Lou Costello
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| Lou Costello | |
| Born | Louis Francis Cristillo March 6, 1906 Paterson, New Jersey |
|---|---|
| Died | March 3, 1959 (aged 52) Sherman Oaks, California |
| Spouse(s) | Anne Battler (married 1934 until his death in 1959) |
Lou Costello (March 6, 1906 – March 3, 1959) was an American actor and comedian best known as half of the comedy team of Abbott and Costello, with Bud Abbott. Costello was famous for his bumbling, chubby, clean-cut image that has appealed to many Americans over the decades.
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[edit] Early years
Lou Costello was born Louis Francis Cristillo in Paterson, New Jersey to an Italian father and a mother of French and Irish descent.[1] The family was Catholic. A gifted athlete, he excelled in basketball and reportedly was once the New Jersey State Foul Shot champion. (His singular basketball prowess can be seen on film, in Here Come The Co-Eds (1945), in which Lou performs all his own tricky hoop shots without special effects.) He also fought as a boxer under the name "Lou King."[2] He changed his name to Costello based on the actress Helene Costello. "There was a girl named Helene Costello, and I took her name".[3]
In 1927 he went to Hollywood to become an actor, but could only find work as a laborer or extra at MGM and Warner Brothers. His athletic skill led him to occasional work as a stunt man, notably in The Trail of '98, (1927). He can also be spotted sitting ringside in the Laurel and Hardy film The Battle of the Century (1927).
[edit] Burlesque and Bud Abbott
Discouraged by his lack of success, in 1930 he hitchhiked back home but ran out of money in Saint Joseph, Missouri , during the Great Depression. He took a job as a Dutch-accented comic at a local burlesque theater. Changing his name to "Costello," he went back to New York and began working in vaudeville theater and burlesque there.[4]
Unlike many burlesque comics of the era, Costello did not use "off-color" material – a trait that continued for the rest of his career.
While working at vaudeville theaters in the 1930s, Costello became acquainted with a talented straight man named Bud Abbott. After working together sporadically, Abbott and Costello formally teamed up in 1936. They performed together in burlesque shows, minstrel shows, vaudeville and movie houses.
[edit] Radio and Hollywood
Abbott and Costello signed up with the William Morris Agency, which sought to enlarge the duo's stature by putting them on the radio.
In 1938 they received national exposure for the first time by becoming featured performers on "The Kate Smith Hour," a popular variety show. They were hugely successful, and that ultimately led to their appearance in a Broadway play and signing with Universal Studios in 1940.
They filled supporting roles in their first film, One Night in the Tropics (1940), but stole the film with their classic routines, including a much-shortened version of "Who's On First?". (A more complete version was given in The Naughty Nineties, released in 1945.) The duo became famous for that routine, in which Abbott enumerated the names of a mythical baseball team, whose members have last names of "Who" who plays first base, "What" on second base and "I don't know" on third which Bud never addresses as Mr. What and so forth which confounds Costello when addressed simply as "Who", "What" and "I don't know". This sketch made Abbott and Costello, among other things, to be recognized by, but not made members of, the Baseball Hall of Fame[5] with a plaque, gold record and transcript of this famous sketch included in the musuem collection, over their lessor known and more sadistic "Ninth Inning Steal" routine whereby Bud and Lou would rob an unsuspecting person by distracting them with a sensational Baseball game recounting, unaware that someone else has already robbed the intended target using the same distraction. A modified version of the "Ninth Inning Steal" is shown in the movie "Pardon My Sarong" when bus drivers Bud and Lou try to steal gas from a gas station attendent.
The team's breakout picture, however, was Buck Privates which was released early in 1941. They immediately became the top-ranking comedy stars in Hollywood and fans looked forward to each of their pictures as a major event. Costello's child-like demeanor was strictly acting, and he aggressively battled with the more easy-going Abbott as well as the studio. Universal upped the duo's salary, but refused Costello's demand to reverse the billing, saying that it had hired Abbott and Costello, not Costello and Abbott. Most movie-goers had never seen the duo's burlesque routines, and so their dated but hilarious material seemed fresh. Many of their films cast them as bumbling servicemen such as In The Navy (film) and Keep 'Em Flying. An amusing footnote to this is that the Japanese military showed these films to Japanese soldiers to demonstrate how inept American soldiers were.[citation needed]
[edit] Stardom
The duo made 36 films between 1940 and 1956, and were among the most popular and highest-paid entertainers in the world during World War II. Among their most popular films are Buck Privates, Hold That Ghost, Who Done It?, Pardon My Sarong, The Time of Their Lives, Buck Privates Come Home, Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein and Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man.
The team also appeared on radio throughout the 1940s. On October 8, 1942 the team launched their own weekly show on NBC sponsored by Camel cigarettes. They moved to ABC (the former NBC Blue Network) from 1947-49.
In 1951, the twosome became one of the rotating hosts of The Colgate Comedy Hour (Eddie Cantor and Bob Hope were among the others) and then, the following year, inaugurated their own situation comedy, The Abbott and Costello Show. Costello owned the half-hour series, with Abbott working on salary. The show, which was loosely adapted from their radio program, ran two seasons, from 1952 to 1954, but found a new life in syndicated rerun broadcast.
[edit] Family and death of son
On January 30, 1934, Lou Costello married Anne Battler, a burlesque dancer. Their first child, Patricia "Paddy" Costello was born in 1936, followed by Carole on December 23, 1938 and Lou Jr. (nicknamed "Butch") on November 6, 1942.
In March 1943, after completing the film "Hit The Ice", Costello had an attack of rheumatic fever and was unable to work for six months. Later that year on November 4, he returned to the team's popular radio show, but a tragic event shadowed his comeback that day. Upon arriving at the NBC studio, Lou received word that his infant son Lou Jr. accidentally drowned in the family pool. The baby was just two days short of his first birthday. Lou had asked his wife to keep Butch up that night so the boy could hear his Dad on the radio for the first time. Rather than cancel the broadcast, Lou said, "Wherever he is tonight, I want him to hear me," and went on with the show. No one in the audience knew of the death until after the show when Bud Abbott explained the events of the day, and how the phrase "The show must go on" had been epitomized by Lou that night.
In 1947, their last child, Christine, was born.
[edit] Split up
Abbott and Costello split up in July 1957, after troubles with the Internal Revenue Service that forced both men to sell off their large homes and the rights to some of their films. Costello then pursued a solo stand-up career, including stints in Las Vegas, and sought out film projects for himself. He appeared several times on Steve Allen's television show, but most often in variations of his old routines, with Louis Nye or Tom Poston taking on the straight man role.
[edit] Death
After making one solo film, The 30 Foot Bride of Candy Rock, Costello died of a heart attack on March 3, 1959, four days before his 53rd birthday. He was interred in the Calvary Cemetery in East Los Angeles, California. His last words as reported in the March 4, 1959 Los Angeles Times and Los Angeles Evening Mirror News were "I think I'll be more comfortable," according to a private nurse who was the only person in the room with him at the time.[6][7] The widely reported claim that he died in the presence of friends and that his last words were actually "that was the best ice-cream soda I ever tasted" appears to have been fabricated some time after the event, possibly as a dig against Costello's weight.[8]
That same year on December 5, Lou's wife Anne died at age 47. Their second daughter, Carole, died on March 29, 1987 at age 49.
[edit] Memorials
On June 26, 1992, the city of Paterson, New Jersey in conjunction with the Lou Costello Memorial Association erected a statue of Lou Costello in the newly named Lou Costello Memorial Park in the city's historic downtown section. The statue has had brief appearances in two episodes of The Sopranos: "Big Girls Don't Cry" and "Cold Stones".
In 2005, Madison Street, in the Sandy Hill section of Paterson, where Costello was born, was renamed Lou Costello's Place.
The centennial of Costello's birth was celebrated in Paterson on the first weekend in March, 2006.
Between June 24, 2006 and June 26, 2006, the Fort Lee Film Commission of Lou Costello's native state of New Jersey held a centennial film retrospective at the Fine Arts Theatre in Hollywood. Films screened included the premiere of a digital film made by the teenagers of the present day Lou Costello Jr. Recreation Center in East Los Angeles. Also premiered was the 35mm restored print of the Lou Costello produced 1948 short film 10,000 Kids and a Cop, which was shot at the Lou Costello Jr. Youth Center in East Los Angeles.
[edit] Filmography
[edit] Television
March 21, 1958 General Electric Theater, episode Blaze of Glory.
October 22, 1958 Wagon Train, episode The Tobias Jones Story.
[edit] References
- ^ http://www.louandbud.com/Lou.htm, accessed January 30, 2007
- ^ Costello, Chris: "Lou's on First", page 7. St. Martin's Press, 1981
- ^ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c8v0xBFJMOI&feature=related, This is your life, 1956
- ^ Costello, 14-17
- ^ http://www.baseballhalloffame.org/hofers_and_honorees/faq.htm, accessed January 30, 2007.
- ^ Cover of Los Angeles Times, March 4, 1959.
- ^ Cover of Los Angeles Evening Mirror News, March 4, 1959.
- ^ dying words of famous people - famous last words
