Abbott and Costello

File:Abbott and Costello.jpg

Abbott (right) and Costello, 1942

William "Bud" Abbott and Lou Costello (born Louis Francis Cristillo), were an American comedy duo whose work in vaudeville and on stage, radio, film and television made them the most popular comedy team during the 1940s and 1950s. Their patter routine "Who's on First?" is considered one of the greatest comedy routines of all time and set the framework for many of their best-known comedy bits.

Early years

Bud Abbott (1897–1974) was a veteran burlesque entertainer from a show business family. He worked at Coney Island and ran his own burlesque touring companies. At first he worked as a straight man to his wife Betty, then with veteran burlesque comedians like Harry Steppe and Harry Evanson. When he met his future partner in comedy, Abbott was performing in Minsky's Burlesque shows.

Lou Costello (1906–1959) had been a burlesque comic since 1930 after failing to break into movie acting and working as a stunt double and film extra. He appears briefly in the 1927 Laurel and Hardy silent two-reeler, The Battle of the Century, seated at ringside during Stan's ill-fated boxing match. As a teenager, Costello had been an amateur boxer in his hometown of Paterson, New Jersey.

The two men first worked together in 1935 at the Eltinge Burlesque Theater on 42nd Street—now the lobby of the AMC Empire movie complex in New York City. When AMC moved the old theater 168 ft (51 m) west on 42nd Street to its current location, giant balloons of Abbott and Costello were rigged to appear to pull it.

Other performers in the show, including Abbott's wife Betty, advised a permanent pairing. The duo built an act by refining and reworking numerous burlesque sketches into the long-familiar presence of Abbott as the devious straight man and Costello as the stumbling, dimwitted laugh-getter.

Movies and fame

The team's first known radio appearance was on The Kate Smith Hour in February 1938. Initially, the similarities between their voices made it difficult for listeners (as opposed to stage audiences) to tell them apart due to their rapid-fire repartee. The problem was solved by having Costello affect a high-pitched childish voice. "Who's on First?" was first performed for a national radio audience the following month. They stayed on the program as regulars for two years, while landing roles in a Broadway revue, The Streets of Paris, in 1939.

In 1940 Universal Studios signed them for the film One Night in the Tropics. Cast in supporting roles, they stole the show with several classic routines, including "Who's on First?" The same year they were a summer replacement on radio for Fred Allen. Two years later, they had their own NBC show.

Universal signed them to a long-term contract, and their second film, Buck Privates (1941), made them box-office stars and saved Universal from imminent bankruptcy. In most of their films, the plot was a framework for the two comics to reintroduce comedy routines they first performed on stage. Universal also added glitzy production numbers to capitalize on the musical-comedy film genre of the day which featured The Andrews Sisters, Ted Lewis and his Orchestra, Ella Fitzgerald, Martha Raye, The Merry Macs, and Dick Foran, singing "I'll Remember April" in Ride 'Em Cowboy. Several of their films featured some of the most popular hits of World War Two, including The Andrews Sisters' Oscar-nominated "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy", as well as "I'll Be With You In Apple Blossom Time", both from Buck Privates. Bud & Lou's sequel, In the Navy, featured crooner Dick Powell along with The Andrews Sisters, and it initially out-grossed Buck Privates. Management at Loew's Criterion in Manhattan kept theater doors open until 5 a.m. to oblige over 49,000 attendees during the first premiere week of In the Navy. Hold That Ghost was completed before production of In the Navy began, but when shown to preview audiences, film-goers that completed feedback cards were disappointed not to see The Andrews Sisters, so the trio was hired and musical numbers were added as a prologue and epilogue. The singing sisters became good friends with Costello during this period, enjoying many barbecues and film showings with their parents at Lou's home throughout the early 1940s. In 1945, both acts traded guest appearances on each other's top-rated radio shows.

Bud and Lou made 36 films together between 1940 and 1956. Abbott and Costello were among the most popular and highest-paid entertainers in the world during World War II. Other film successes included Keep 'Em Flying, 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.

In 1942, Abbott and Costello were the top box office draw with four films earning a total of $10 million. They remained a top ten box office attraction until 1952.

Radio

After working as Allen's summer replacement, Abbott and Costello joined Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy on The Chase and Sanborn Hour in 1941, while two of their films (Buck Privates and Hold That Ghost) were adapted for Lux Radio Theater. They launched their own weekly show October 8, 1942, sponsored by Camel cigarettes.

The Abbott and Costello Show mixed comedy with musical interludes (by vocalists such as Connie Haines, Ashley Eustis, the Delta Rhythm Boys, Skinnay Ennis, and the Les Baxter Singers). Regulars and semi-regulars on the show included Artie Auerbach ("Mr. Kitzel"), Elvia Allman, Iris Adrian, Mel Blanc, Wally Brown, Sharon Douglas, Verna Felton, Sidney Fields, Frank Nelson, Martha Wentworth, and Benay Venuta. Ken Niles was the show's longtime announcer, doubling as an exasperated foil to Abbott and Costello's mishaps (and often fuming in character as Costello routinely insulted his on-air wife). Niles was succeeded by Michael Roy, with announcing chores also handled over the years by Frank Bingman and Jim Doyle. The show went through several orchestras during its radio life, including those of Ennis, Charles Hoff, Matty Matlock, Matty Malneck, Jack Meakin, Will Osborne, Fred Rich, Leith Stevens, and Peter van Steeden. The show's writers included Howard Harris, Hal Fimberg, Parke Levy, Don Prindle, Eddie Cherkose (later known as Eddie Maxwell), Leonard B. Stern, Martin Ragaway, Paul Conlan, and Eddie Forman, as well as producer Martin Gosch. Sound effects were handled primarily by Floyd Caton. Guest stars were plentiful, including Frank Sinatra, The Andrews Sisters, and Lucille Ball.

In 1947 Abbott and Costello moved the show to ABC (the former NBC Blue Network). During their time on ABC, the duo also hosted a 30-minute children's radio program (The Abbott and Costello Children's Show), which aired Saturday mornings, featuring child vocalist Anna Mae Slaughter and child announcer Johnny McGovern.

Television

Abbott and Costello on "This Is Your Life"

In 1951, they moved to television as rotating hosts of The Colgate Comedy Hour. (Eddie Cantor and Martin and Lewis were among the others.) Each show was a live hour of vaudeville in front of an audience, revitalizing the comedians' performances and giving their old routines a new sparkle.

Beginning late in 1952, a filmed half-hour series, The Abbott and Costello Show, appeared in syndication on local stations across the United States. Loosely based on their radio series, the show cast the duo as unemployed wastrels. One of the show's running gags involved Abbott perpetually nagging Costello to get a job to pay their rent, while Abbott barely lifted a finger in that direction. The show featured Sidney Fields as their landlord, and Hillary Brooke as a friendly neighbor who sometimes got involved in the pair's schemes. Other semi-regulars were future Stooge Joe Besser as Stinky, a 40-year-old sissy dressed in a Little Lord Fauntleroy suit, and Gordon Jones as Mike the cop, who always lost patience with Lou.

The simple plot lines were often merely an excuse to recreate old comedy routines including "Who's on First?" and other familiar set pieces from their films and burlesque days. Since Lou owned the series, this allowed them to own these versions of their classic routines as well. The Abbott and Costello Show ran two seasons, but found a larger viewership in reruns from the late 1960s to the 1990s. The shows have been released in three different DVD sets over the years.

Private lives

Both Abbott and Costello met and married women they knew in burlesque. Abbott married Betty Smith in 1918, and Costello married Anne Battler in 1934. The Costellos had four children; the Abbotts adopted two.

Abbott and Costello faced personal demons at times. Both were inveterate gamblers and had serious health problems. Abbott suffered from epilepsy and turned to alcohol for pain management. Costello had occasional, near-fatal bouts with rheumatic fever. On November 4, 1943, the same day that Costello returned to radio after a one year layoff due to his illness with rheumatic fever, his infant son, Lou Jr. (nicknamed "Butch" and born November 6, 1942), died in an accidental drowning in the family's swimming pool. Maxene Andrews remembers visiting Costello with sisters Patty and LaVerne during his illness, and she also remembered how Costello's demeanor changed after the tragic loss of his son, saying, "He didn't seem as fun-loving and as warm...He seemed to anger easily...there was a difference in his attitude."

During 1945, a rift developed when Abbott hired a domestic servant who had been fired by Costello. Angered by Abbott's decision, Costello refused to speak to his partner except when performing. The following year, they made two films in which they appeared as separate characters rather than as a team (Little Giant and The Time of Their Lives). This may have been a result of the tensions between them, plus the fact that their most recent films had not done well at the box office and Lou wanted to change the formula. Abbott allegedly resolved the rift when he volunteered to help with Costello's pet charity, a foundation for underprivileged children, and suggested naming it the Lou Costello Jr. Youth Foundation. The facility opened in 1947 and still serves the Boyle Heights district of Los Angeles.

Later years

In the 1950s Abbott and Costello's popularity waned as their place as filmdom's hottest comedy team was taken by Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis. Another reason for the decline was overexposure. Abbott and Costello's routines, already familiar, were now glutting the movie and television markets. Each year they made two new films, while Realart Pictures re-released most of their older hits; their filmed television series was widely syndicated, and the same routines appeared frequently on the Colgate program. (Writer Parke Levy told Jordan R. Young, in The Laugh Crafters: Comedy Writing in Radio and TV's Golden Age, that he was stunned to learn that Bud and Lou were afraid to perform new material.) They were forced to withdraw from Fireman Save My Child in 1954 due to Costello's health and were replaced by Hugh O'Brian and Buddy Hackett. Universal dropped the comedy team in 1955 after they could not agree on contract terms. In the early 1950s the Internal Revenue Service charged them for back taxes, forcing them to sell their homes and most of their assets, including the rights to most of their films.

In 1956 they made one independent film, Dance with Me, Henry, then formally dissolved their partnership in 1957. Lou Costello made about ten solo appearances on The Steve Allen Show and headlined in Las Vegas. He also appeared in episodes of GE Theater and Wagon Train. On March 3, 1959, not long after completing his lone solo film, The 30 Foot Bride of Candy Rock, Lou Costello died of a heart attack just days short of his 53rd birthday.

Bud Abbott attempted a comeback in 1960, teaming with Candy Candido. Although the new act received good reviews, Bud quit, saying, "No one could ever live up to Lou." Abbott made a solo appearance on an episode of GE Theater in 1961. In 1966 Bud voiced his character in a series of 156 five-minute Abbott and Costello cartoons made by Hanna-Barbera. Lou's character was voiced by Stan Irwin. Bud Abbott died of cancer on April 24, 1974.

Spin-offs

The cartoon series was not the first time Abbott and Costello were in animation. During the height of their popularity in the 1940s, Warner Bros.'s Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies animation unit produced 3 cartoons featuring the pair as cats or mice named "Babbit and Catstello". One of the cartoons, Bob Clampett's "A Tale of Two Kitties", introduced Tweety. The other cartoons are "A Tale of Two Mice" and "Mouse-Merized Cat." In all 3 cartoons, Tedd Pierce (normally a storyman/writer for the cartoons) and Mel Blanc, respectively, provide voice impressions of the comedy duo.

Caricature of the pair.

The revival of their former television series in syndicated reruns in the late 1960s and early 1970s helped spark renewed interest in the duo, as did the televising of many of their old film hits. In 1994, comedian Jerry Seinfeld—who says Abbott and Costello were strong influences on his work—hosted a television special Abbott and Costello Meet Jerry Seinfeld (the title refers to the duo's popular film series in which they met some of Universal's famed horror picture characters), on NBC; the special was said to have been seen in 20 million homes.

"Who's on First?"

Main article: Who's on First?

"Who's on First?" is Abbott and Costello's signature routine. (They, however, usually referred to it as "Baseball.") The sketch was based on other burlesque routines with similar wordplay. Depending upon the version, Abbott has organized a new baseball team and the players have nicknames, or he points out the proliferation of nicknames in baseball (citing St. Louis Cardinals sibling pitchers Dizzy and Daffy Dean) before launching the routine. The infielders' nicknames are Who (first base), What (second base) and I Don't Know (third base). The key to the routine is Lou Costello's unwavering confusion over pronouns and Bud Abbott's unwavering nonchalance.

Abbott and Costello began honing the routine shortly after teaming up in 1936 and performed it in vaudeville in 1937 and 1938. It was first heard by a national radio audience in March, 1938, when the team were regulars on the Kate Smith radio show. By then, John Grant had been writing or adapting other sketches for the team, and he may have helped expand "Who's On First?" prior to its radio debut. Grant stayed on as a writer for Abbott and Costello into the 1950s.

"Who's on First?" is believed to be available in as many as 20 versions, ranging from one minute to about 10 minutes. The team could time the routine at will, adding or deleting portions as needed for films, radio, or television. If they needed to fill four minutes, for example, Bud and Lou would do four minutes' worth of the baseball bit. The longest version is seen in "The Actors' Home," an episode of their filmed TV series, in which "Who's on First?" constitutes the second half of the program. A live performance commemorating the opening day of the Lou Costello, Jr. Youth Foundation, in 1947 was recorded, and has appeared on numerous comedy albums. The team's final performance of "Who's on First?" was seen on Steve Allen's TV variety show, in 1957.

In the full-length version of Who's on First, all of the positions are mentioned except right field.

For a radio performance on June 20, 1945, Bud Abbott was ill and was unable to perform on the Walgreens 44th anniversary special. Sidney Fields, in the his role as Professor Mellonhead, was the "fill-in" manager in the absence of Abbott and performed the straightman role with Lou Costello.

In popular culture

The comedy group The Credibility Gap performed a rock and roll update of "Who's on First?" using the names of rock groups The Who, The Guess Who, and Yes, recorded and released on their first album, "The Bronze Age of Radio". In the 1988 movie Rain Man, Dustin Hoffman's autistic character Raymond Babbitt recites an affectless "Who's on First?" as a defense mechanism. NBC's Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip (2006), a drama about life backstage at a television comedy series, used "Who's on First?" as a plot device.

Dinosaucers featured an episode called "Allo & Cos-Stego Meet the Abominable Snowman," which featured many Abbott and Costello references, including variations on "Who's on First?" and the Niagara Falls sketches.

In The West Wing first season episode "He Shall, from Time to Time...", White House Chief of Staff Leo McGarry refers to Sam Seaborn and Josh Lyman as Abbott and Costello.

Jerry Seinfeld is an avid fan and "The Old Man" (Season 4, Episode 18, aired 18 February 1993) featured a cantankerous old man named "Sid Fields," played by veteran actor Bill Erwin, as a tribute to Sidney Fields, the landlord from the Abbott & Costello TV show. The influence of Abbott & Costello on Seinfeld was discussed in a 1994 NBC program "Abbott and Costello Meet Jerry Seinfeld." In Episode 30, Kramer hears the famous Abbott & Costello line "His father was a mudder. His mother was a mudder."

In 2003 Montclair State University dedicated a student residential complex aptly named The Abbott and Costello Center on Clove Road in the Little Falls portion of the university's campus.

On the January 13, 2001 episode of Saturday Night Live host Charlie Sheen and SNL cast-member Rachel Dratch performed a modified version of "Who's On First?" in a vaudeville reminiscent sketch wherein the names "Who", "What" and "I Don't Know" were used in reference to prostitutes that perform only one specific service but no others, culminating in a joke where Sheen says "You know what, I don't give a damn," to which Dratch replies, "Oh, you mean my crack dealer."

In 2001, Australia's deputy Prime Minister Peter Costello was widely known to be expecting to take over from John Howard as PM. It was also widely rumoured that the Workplace Relations' Minister, Tony Abbott was making a play to take over Costello's position as deputy. The rumours, denials and public comments became almost comical leading the opposition leader Kim Beazley to comment in an ABC interview, "We've now apparently got on our hands the Abbott and Costello Show. The question is, who's on first?" The public responded by frequently referring to Abbott and Costello as "Abbott and Costello".

In Robin Hood: Men in Tights, a 1993 spoof comedy directed by Mel Brooks, Dick Van Patten played the part of the Abbot. At one point, a man who looked and sounded like Lou Costello (played by Chuck McCann) yelled "Hey, Abbott!", in exactly the same way Lou did in the Abbott and Costello movies, repeating a joke from Brooks' Robin Hood sitcom When Things Were Rotten in which Van Patten shouted the line.

In the 1999 episode of The Simpsons, "Marge Simpson in: 'Screaming Yellow Honkers'", Superintendent Chalmers and Principal Skinner try their hand at being Abbott and Costello, but Skinner botches the routine six seconds into the act with delivery of the line, "Not the pronoun but a player with the unlikely name of Who, is on first."

They were inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame in 2009.

In the Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode Fear, Itself, Buffy says, "If I were Abbott and Costello, this would be fairly traumatic," upon entering a frat house's Halloween party.

A TV movie called Bud and Lou, based on a book by Hollywood correspondent Bob Thomas, was broadcast in 1978. Starring Harvey Korman as Bud Abbott and Buddy Hackett as Lou Costello, the film told the duo's life story, focusing on Costello and portraying him as volatile and petty. Regarding this movie, Maxene Andrews explained, "He was certainly nothing like the character he was portrayed to be in the TV movie of the week. We'd go over to [Lou's] home on many weekends...Oh, and the good food they would put out for us!" Patty Andrews once said, "Lou had a dominating type of personality. And Bud was the second banana, as far as Lou was concerned. They were not like their onscreen personas at all."

In the Mother 3 fan translation, a comedy Boke and Tsukkomi pair are named Bud and Lou.

Filmography

Year	Movie	Lou Costello Role	Bud Abbott Role	Notes
1940	One Night in the Tropics	Costello	Abbott	Film Debut, Universal
1941	Buck Privates	Herbie Brown	Slicker Smith	Universal
1941	In the Navy	Pomeroy Watson	Smokey Adams	Universal
1941	Hold That Ghost	Ferdinand Jones	Chuck Murray	Universal
1941	Keep 'Em Flying	Heathcliffe	Blackie Benson	Universal
1942	Ride 'Em Cowboy	Willoughby	Duke	Universal
1942	Rio Rita	Wishy Dunn	Doc	First of three films for Metro Goldwyn Mayer Studios
1942	Pardon My Sarong	Wellington Phlug	Algy Shaw	Universal
1942	Who Done It?	Mervyn Milgrim	Chick Larkin	Universal
1943	It Ain't Hay	Wilbur Hoolihan	Grover Mickridge	Universal
1943	Hit the Ice	Tubby McCoy	Flash Fulton	Universal
1944	In Society	Albert Mansfield	Eddie Harrington	Universal
1944	Lost in a Harem	Harvey Garvey	Peter Johnson	Second M-G-M release
1945	Here Come the Co-Eds	Oliver Quackenbush	Slats McCarthy	Universal
1945	The Naughty Nineties	Sebastian Dinwiddie	Dexter Broadhurst	Who's On First? from this film is featured at the National Baseball Hall of Fame, Universal
1945	Abbott and Costello in Hollywood	Abercrombie	Buzz Kurtis	Third and final M-G-M studio release
1946	Little Giant	Benny Miller	John Morrison/Tom Chandler	Universal
1946	The Time of Their Lives	Horatio Prim	Cuthbert/Dr. Greenway	Universal
1947	Buck Privates Come Home	Herbie Brown	Slicker Smith	Sequel to Buck Privates, Universal
1947	The Wistful Widow of Wagon Gap	Chester Wooley	Duke Egan	Universal
1948	The Noose Hangs High	Tommy Hinchcliffe	Ted Higgins	Eagle-Lion release
1948	Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein	Wilbur Gray	Chick Young	Universal
1948	Mexican Hayride	Joe Bascom/Humphrey Fish	Harry Lambert	Universal
1949	Africa Screams	Stanley Livington	Buzz Johnson	United Artists release
1949	Abbott and Costello Meet the Killer, Boris Karloff	Freddie Phillips	Casey Edwards	Universal
1950	Abbott and Costello in the Foreign Legion	Lou Hotchkiss	Bud Jones	Universal
1951	Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man	Lou Francis	Bud Alexander	Universal
1951	Comin' Round the Mountain	Wilbert Smith	Al Stewart	Universal
1952	Jack and the Beanstalk	Jack	Mr. Dinklepuss	In sepia and color; Warner Bros. release
1952	Lost in Alaska	George Bell	Tom Watson	Universal
1952	Abbott and Costello Meet Captain Kidd	Oliver "Puddin' Head" Johnson	Rocky Stonebridge	In color; Warner Bros. release
1953	Abbott and Costello Go to Mars	Orville	Lester	Universal
1953	Abbott and Costello Meet Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde	Tubby	Slim	Universal
1955	Abbott and Costello Meet the Keystone Kops	Willie Piper	Harry Pierce	Universal
1955	Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy	Costello (erroneously listed in the film as "Freddie Franklin")	Abbott (erroneously listed in the film as "Pete Patterson")	Universal
1956	Dance with Me, Henry	Lou Henry	Bud Flick	Their final film; United Artists release
1959	The 30 Foot Bride of Candy Rock	Artie Pinsetter		Lou Costello only; Columbia release
1965	The World of Abbott and Costello	Himself	Himself	Compilation film

Further reading

• Anobile, Richard J. (ed.), Who's on First?: Verbal and Visual Gems from the Films of Abbott & Costello (1972) Avon Books
• Costello, Chris, Lou's on First: The Tragic Life of Hollywood's Greatest Clown Warmly Recounted by His Youngest Child (1982) St. Martin's Press ISBN 0-312-49914-0
• Cox, Stephen and Lofflin, John, The Abbott & Costello Story: Sixty Years of "Who's on First?" (1997) Cumberland House Publishing (A revised and updated edition of The Official Abbott & Costello Scrapbook)
• Cox, Stephen and Lofflin, John, The Official Abbott & Costello Scrapbook (1990) Contemporary Books, Inc.
• Dunning, John, On the Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio (1998) Oxford University Press
• Firestone, Ross (ed.), "Bud Abbott and Lou Costello" from The Big Radio Comedy Program (1978) Contemporary Books, Inc.
• Furmanek, Bob and Palumbo, Ron, Abbott and Costello in Hollywood (1991) Perigee ISBN 0-399-51605-0
• Maltin, Leonard, The Great Movie Comedians (1978) Crown Publishers
• Maltin, Leonard, Movie Comedy Teams (1970, revised 1985) New American Library
• Miller, Jeffrey S., The Horror Spoofs of Abbott and Costello: A Critical Assessment of the Comedy Team's Monster Films (2004) McFarland & Co.
• Mulholland, Jim, The Abbott and Costello Book (1975) Popular Library
• Nachman, Gerald, Raised on Radio (1998) Pantheon Books
• Nollen, Scott Allen, Abbott and Costello on the Home Front: A Critical Study of the Wartime Films (2009) McFarland & Co.
• Sforza, John, "Swing It! The Andrews Sisters Story" (2000) University Press of Kentucky
• Sies, Luther F., Encyclopedia of American Radio (2000) McFarland & Co.
• Terrace, Vincent, Radio Programs (1999) McFarland & Co.
• Thomas, Bob, Bud & Lou: The Abbott and Costello Story (1977) J.B. Lippincott Co. (Dual biography featuring a highly unflattering portrait of Lou Costello, contested by friends and family members)
• Young, Jordan R., The Laugh Crafters: Comedy Writing in Radio and TV's Golden Age (1999) Past Times

External links

• Bud Abbott at IMDb
• Lou Costello at IMDb
• Abbott and Costello at the National Radio Hall of Fame
• Laughterlog.com Full listing of A&C on Radio, Film, Television, Record and in Books.
• Official Website
• Radio Log
• Official Fan Club