I am attending the wedding of a friend in November, and it is to be held in Niagara Falls. When I tell people this, they (and myself too, I must admit) always break into that old bit, “Niagara Falls! Slowly I turned, step by step, inch by inch…” (Um, someone tell me that we’re not the only ones that’ve heard this bit.)
So despite the fact that I’ve heard it probably my whole life, I don’t quite know where it’s from. So my question is twofold:
a. Where does this “bit” originally come from? I asked my dad and he said he thought it may be an old vaudeville thing. Regardless, he couldn’t tell me its origin.
b. Assuming it is a “bit,” what’s the punchline and/or context? What happened after I slowly turned? And why does “Niagara Falls” make the speaker in the bit so irate?
(This is kinda fuzzy because I haven’t seen it in years.) In the Three Stooges version, which is performed “on stage” within the short (ie the Stooges are not acting as themselves, but doing a vaudeville-like performance), Curly meets Moe, they chat a while, then Moe mentions he knew a guy in Niagara Falls who stole his girl. It went something like, “…and he told me they were going to get married in Niagara Falls! Slowly I turned…” etc. Then Moe “demonstrates” how he beat the crap out of the guy by beating the crap out of Curly.
Moe leaves, then Curly meets Larry, who Curly soon discovers is the other guy that Moe beat up. Larry has his own version of the events. “He (Moe) said he was going to follow us all the way to Niagara Falls! Slowly I turned…” Larry “demonstrates” on Curly, then leaves.
Moe comes back, Curly says he just met the guy Moe knew in Niagara Falls. “Niagara Falls!”, Moe says. “Slowly…” Then he beats up Curly again, and leaves.
Larry comes back, Curly mentions Niagara Falls to him. “Niagara Falls!” And Larry beats up Curly again and leaves.
At this point Curly is beside himself. Then Moe AND Larry show up. They approach each other very slowly, ready to pounce, and then:
Moe: “Put 'er there, pal!”
Larry: “Long time no see, my good man! How are ya?”
Curly: “Wait a minute!! I thought you guys hated each other!”
Moe: “What do ya mean, me and him’s been friends for years!”
Larry: “Yeah, we go way back.”
Curly: “But the two of you were just talking about how you were going to find the other guy in Niagara Falls…”
Moe & Larry: “NIAGARA FALLS! Slowly I turned…”
The setup for the joke is that the guy who goes nuts was cuckolded by his wife and his best friend, who then ran off to Niagara Falls–the stereotypical honeymoon location.
I suspect that it was an old Vaudeville staple long before the Stooges used it.