WARREN –

Growing up the son of Hollywood comedian Moe Howard, one of the original Three Stooges, was at times difficult for Paul Howard.

”My friends would ask me what my dad did for a living. I told them he was a meter reader for Pacific Gas and Electric because that was a typical all-American job for most fathers,” Howard said Wednesday at the Warren Rotary Club meeting at Enzo’s Restaurant, where he was the keynote speaker.

”Other kids’ dads were electricians or owned a furniture store,” Howard said. ”When the neighborhood kids would come over to my house, I didn’t know if they were coming to see me or my dad.”

Howard, 79, of Manhattan, travels across the country to different events, including Three Stooges conventions, sharing memories of his famous father.

Many Three Stooges fans ask him to ”poke them in the eye” or ”bop them on the head” with whatever carpenter’s equipment they might have, just like his dad often did to the fellow Stooges in a long series of slapstick comedies filmed from 1930 to 1965.

”Some of the fans can be very masochistic, but in a loving way,” he said.

Howard said that as a child in Hollywood, his mother took him to the movies to watch his dad smack people around in the comedy movies.

”He earned the name ‘Dead-Eye Moe’ because in the comedies with the pie fights, he always threw the pie in someone’s face just right. It was my dad who delivered the pie dead on,” Howard said.

Howard had many good memories of his dad, including when he was playing baseball his dad would leave the movie theater in costume and show up at the ball fields dressed as a Roman gladiator, a cowboy or in a prisoner’s striped outfit.

”After production was over, he never stopped at wardrobe or makeup, but drove to get his catcher’s mitt. He was there in costume with the catcher’s mitt on his hand. I always treasure the moments I had with him,” Howard said.

He said he remembers on his birthdays going with his dad to the Sky Room at Burbank Airport to watch the planes take off or land or going to the Pacific Ocean Amusement Park and watch his dad throw the balls and knock 99 percent of the puppets over to win prizes.

Howard said at age 11, he got in trouble along with friends for leaving empty beer cans in the road for passing cars to run over.

”The police caught us and took me home. My dad answered the door and the police told him what I did. He was angry and later cried about what I had done. That is a memory I will always have,” he said.

He said the questions he is most often asked about his dad are, ”Is that your father’s real hair?,” which it was, and, ”Did your dad beat people up like he did in the movies?,” which is he did not.

Howard said his dad was careful about saving money.

His dad died in 1975 at age 77.

As for the other Stooges, Howard said, ”Uncle Curly was a grownup teenager who loved the ladies.”

Uncle Shemp was a great storyteller who served in the Army in World War I, but was discharged in three months for bed wetting, he said. Howard said Uncle Shemp loved watching the prize fighting and died while attending one in the 1950s.

”Whatever keeps the Three Stooges in the public eye for the new generations is what is important,” Howard said.

Rob Berk, vice president of the Warren Rotary, said he first met Howard 20 years ago at a Three Stooges convention in Philadelphia.

”My job is to get the speakers for the meetings and I remember meeting him. He has spoken at many Rotary clubs,” Berk said.

Berk said Howard has stayed with his family, where the watched Three Stooges films.

Brothers Josh Miller, 10, and Dwayne Miller, 15, both of North Bloomfield, said they watch the Three Stooges on DVD.

”I like Moe. I think he’s cool,” said Josh, while Dwayne likes Curly.

Howard said he is impressed by what Rotary clubs do both locally and internationally.

bcoupland@tribtoday.com