T
he Philadelphia area doesn’t lack for museums, both
traditional and offbeat — the Philadelphia Museum of
Art and the Insectarium, to name two — but don’t over-
look the Stoogeum.

Whether you’re a fan of The Three Stooges (which means you
probably have X and Y chromosomes) or not (meaning you likely
have two X chromosomes), the Stoogeum (stoogeum.com) in
Ambler offers a well-curated collection of 100,000 items of
memorabilia, documents, photographs, movie props and artwork
of the trio, as well as a theater for viewing the comedy classics of
the famous knuckleheads.

Those knuckleheads made 190 short films, as well as a few
feature films, in a career that got its start in the vaudeville-era
1920s and lasted into the 1960s. Despite all its members being
long dead, black-and-white Three Stooges shorts can still some-
times be seen on TV, and a new movie that was a loving reimagi-
nation of their antics hit theaters in 2012.

Five of the six men who played Stooges were Jewish, the
exception being Joe “Curly Joe” DeRita, a Stooge from well past
the team’s heyday. But mainstays Moe Howard, Curly Howard,
Larry Fine and Shemp Howard were all Jewish, as was short-
timer Joe Besser.

THREE STOOGES: COLUMBIA PICTURES/PILLSBURY/WIKIPEDIA; SHOE PRINTS: LARRYRAINS/ISTOCK/THINKSTOCK.COM; SIGN (FACING PAGE): ANDY GOTLIEB
6 JUNE 8, 2017
THIS SUMMER
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