Ambler’s Three Stooges Museum Featured in Canadian Newspaper

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3 Stooges
Photo of The Stoogeum curator Gary Lassin courtesy of the Southeast Missourian.

As Montgomery County slides forward into the January-February doldrums, it’s prime season for exploring some of its lesser-known sites of interest. One in Ambler is definitely a hidden gem, especially for fans of a particular brand of film comedy.

The Stoogeum, a Three Stooges Museum, is a shrine to the lovable numbskulls who were the heroes of 190 movie shorts from the 1930s to the 1950s. It was highlighted in a 2016 item in Toronto Sun by Mitchell Smyth.

But it’s no less a draw today.

The Stoogeum — a name derived from a blend of stooge and museum — is owned, managed, curated, and publicized by Gary Lassin.

Upon entering The Stoogeum, guests are greeted by life-size waxworks of Curly, Larry, and Moe dressed as bellhops.

From there the exhibits unfold to include posters, costumes, original props, scripts, foyer stills, memorabilia, toys, costumes, and and more. And once guests finish browsing, an in-museum theater runs a continuous string of shorts. Guests are welcome to sit and enjoy as many as they wish, as long as their cheekbones hold up to the constant grinning.

They all record the life and work of the men who delighted generations of boys of all ages in cinemas around the world. (DVD box sets of The Three Stooges sell well in the 21st Century.)

Lassin’s wife got him started on creating this memorial to the goofballs who punched, slapped, bit, gouged, kicked, and choked each other, while (as Curly might say) “moidering da King’s English.”

“When I met Robin, the girl who would become my wife, I asked about her family,” said Lassin, 67. “She evaded the question and I thought, ‘Is there a serial killer in the family?’ Finally, she told me that her ‘Uncle Larry’ — actually her great uncle — was Larry Fine of The Three Stooges, and she’d always been afraid of him ‘because he was always hurting people, or getting hurt.’”

According to Smyth, Larry’s brother was Robin’s grandfather, Morris Feinberg, and he had a lot of Stooges memorabilia. He later gave it to Lassin, and it became the nucleus of his collection, which grew as he scoured auction houses, collectible stores, and junk shops. When his collection outgrew his home and his garage in 2004, he opened the Stoogeum.

Lassin now has about 100,000 items, he says, but only 3,500 are on display.

Apart from artifacts connected with the movies, the galleries display such Stooges items as comic books, cereal box covers, jigsaw puzzles, board games, hand puppets, lunch boxes, action figures, and a pinball machine.

Click here to read more about The Stoogeum in the Toronto Sun.

Owing to safety concerns from the pandemic, Stoogeum hours were trimmed significantly, and even though health concerns have eased, it is still accessible only by appointment. Arrangements for visits are handled by a Stoogeum online form.

Editor’s Note: This MONTCO.Today post ran originally on June 1, 2016; it has been verified as accurate.

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