©2006 The Chestnut Hill Local

The ultimate fan opens ‘Three Stooges’ museum
by JIM WEAVER

Gary Lassin is seen in front of his “Stoogeum.” (Photo by Jim Weaver)

Movie memorabilia is widely collected, but few collections come anywhere near that of Gary Lassin’s in terms of size and scope. Lassin, 51, who lives in nearby Gwynedd Valley, has been collecting Three Stooges’ memorabilia for more than 25 years and has amassed upwards to 20,000 items, which he proudly displays in his “Stoogeum” (Stooges Museum). He has another 50,000 photographs and news clippings in ring binders, an impressive Stooges archive. It is the world’s largest collection of Three Stooges memorabilia.

Lassin is president of The Three Stooges Fan Club, Inc., an international organization with more than 2,000 members, when he is not working his “day job” as vice-president of finance for a mail order catalogue company. The organization’s annual conventions, which draw as many as 400 participants, are held at a hotel near the Stoogeum so club members and guests are able to visit. Otherwise, the three-story contemporary design-museum with an 85-seat film theater is open only by appointment. Located at the rear of a small office complex in Springhouse, Stoogeum is a private haven for those who truly appreciate the trio’s comedic genius.

Today most people know the Three Stooges from their frequent appearance on television over the past 40 years in reruns of their movies from the 1930s and ‘40s, but the trio made their mark first in vaudeville. (You can still see them on a Spike TV series called Stooges Slap-Happy Hour) The Stooges got their name and their start in an act called Ted Healy and His Stooges in 1922. Brothers Harry (Moe) and Samuel Howard (Shemp; original last name Horwitz) were later joined by violinist Larry Fine (Louis Feinberg). Ted Healy and His Stooges appeared in Hollywood feature films, such as Soup to Nuts. When Shemp left the act in 1931, Moe’s baby brother, Jerome (Curly) was recruited. The act continued until 1934.

The same year, The Three Stooges (as the Howard brothers and Fine renamed their act) signed with Columbia Pictures to appear in a series of two-reel (18- minute) comedy shorts. The Stooges went on to star in 190 film shorts over the next 23 years, the longest such series in history.

When Curly suffered a stroke in 1946 during the filming of Half-Wits’ Holiday, his brother Shemp rejoined the act to take Curly’s place. With Shemp on board, the Stooges went on to appear in 77 more shorts. When Shemp died of a sudden heart attack in 1955, archived footage combined with new footage of a stand-in were used to finish his contract. Joe Besser replaced Shemp in 1956 and 1957, appearing in 16 shorts. Unfortunately, the market for short comedy films had all but disappeared when Besser joined the trio. Columbia Pictures fired the trio in 1957 at the end of production of their final short, Flying Saucer Daffy.

In 1958, Columbia syndicated the entire Stooges’ film library to television, and the Stooges were rediscovered by the baby boomers. A “Stooge fandom” quickly developed, and Howard and Fine found themselves back in public demand. When Besser withdrew from the act, Moe quickly signed Joe DeRita as his replacement. DeRita shaved his head and became “Curly-Joe” because of his resemblance to the original Curly Howard. Throughout their career, Moe was the heart and soul of the troupe, acting as both its main creative force and business manager.

Lassin was a fan of the Stooges’ films as a young person (he grew up in Cheltenham and attended Cheltenham High School), but it was not until he met his future wife, Robin, that he began collecting. He discovered that her maternal grandfather was a brother of Larry Fine and had a small collection of Stooges memorabilia. None of his children were interested in the items, so he gave them to Lassin, who quickly got hooked.

“I soon became a Jenny Horwitz (Moe and Shemp’s mom),” said Lassin. “I had a mother’s scrapbook mind-set and collected anything and everything about my boys.” Working with a Philadelphia architectural firm that specializes in museum design, Lassin created an professional museum space to present his substantial collection. The Stoogeum opened in 2004.

When a person enters the building, he hears the familiar “Hello! Hello! Hello! — Hello!” a recorded greeting from the Stooges themselves. “I wanted the experience to begin the moment you walk in the door,” Lassin said.

The Stoogeum features customized arcade games, a bubble gum machine, wallpaper comic strips, theater lobby poster cards, and an entire wall of comic book covers. “Numskull Lane” leads to a room of movie posters. The third-floor art gallery has a room-size mural of Moe, Larry, Curly and Shemp painted on the ceiling. “It’s the Stooges looking down from heaven,” Lassin explains. This extensive exhibit also contains drawings of the Stooges by Al Hirshfield of the New York Times and Mort Drucker of Mad Magazine.

The Stooges’ supporting players are honored with their own exhibit. The feature films the Stooges made in the 1960s are also included with posters, photos, costumes and movie props. There are hundreds of toys and games and other merchandise bearing the Stooges’ name and images. There’s even a personal memorial with life-size cutout images for each Stooge plus troupe founder Ted Healy. Behind each figure is a collection of items like a driver’s license, letters, awards and family photos.

Wax museum-like replicas of the Stooges as bellhops in Idle Roomers (1944) greet visitors to the second floor gallery. Lassin tells how the burglar alarm went off one night in the pitch-black, and the investigating officer pulled his pistol on the exhibit. Now the alarm also turns on the lights.

As head of the Stooges Fan Club, Lassin publishes a 16-page quarterly newsletter, The Three Stoogies Journal, and arranges the club’s annual convention and other events. Actors who performed with the trio and Stooges’ family members are often invited guests at club functions. To contact the museum or fan club, write Stoogeum, P.O. Box 747, Gwynedd Valley, Pa 19437 or call 267-468-0810. Lassin’s email is garystooge@aol.com.

Lassin believes that interest in the Three Stooges will continue to grow. “Their wacky comedy is just as funny today as it was 70 years ago,” he said, “and there’s a whole new generation of people who will discover it and grow to love it.”