Christine McIntyre

Appearances in a large number of B-Westerns followed and McIntyre would probably have remained just another prairie flower had she not caught the eye of Columbia producer Hugh McCollom. Not so different at first from the host of pretty girls who decorated the Columbia comedy shorts, McIntyre soon developed into a first-rate comedienne, with an operatic voice to boot. The erudite McCollum persuaded Stooges director Edward Bernds to create Micro-Phonies (1945) for her, with McIntyre was perfectly cast as an aspiring vocalist whose rendition of "The Voice of Spring" is spoiled by the irreverent trio. Micro-Phonies proved one of the year's best Stooges shorts and the die was cast. Alternately playing ingenues and femme fatales, Christine McIntyre was almost regarded as the fourth Stooge and stayed with the department until 1954, longer if one counts her many subsequent appearances via stock footage. "Of all the people I worked with, Christine was one of my favorites," Stooges veteran Emil Sitka said, not long before his death in 1998. Director Edward Bernds concurred: "She was so nice, so sweet; a real joy. She had the rare ability of indulging in the zany antics and still remaining a real lady, which is what she was." The seemingly indefatigable McIntyre also managed to squeeze a series of Johnny Mack Brown Westerns into her busy schedule, but mainstream stardom eluded her and she retired in the mid-'50s to marry J. Donald Wilson, a radio director/producer. Although she relished talking about her many B-Westerns, McIntyre flatly refused to discuss her work with the Stooges. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide