Abbott and Costello were an American comedy duo composed of Bud Abbott and Lou Costello, whose work on radio and in film and television made them the most popular comedy team of the 1940s and early 1950s. Their patter routine "Who's on First?" is one of the best-known comedy routines of all time in the US, and set the framework for many of their best-known comedy bits.
Video Abbott and Costello
Early years
Bud Abbott (1897-1974) was a veteran burlesque entertainer from a show business family. He started in burlesque box offices as a treasurer around 1918, and eventually managed and produced touring burlesque companies before becoming a performer. He worked as a straight man with his wife Betty, then with veteran burlesque comedians such as Harry Steppe and Harry Evanson.
Lou Costello (1906-1959) became a burlesque comic 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 Laurel's ill-fated boxing match. (As a teenager, Costello had been an amateur boxer in his hometown of Paterson, New Jersey.) Costello's first appearance in burlesque was in 1929 in St. Joseph, Missouri. He joined the Mutual Burlesque wheel in 1930, and Minsky's in 1932.
While they crossed paths a few times, the two comedians 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. This performance came about after Costello's regular partner became ill. When AMC moved the old theater 168 ft (51 m) further 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, encouraged a permanent pairing. The duo built an act by refining and reworking numerous burlesque sketches with Abbott as the devious straight man and Costello as the dimwitted comic.
Maps Abbott and Costello
Radio and Broadway
The team's first known radio broadcast was on The Kate Smith Hour on February 3, 1938. At first, the similarities between their voices made it difficult for radio listeners (as opposed to stage audiences) to tell them apart during their rapid-fire repartee. As a result, Costello affected a high-pitched, childish voice. "Who's on First?" was first performed for a national radio audience the following month. They performed on the program as regulars for two years, while also landing roles in a Broadway revue, The Streets of Paris, in 1939.
Movies and Fame
In 1940, Universal Studios signed them for a musical, One Night in the Tropics. Cast in supporting roles, they stole the show with several classic routines, including the "Who's on First?" routine. Universal signed them to a two-picture contract. Their second film, Buck Privates (1941), directed by Arthur Lubin and co-starring The Andrews Sisters, was a massive hit, earning $4 million at the box office and launching Abbott and Costello as stars.
Their next film was a haunted house comedy, Oh, Charlie!. However Buck Privates was so successful that the studio decided to delay its release so the team could hastily make and release a second service comedy, In The Navy (1941), co-starring crooner Dick Powell and the Andrews Sisters. This film initially out-grossed Buck Privates. Loew's Criterion in Manhattan was open until 5 a.m. to oblige over 49,000 customers during the film's first week.
Oh, Charlie was put back into production to add music featuring the Andrews Sisters and Ted Lewis. The film was eventually released as Hold That Ghost (1941). The duo next made Ride 'Em Cowboy (1941), with Dick Foran, but its release was delayed so they could appear in a third service comedy, Keep 'Em Flying (1941). This was their last film with Arthur Lubin.
All of these films were big hits, and Abbott and Costello were voted the third biggest box office attraction in the country in 1941.
Universal loaned the team to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer for a musical comedy, Rio Rita (1942). During filming, on December 8, 1941, a day after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Abbott and Costello had their hand and foot prints set in concrete at what was then "Grauman's Chinese Theatre". Back at Universal they made Pardon My Sarong (1942), a spoof of South Sea Island movies; and Who Done It? (1942), a comedy-mystery.
In 1942 exhibiters voted them the top box office stars in the country, and their earnings for the fiscal year were $789,026.) The team did a 35-day tour during the summer of 1942 to promote and sell War Bonds. The Treasury Department credited them with $85 million in sales.
After the tour the team made It Ain't Hay (1943), from a story by Damon Runyon; and Hit the Ice (1943).
Costello was stricken with rheumatic fever upon his return from a winter tour of army bases in March 1943 and was bedridden for approximately six months. On November 4, 1943, the same day that Costello returned to radio after a one-year layoff due to his illness, 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 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.
Once Costello recovered, they made Lost in a Harem (1944) at MGM, then returned to Universal for In Society (1944), Here Come the Co-Eds (1945) and The Naughty Nineties (1945). Their third and final film for MGM was Abbott and Costello in Hollywood (1945).
In 1945 a rift developed when Abbott hired a domestic servant who had been fired by Costello. Costello refused to speak to his partner except when performing. The following year they made two films, (Little Giant and The Time of Their Lives), in which they appeared as separate characters rather than as a team. This may have been a result of the tensions between them, plus the fact that their most recent films had not performed as well at the box office. Abbott resolved the rift when he suggested naming Costello's pet charity, a foundation for underprivileged children, the "Lou Costello Jr. Youth Foundation." The facility opened in 1947 and still serves the Boyle Heights district of Los Angeles.
Abbott and Costello reunited as a team in Buck Privates Come Home (1947), a sequel to their big hit. In The Wistful Widow of Wagon Gap (1947) they were supported by Marjorie Main.
They signed a new contract with Universal which allowed them to make films outside of their studio contract. The first of these, The Noose Hangs High (1948), was released through Eagle-Lion.
The team's next film, Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948), co-starring Bela Lugosi and Lon Chaney Jr, was a massive hit and revitalized the duo's careers. It was followed by Mexican Hayride (1948), an adaptation of a Cole Porter musical without the songs. They then made Africa Screams (1949) for Nassour Studios, an independent company which released through United Artists. Back at Universal they returned to horror comedy with Abbott and Costello Meet the Killer, Boris Karloff (1949).
The duo was sidelined again for several months when Costello suffered a relapse of rheumatic fever. They returned to the screen in Abbott and Costello in the Foreign Legion (1950). The following year they made Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man (1951); then Comin' Round the Mountain (1952), a hillbilly comedy.
Their first color film, Jack and the Beanstalk (1952), was made independent of Universal, and distributed by Warner Bros. After making Lost in Alaska (1952) at Universal, they made a second independent color movie, Abbott and Costello Meet Captain Kidd (1953) with Charles Laughton, that was also distributed by Warner Bros.
At Universal they did Abbott and Costello Go to Mars (1953) and Abbott and Costello Meet Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1954). They were forced to withdraw from Fireman Save My Child in 1954 due to Costello's health, and were replaced by lookalikes Hugh O'Brian and Buddy Hackett. Their last films for Universal were Abbott and Costello Meet the Keystone Kops (1955) and Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy (1955).
Radio
After working as Fred Allen's summer replacement in 1940, Abbott and Costello joined Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy on The Chase and Sanborn Hour in 1941. Two of their films (Buck Privates and Hold That Ghost) were adapted for Lux Radio Theater that year. They launched their own weekly show on 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, Marilyn Maxwell 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 Costello, who routinely insulted his on-air wife (played by Elvia Allman). Niles was succeeded by Michael Roy, alternating over the years with Frank Bingman and Jim Doyle. The show went through several orchestras, 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 included Cary Grant, Frank Sinatra, The Andrews Sisters and Lucille Ball.
In 1947 the show moved 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), on Saturday mornings. The program featuring child vocalist Anna Mae Slaughter and child announcer Johnny McGovern.
Television
In January 1951, Abbott and Costello joined the roster of rotating hosts of The Colgate Comedy Hour on NBC. (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.
From the fall of 1952 to the spring of 1954, a filmed half-hour series, The Abbott and Costello Show, appeared in syndication on over 40 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 hounding Costello to get a job, while Abbott barely lifted a finger in that direction. The show featured Sidney Fields as their landlord and Hillary Brooke as a neighbor and sometime love interest for Costello. Other regulars were future Stooge Joe Besser as Stinky, a whiny child in a Little Lord Fauntleroy suit; Gordon Jones as Mike the cop, who always lost patience with Lou, Joe Kirk (Costello's brother-in-law) as Mr. Bacciagalupe, an Italian immigrant caricature whose role varied with the requirements of the script; and Bobby Barber, who played many "extra" parts.
The simple plot lines were often an excuse to recreate comedy routines from their films and burlesque days, including "Who's on First?" Since Lou owned the series (with Abbott working on salary), this allowed them to own these versions of the classic routines as well. Although The Abbott and Costello Show originally ran for only two seasons, it found a larger viewership in reruns from the 1960s to the 1990s. The shows have also been released in three different DVD sets over the years.
"Who's on First?"
"Who's on First?" is Abbott and Costello's signature routine. TIME magazine (December 26, 1999) named it the best comedy routine of the 20th century. The sketch was based on other burlesque wordplay routines. Depending upon the version, Abbott has either 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 into the routine. The infielders' nicknames are Who (first base), What (second base) and I Dunno (third base). The key to the routine is Costello's persistent confusion over pronouns, set against Abbott's unwavering nonchalance. Audio recordings are readily available on the Internet.
Abbott and Costello began honing the routine shortly after teaming up in 1936, and performed it in vaudeville acts in 1937 and 1938. It was first heard by a national radio audience in March 1938 when the team was on the Kate Smith radio show. By then, John Grant had been writing or adapting other sketches for the team, and may have helped expand "Who's On First?" prior to its radio debut. He stayed on as their head writer into the 1950s. One notable appearance of the sketch is from a 1951 Sunday evening series telecast.
"Who's on First?" is believed to be available in as many as twenty versions, ranging from one minute to about ten minutes. The team could time the routine at will, adding or deleting portions as needed for films, radio or television. The longest version is seen in "The Actors' Home" episode of their filmed TV series. A live performance commemorating the opening day of the Lou Costello Jr Youth Foundation in 1947 was recorded, and has been included in numerous comedy albums. The team's final performance of "Who's on First?" on TV was on Steve Allen's variety show in 1957.
In the full-length version of "Who's on First?", all of the positions are mentioned except right field.
Abbott and Costello performed a special "Who's on First?" for a USO Command Performance. This is the only known recording in which Costello says, "I don't give a damn!" at the end.
For a radio performance marking Walgreens 44th anniversary on June 20, 1945, Abbott was ill and was unable to perform. Sidney Fields, in his role as Professor Mellonhead, filled in and performed the straight man role with Costello.
Private lives
Abbott and Costello both met and married women they knew in burlesque. Abbott married Betty Smith, a dancer and comedienne, in 1918, and Costello married a chorus girl, 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. His son, Lou Jr., drowned in a swimming pool two days before his first birthday.
Later years
In the 1950s Abbott and Costello's popularity waned with the emergence of Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis. Another reason for their decline was overexposure. Each year they made two new films, while Realart Pictures re-issued 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.)
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, and Lou was the subject of the television program This Is Your Life, then formally dissolved their partnership in 1957. In his posthumously-published 1959 autobiography, My Wicked, Wicked Ways, Errol Flynn claims that he triggered the breakup. Flynn, an inveterate practical joker, invited them, along with their wives and children, to his house for dinner, and afterwards, he commenced to show a home movie that "accidentally" turned out to be hard-core pornography. While Flynn pretended to be baffled, Costello and Abbott each blamed the other for the film's substitution.
In his last years, Costello made about ten solo appearances on The Steve Allen Show doing many of the old routines without Abbott. Costello performed stand-up in Las Vegas, and 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, he died of a heart attack three days short of his 53rd birthday.
Abbott attempted a comeback in 1960 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, dramatic appearance on an episode of General Electric Theater in 1961. In 1966, Abbott 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.
Filmography
Box office ranking
For a number of years Abbott and Costello were ranked among the most popular stars in the US according to the Quigley Publishers Poll of Exhibitors:
- 1941 - 3rd
- 1942 - 1st
- 1943 - 3rd
- 1944 - 8th
- 1947 - 16th
- 1948 - 3rd
- 1949 - 3rd
- 1950 - 6th (US), 2nd (UK)
- 1951 - 4th (US), 4th (UK)
- 1952 - 11th
- 1953 - 20th
Discography
- 1942: Laugh, Laugh, Laugh (Parts I and II) Victor 27737
Spin-offs
The 1960s cartoon series was not the first time Abbott and Costello were animated. 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 (1941), introduced Tweety. The other cartoons are A Tale of Two Mice and Mouse-Merized Cat. In all three cartoons, Tedd Pierce (normally a storyman/writer for the cartoons) and Mel Blanc, respectively, provide voice impressions of the comedy duo.
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.
In popular culture
Although they are not inductees of the Hall itself, Abbott and Costello are among the few non-baseball personnel to be memorialized in the Baseball Hall of Fame. A plaque and a gold record of the "Who's On First?" sketch have been on permanent display there since 1956, and the routine runs on an endless video loop in the exhibit area.
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. 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 sketch.
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.
Jerry Seinfeld is an avid Abbott and Costello fan and their influence on him was celebrated in a 1994 NBC special, Abbott and Costello Meet Jerry Seinfeld. Seinfeld's TV series includes numerous references to the team. George Costanza's middle name is "Louis," after Costello. "The Old Man (Seinfeld)" (Season 4, Episode 18, aired February 18, 1993) featured a cantankerous old man named "Sid Fields," played by veteran actor Bill Erwin, as a tribute to the landlord on the Abbott and Costello TV show. A friend of Kramer's is named Mickey Abbott. A copywriter for the J. Peterman catalog is named Eddie Sherman, after the team's longtime agent. In Episode 30, Kramer hears the famous Abbott and 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.
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.
In the VeggieTales show, "Duke and the Great Pie War", the Scallion plays a character referred by Novak (Mr. Nezzer) as the Abbott Costello.
Abbott and Costello were inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame in 2009.
In the 2012 Sherlock episode "The Hounds of Baskerville", Mayor Barrymore of the fictional Ministry of Defence testing site at Baskerville sarcastically says that a couple of aliens crash landed on the site in the 1960s. "We call them Abbot and Costello", he states.
In 2015 a non profit fan film was produced titled Abbott & Costello Meet Superman. The film was screened at the Superman Celebration Film Festival in Metropolis Illinois and is currently streaming on YouTube. Abbott and Costello are played by two actors from New York, Aaron M. Lambert and Jake Navatka.
In the 2016 sci-fi movie Arrival, the two Heptapods (alien beings) are named Abbott and Costello by the scientists. As two of the main themes in the movie are linguistics and miscommunication, it mirrors themes of the "Who's on First?" Routine. The names also have significance in the film because the heptapod named Abbott is taller and quieter while the heptapod named Costello is shorter and chattier, just as the real Abbott and Costello were on their shows.
References
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
- Abbott and Costello at the National Radio Hall of Fame
- Abbott and Costello on Way Back When
- Abbott and Costello on Outlaws Old Time Radio Corner
- Laughterlog.com Full listing of A&C on Radio, Film, Television, Record and in Books.
- Official Website
- Abbott and Costello Radio Log
- Official Fan Club
- Abbott and Costello at the Internet Archive
- Zoot Radio, Abbott And Costello Radio Shows
- Abbott and Costello - Who's on First?
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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