Christine McIntyre

Christine Cecilia McIntyre (April 16, 1911 – July 8, 1984) was an American actress and singer who appeared in various films from 1937 to 1954. She is mainly remembered as the beautiful blonde in many of The Three Stooges shorts produced by Columbia Pictures.

Early career

A native of Nogales, Arizona, McIntyre was one of five children. A classically trained singer, McIntyre received a Bachelor of Music degree at Chicago Musical College in 1933. It was here that she developed her operatic soprano voice, which would be put to good use in several Three Stooges films in the 1940s.

McIntyre began singing in feature films at RKO Radio Pictures, and made her film debut in the 1937 short subject Swing Fever. She then appeared in a series of low-budget westerns, often starring Buck Jones. She appeared with dark hair in these early roles, and also appeared occasionally in "mainstream" feature films (like 1939's Blondie Takes a Vacation). She sang "The Blue Danube" and "Voices of Spring" in a Vienna-themed musical short filmed for the Soundies film jukeboxes, and her performance was singled out as the best of the inaugural series.

The Three Stooges and Columbia Pictures In 1944, Columbia Pictures producer Hugh McCollum signed McIntyre to a decade-long contract. At Columbia, she appeared in scores of short subjects with almost all of the Columbia short-subject comedy stars: The Three Stooges, Shemp Howard, Harry Langdon, Andy Clyde, Hugh Herbert, Vera Vague, Billy Gilbert, Harry Von Zell, Joe Besser, Joe DeRita, Bert Wheeler, Slim Summerville, Sterling Holloway, Gus Schilling & Richard Lane, Wally Vernon & Eddie Quillan, Wally Brown & Tim Ryan, and Max Baer & Maxie Rosenbloom. The Hugh Herbert comedy Wife Decoy is actually a showcase for Christine McIntyre, who is the principal character. In this film, she appears as a brunette who dyes her hair blonde. From then on in her screen appearances, she remained a blonde. In her Columbia comedies she played charming heroines, scheming villains, and flighty socialites.

Her debut appearance with the Three Stooges was in Idle Roomers, followed by a solo Shemp Howard short, Open Season for Saps. She auditioned her singing voice for Hugh McCollum's director Edward Bernds, offering "Voices of Spring". Bernds cast her in Micro-Phonies, where she reprised the song. Bernds had her sing "The Last Rose of Summer" in 1947’s Out West and a pastiche of the "Lucia Sextet" in 1948’s Squareheads of the Round Table.

McCollum and Bernds recognized McIntyre's abilities and often tailored material especially for her, allowing her to improvise as she saw fit. Her performance as Miss Hopkins in Brideless Groom (1947) featured a memorable knockabout scene in which she repels suitor Shemp Howard—right through a door. Director Bernds remembered:

McIntyre also won a feature-film contract with Monogram Pictures. After playing a newspaper publisher in News Hounds, a comedy with The Bowery Boys, she usually played opposite Monogram's cowboy stars in low-budget Westerns.

McIntyre married radio personality John Donald Wilson in 1953. By this time, McCollum and Bernds had left Columbia, leaving Jules White in charge of short subjects. White favored strenuous, extremely physical humor, and forced the ladylike McIntyre to submit to low comedy; in a single film (Doggie in the Bedroom, 1954) she was tackled, hit with messy projectiles, covered with cake batter, and knocked into a cross-eyed stupor. When her contract with Columbia expired in 1954, she was all too happy to retire from show business, eventually developing a career in real estate. Columbia continued to use old footage of McIntyre through 1957, which is why she received billing in films made after her retirement.

Filmography McIntyre in a still taken from the film Rock River Renegades.

Columbia two-reel comedies

Garden of Eatin''' (1943, Slim Summerville) – Mrs. Parker Who's Hugh? (1943, Hugh Herbert) – Mrs. Herbert To Heir Is Human (1944, Harry Langdon) – Velma Doctor, Feel My Pulse (1944, Vera Vague) – Sandra Stevens His Tale Is Told (1944, Andy Clyde) – Mrs. A.S. Steele Defective Detectives (1944, Harry Langdon, El Brendel) – Mrs. Rodney Boodle Crazy Like a Fox (1945, Billy Gilbert) – Potentate's daughter Mopey Dope (1945, Harry Langdon) – Neighbor His Hotel Sweet (1945, Hugh Herbert) – Mrs. Jack Norton Idle Roomers (1944, Stooges) – Mrs. Leander Wedded Bliss (1944, Billy Gilbert) – Wife Open Season for Saps (1944, Shemp Howard) – Irene A Knight and a Blonde (1944, Hugh Herbert) – The bride No Dough Boys (1944, Stooges) – Celia Zweiback Woo, Woo! (1945, Hugh Herbert) – Mrs. Herbert Three Pests in a Mess (1945, Stooges) – Cheatham's secretary Off Again, On Again (1945, Shemp Howard) – Edith Pistol Packin' Nitwits (1945, Harry Langdon, El Brendel) – Queenie Lynch Wife Decoy (1945, Hugh Herbert) – Blanche Hawkins The Mayor's Husband (1945, Hugh Herbert) – Hired girl Where the Pest Begins (1945, Shemp Howard) – Annie Batts Micro-Phonies (1945, Stooges) – Alice Andrews, alias Alice Van Doren The Blonde Stayed On (1946, Andy Clyde) – Maisie When the Wife's Away (1946, Hugh Herbert) – Mrs. Herbert Jiggers, My Wife! (1946, Shemp Howard) – Trixie The Three Troubledoers (1946, Stooges) – Nell the Blacksmith Get Along, Little Zombie (1946, Hugh Herbert) – Millie Mulligan Hot Water (1946, Gus Schilling & Richard Lane) – Dolly Malloy Pardon My Terror (1946, Gus Schilling & Richard Lane) – Alice Morton Society Mugs (1946, Shemp Howard, Tom Kennedy) – Muriel Allen Mr. Wright Goes Wrong (1946, Sterling Holloway) Honeymoon Blues (1946, Hugh Herbert) – Betty Lou Slappily Married (1946, Joe DeRita) – Mrs. Bates Three Little Pirates (1946, Stooges) – Rita Yolanda Meet Mr. Mischief (1946, Harry Von Zell) – Mrs. Von Zell Hot Heir (1947, Hugh Herbert) – Neighbor's Wife Bride and Gloom (1947, Shemp Howard) – Maisie Keeler Two Jills and a Jack (1947, Andy Clyde) – Betty Out West (1947, Stooges) – Nell Brideless Groom (1947, Stooges) – Miss Lulu Hopkins Wedding Belle (1947, Gus Schilling & Richard Lane) – Gladys Lane Rolling Down to Reno (1947, Harry Von Zell) – Mary Christman Hectic Honeymoon (1947, Sterling Holloway) – Ellen Duffy Should Husbands Marry? (1947, Hugh Herbert) – Mrs. Herbert Wife to Spare (1947, Andy Clyde) – Honey Jackson Wedlock Deadlock (1947, Joe DeRita) – Betty All Gummed Up (1947, Stooges) – Mrs. Serena Flint Shivering Sherlocks (1948, Stooges) – Gladys Harmon Squareheads of the Round Table (1948, Stooges) – Princess Elaine Tall, Dark and Gruesome (1948, Hugh Herbert) – Party guest Two Nuts in a Rut (1948, Gus Schilling & Richard Lane) – Mrs. Higgins Jitter Bughouse (1948, Joe DeRita) – Myrtle The Sheepish Wolf (1948, Hugh Herbert) – Susan Pringle The Hot Scots (1948, Stooges) – Lorna Doone A Pinch in Time (1948, Hugh Herbert) – Blonde Crime on Their Hands (1948, Stooges) – Bea Parlor, Bedroom and Wrath (1948, Wally Vernon & Eddie Quillan) – Mrs. Vernon He's In Again (1949, Gus Schilling & Richard Lane) – Boss's daughter Who Done It? (1949, Stooges) – Goodrich's niece Trapped by a Blonde (1949, Hugh Herbert) – Sheriff's wife Flung by a Fling (1949, Gus Schilling & Richard Lane) – Mrs. Schilling Microspook (1949, Harry Von Zell) – Jean Fuelin' Around (1949, Stooges) – Hazel Sneed Clunked in the Clink (1949, Vera Vague) – Blonde Waiting in the Lurch (1949, Joe Besser) – Mae Knott Vagabond Loafers (1949, Stooges) – Mrs. Ethel Allen Super-Wolf (1949, Hugh Herbert) – Gladys Evans French Fried Frolic (1949, Wally Brown & Tim Ryan) – Paulette Punchy Cowpunchers (1950, Stooges) – Nell His Baiting Beauty (1950, Harry Von Zell) – Mrs. Von Zell Hugs and Mugs (1950, Stooges) – Lily Dopey Dicks (1950, Stooges) – Louise Love at First Bite (1950, Stooges) – Katrina Innocently Guilty (1950, Bert Wheeler) – Helen Three Hams on Rye (1950, Stooges) – Janeybelle A Blunderful Time (1950, Andy Clyde) – Betty Lou Studio Stoops (1950, Stooges) – Dolly Devore Wine, Women and Bong (1951, Max Baer & Maxie Rosenbloom) – Blonde She Took a Powder (1951, Vera Vague) – Sandra The Gink at the Sink (1952, Hugh Herbert) – Pearl Bubble Trouble (1953, Stooges) - Serena Oh, Say Can You Sue (1953, Andy Clyde) – Betty Wilson Doggie in the Bedroom (1954, Wally Vernon & Eddie Quillan) – Mrs. Vernon Pals and Gals (1954, Stooges) – Nell Knutzy Knights (1954, Stooges) – Princess Elaine The Fire Chaser (1954, Joe Besser) – Mae Knott Scotched in Scotland (1954, Stooges) – Lorna Doone Of Cash and Hash (1955, Stooges) – Gladys Harmon (final film role)

After Christine McIntyre left Columbia's employ, old film footage with McIntyre was edited into the following comedies: Hot Ice (1955, Stooges) – Bea (archive footage) Husbands Beware (1956, Stooges) – Lulu Hopkins (archive footage) For Crimin' Out Loud (1956, Stooges) – Goodrich's Niece (archive footage) Hot Stuff (1956, Stooges) – Hazel Sneed (archive footage) Scheming Schemers (1956, Stooges) – Mrs. Allen (archive footage) Fifi Blows Her Top (1958, Stooges) – Katrina (archive footage) Stop! Look! and Laugh! (1960, feature-length compilation of Stooge shorts) – Alice Andrews (Van Doren) (uncredited) (archive footage)

Other films

Sea Racketeers (1937) – Mrs. Wilbur Crane The Rangers' Round-Up (1938) – Mary Missing Daughters (1939) – Ruth (uncredited) Blondie Takes a Vacation (1939) – Resort Singer (of 'Love in Bloom') (uncredited) The Gunman from Bodie (1941) – Alice Borden Forbidden Trails (1941) – Mary Doran Man from Headquarters (1942) – Telegraph Girl The Power of God (1942) – Charlotte Hale Rock River Renegades (1942) – Grace Ross Riders of the West (1942) – Hope Turner Dawn on the Great Divide (1942) – Mary Harkins Cinderella Swings It (1943) – Secretary Border Buckaroos (1943) – Betty Clark The Stranger from Pecos (1943) – Ruth Martin Beautiful But Broke (1944) – Telephone Operator (uncredited) Partners of the Trail (1944) – Kate Hilton Louisiana Hayride (1944) – Christine – Female Star (uncredited) West of the Rio Grande (1944) – Alice Darcy Kansas City Kitty (1944) – Hat Check Girl (uncredited) Men in Her Diary (1945) – Ms. Simmons (uncredited) The Crimson Canary (1945) – Anita's Roommate (uncredited) Frontier Feud (1945) – Blanche Corey Behind the Mask (1946) – Minor Role (uncredited) The Gentleman from Texas (1946) – Flo Vickert Valley of Fear (1947) – Joan Travers Land of the Lawless (1947) – Kansas City Kate The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (1947) – Miss Blair – Lingerie Dept. Manager (uncredited) News Hounds (1947) – Jane P. Connelly Gun Talk (1947) – Daisy Cameron A Modern Marriage (1950) – Nurse Corky of Gasoline Alley (1951) – Myrtle Colorado Ambush (1951) – Mae Star Dead or Alive'' (1951) – Spangles Calhoun