No Census, No Feeling

Just before the boys go to the football game, they hear a commotion in the distance. Curly Howard says, "Maybe it's the Fourth of July!" Moe Howard replies, "The Fourth of July in October?" Curly answers, "You never can tell. Look what they did to Thanksgiving." This reference is lost on most people today, but before 1939 Thanksgiving was not a fixed date, it relied on a Presidential Thanksgiving Proclamation each year. President Abraham Lincoln began the national holiday in 1863 and most people were used to Thanksgiving being the last Thursday of November. In 1939 (the year before this short was released), President Franklin D. Roosevelt changed the date of the national holiday, much to the disagreement of many states' governors and their citizens. This change added an extra week of holiday shopping, which pleased business leaders. The move was quite controversial and it wasn't until the end of 1941 that Congress passed a law to settle the dispute and establish the "fourth Thursday" of November as Thanksgiving Day.

While entering the kitchen with Curly, Moe sat down at the table with his census folder. After a few pokes and slaps, he exited the kitchen without it, leaving it laying on the table. He then immediately entered the living room with folder in hand.

Edited into The Three Stooges: Volume VIII (1982)