Moe Howard’s Garage Was Finally Opened...And What They Found Inside Was Shocking

The Archive Behind the “Garage Discovery”

The video reveals that the “shocking garage discovery” wasn’t a garage at all: it was Moe Howard’s long-guarded personal archive, much of which his family had kept for decades. When more than 1,100 items from the collection went up for auction in 2019, they offered a striking contrast to Moe’s famous screen persona as the Three Stooges’ short-tempered bully.

Moe Howard’s Life and Career

The story traces Moe’s life from his Brooklyn childhood and early vaudeville days to the Stooges’ long run at Columbia Pictures. The group made nearly 200 short films, but the video describes how the studio kept them on the same terms for years, while Moe carefully saved contracts and other paperwork.

It also recalls the physical toll of slapstick and the family grief behind the comedy. Curly suffered a devastating stroke in 1946, and Moe helped care for him while continuing to work. Shemp and, later, Larry also died before Moe.

What the Archive Revealed

The archive included scripts, posters, photographs, props, and personal papers. Among its most revealing items were Moe’s handwritten comedy notes and drafts, contracts bearing Curly’s signature, and the unfinished autobiography that Moe’s daughter Joan later completed.

A 1935 Stooges poster sold for $37,500, but the video argues that the collection’s real value was what it showed about Moe beyond the movies.

Especially affecting were the love poems Moe wrote to his wife, Helen, over many years—including one sent from a Boston hotel—and poems for his daughter Joan. The video also recounts a family story about Moe calling Helen on their tenth anniversary and playfully conducting a mock wedding ceremony over the phone before singing their wedding song. Home-movie footage of Curly’s wedding offered another glimpse of the shy, smiling man behind the comic persona.

The Archive’s Legacy

Joan became the archive’s longtime guardian, preserving her father’s papers and completing his memoir. After she died in 2021, another group of family items—including Curly’s ring and a rooftop weathervane depicting the Stooges’ famous eye-poking pose—was auctioned in 2022.

The video closes by suggesting that Moe saved the records because they documented the private life that the cameras never showed.

People Featured or Mentioned

Moe Howard, Helen Howard, Joan Howard Maurer, Paul Howard, Shemp Howard, Curly Howard, Larry Fine, Joe DeRita, Ted Healy, Harry Cohn, Lucille Ball, Norman Maurer, and Jeffrey Scott.