As a little girl, Kris Cutler saw her grandfather Larry Fine every Friday. “He’d pick me up from school, we’d go shopping at Hughes Market, and he’d make me a hamburger,” Kris, a proud, self-professed “pal of Larry Fine” tells Closer. “He made good hamburgers. He was also kind, wonderful and loving. He just spoiled me.”
Kris wasn’t the only one. Larry, who was born Louis Feinberg in Philadelphia and found fame as one of the Three Stooges, took great care of the people lucky enough to come into his circle. “During the war, my mother told me he’d bring soldiers home, feed them and give them a place to stay,” Kris says. “He’d do anything for anybody.”
Larry had a special place in his heart for his wife, Mabel, whom he met on the vaudeville circuit in 1922. “She was a dancer and singer who came from Ireland with her sisters,” says Kurt Lamond, Larry’s great-grandson, who runs shopknuckleheads.com, the official Three Stooges store. “They had a big act, but after she got married to Larry, she stopped and became a homemaker.”
Granddaughter Kris recalls going out with her grandfather to buy candy or other gifts for Mabel. “Oh, he adored her. He’d get her anything she wanted. You know, if it’s 3 in the morning and she said, ‘I want Chinese food,’ he’d go out and get her Chinese food.”
The couple enjoyed entertaining, although their parties could get out of hand. “They would always have a big Thanksgiving dinner,” says Kurt, recounting the family legend about the time the couple disagreed about the turkey. “Larry pulled it out of the oven, but Mabel said it wasn’t done,” says Kurt. “They’re both tugging at it when all of a sudden, the turkey flies out of the pan, slides through the swinging doors and lands at the base of the dining table. Larry walks out, puts his hands in the air and says, ‘Dinner’s ready!’”
The Three Stooges Were Like Family
Larry wasn’t related to the other members of the Three Stooges, but they were a family. “We’d go to Mo [Howard’s] house for barbecues,” recalls Kris. “He’d come over and say: ‘You see these bags under my eyes? That’s where I keep my money.’” The Three Stooges were tight, on screen and off. “They had dinners together once a week,” says Kurt. “They really were a very close-knit family group.”
That meant the world to Larry, who liked to be surrounded by the people he loved at all times. “We used to go to baseball games. We’d always go out to eat with the family,” says Kris. “He was very giving, and he’d tell me, ‘Family is the most important thing.’”
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