BORN 1912 • DIED-
Born to Russian immigrants in Brooklyn, New York, Warren Dmitriev made the most of his meager upbringing. In 1924, at the age of twelve, Dmitriev snuck into a vaudeville show featuring that act “Ted Healy and His Stooges,” which impressed him so much he began to incessantly imitate the act’s three central performers, brothers Moe and Shemp Howard, along with comedian Larry Fine. In light of this admiration, his friends gave him the nickname “Stooge,” a moniker he appreciated and lived up to whenever possible.
The real-life circumstances of the Dmitriev family’s existence, however, were as far from the glamor of vaudeville as they were from their origins back in Russia. Helping his family where he could by taking odd jobs, the young Dmitriev soon turned to petty crimes such as shoplifting. After an arrest at the age of sixteen, he was sent to the New York Juvenile Asylum (later the Children’s Village) in Dobbs Ferry. Unfortunately, while inside, Dmitriev received a first-class education in the arts of crime and confidence rather than the desired rehabilitation.
Dmitriev’s late teens and early twenties proved a mixture of successful burglaries and arrests, culminating in one particular judge offering him a stern ultimatum: one more arrest and he would be sent to Sing Sing as an adult offender. Heading the judge’s warning, along with the pleas of his long-suffering parents, Dmitriev accepted a position with the Caduceus Foundation — a medical aid organization based in New York — to accompany a team into the jungles of Bolivia. It was in this dark expanse that Dmitriev’s life would change forever.
The Friends of Prospero
Peru: Episode VIII • Peru: Episode VII • Peru: Episode VI • Peru: Episode V • Peru: Episode IV • Peru: Episode III • Peru: Episode II • Peru: Episode I
The Two-Headed Serpent
Coming soon…
