Nyuking it up at Ambler Theater

Decades and generations later, funny is still funny.

Take The Three Stooges, for example, which a full house of fans of all ages did recently at the Ambler Theater.

For the fifth year, The Three Stooges Fan Club and its president, Gary Lassin of Gwynedd Valley, hosted a Stooges film festival at the theater.

Gary had told me in an interview to preview the event that when the Stooges filmed these “shorts” — named so because they ran from 16 to 18 minutes long as opposed to full-length feature films from the 1930s and 1940s — they were intended to be seen on the big screen rather than on television, because, well, there was no television at the time.

Television would later introduce the Stooges to another generation of fans in the 1960s and 1970s, when the short films were deemed perfect small-screen vehicles. The end result is that few baby-boomers and those younger have experienced the Stooges as they were intended to be seen — on the big screen.



So hats off to the Ambler Theater for providing local Stooges fans the opportunity to do just that.
Gary had suggested that it was a different experience to watch the Stooges with a theater full of people than it was to sit at home and nyuk it up by oneself while watching the Stooges on TV.
And he was right. The antics of the Stooges cracked up the crowd — and me, of course — especially that tried and true Stooges routine — the pie fight. People in the theater were not just giggling, but hooting, har-dee-har-har belly laughing.

Despite having seen them many times over the years, I enjoyed the five films that were shown — interspersed with comments from Gary about the history of each film and some things to watch for, like bloopers — but there was an exchange before the show started that I enjoyed even more.

While I was sitting in the first row chatting with Gary beforehand, Gary’s parents walked down to the stage to greet him.

When I asked Mrs. Lassin if she was a fan before her son got heavily involved with the Stooges — Gary also is owner and curator of the Stoogeum, a museum of his personal collection of Stooges memorabilia in Springhouse — she replied, “Oh my, no.”

“She was one of the moms that didn’t mind the eye pokes on TV but insisted I didn’t run with scissors,” said Gary.

“I didn’t care what they did to each other,” replied Mrs. Lassin without missing a beat. “I cared about what happened to you.”

Soitenly spoken like a true mom.