001-04-18T02:05:00Z")
That just might be a bookpress: [http://www.northnet.org/tduffy/bookpre2.htm](http://www.northnet.org/tduffy/bookpre2.htm) OW! OW! Hey Moe! ---
**Author:** ![Chas.E](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e99b99/32.png) [@Chas.E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chas.E)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2001, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/3-stooges-prop-question/62300/6 "2001-04-18T02:25:53Z")
Yeah, what Shiva said… FYI, here’s a website with a picture of a more traditional bookpress, it’s rather large compared to any that I’ve seen, and surely bigger than the one the Stooges used as a prop. [http://www.thebookbinder.com/html/tools.htm](http://www.thebookbinder.com/html/tools.htm) It’s the 4th picture down. ---
**Author:** ![screech-owl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/82dd89/32.png) [@screech-owl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/screech-owl)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2001, 1:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/3-stooges-prop-question/62300/7 "2001-04-18T13:06:48Z")
Glad that’s cleared up. All my tapes have titles, not plots. Although Dad did use something akin to that for smaller printing jobs (hey, I was 6 when the company went bankrupt, so my memory is a little unclear on that point). ---
**Author:** ![Knighted\_Vorpal\_Sword](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ac91a4/32.png) [@Knighted\_Vorpal\_Sword](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knighted_Vorpal_Sword)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2001, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/3-stooges-prop-question/62300/8 "2001-04-18T13:09:04Z")
Chas - that’s what it looks like. Thanks. Screech - Sorry, couldn’t remember the title. I was at work at the time.