Spread over 10,000-square-feet across
three floors, the Stoogeum is the brainchild of
Gary Lassin, who married into Fine’s family in
1981, becoming grandnephew-in-law to the
Stooge born in Philadelphia in 1902 as Louis
Fineberg. Fine died in 1975, so Lassin didn’t
get to meet one of his idols.

Lassin was collecting baseball cards at the
time when he first met Fine’s brother. A look at some Stooges
memorabilia sent him into a different direction. And when years
of collecting left Lassin with boxes upon boxes of material, he
figured there had to be a better way to showcase his wares.

The Stoogeum opened to the public in 2004.

Although the museum is open only on Thursdays from 10
a.m. to 3 p.m. because of limited staffing, it draws a few thousand
visitors annually.

Lassin explained why the Stooges remain popular.

“They make you feel good about yourself — look at how dumb
these guys are,” he said, comparing it to when a Wheel of Fortune
contestant can’t solve a puzzle that has only one letter blank, leav-
ing viewers at home shouting out the answer in dismay.

Then there’s the Stooges’ ability to get away with things the
average person can’t. After all, dropping dynamite at your feet and
walking away only with singed pants and soot on your face doesn’t
happen often.

“It’s almost a world of human cartoons,” Lassin said. “It’s a way
for grown-ups to get in touch with their inner kids. These are
cartoons with real people.”
What a lot of people don’t know about the
Stooges is the frequent use of Yiddish and
Hebrew words and phrases in their work.

Of the 190 shorts the Stooges made, Hebrew
or Yiddish is spoken in about 50 of them, said
Lassin, who chronicled the usage in a 2011
issue of The Three Stooges Journal he edits.

Sometimes it’s something as simple as
someone saying “mazel tov” or “l’chaim,” but occasionally it’s
more elaborate.

For example, in Mutts to You, Larry and Moe are dressed as
Chinese laundrymen when a police officer asks them where they
lived in China.

Larry responds with, “Ich bin a China boychik mit Slovakian
bayner. Hak mir nicht tscheinki and I don’t mean efhser.”
Translated: “I’m a Chinese boy with Slovakian bones. Don’t bother
me, get off my back and I don’t mean maybe.”
Considering the Stooges’ audience was widely gentile — and
probably didn’t know they were Jewish — why use Yiddish
and Hebrew, especially since the team members weren’t particu-
larly observant?
“My theory is if you weren’t Jewish and you heard a Jewish or
Yiddish term, you assumed it was gibberish — and gibberish is
funny,” Lassin said, noting that the Stooges spoke plenty of
straight gibberish, too.

They may not have been observant religiously, but Lassin said
off-screen the Stooges were mensches.

See Stoogeum, Page 8
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