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1940 One Night in the Tropics Costello Abbott Film Debut 1941 Buck Privates Herbie Brown Slicker Smith 1941 In the Navy Pomeroy Watson Smokey Adams 1941 Hold That Ghost Ferdinand Jones Chuck Murray 1941 Keep 'Em Flying Heathcliffe Blackie Benson 1942 Ride 'Em Cowboy Willoughby Duke 1942 Rio Rita Wishy Dunn Doc 1942 Pardon My Sarong Wellington Phlug Algy Shaw 1942 Who Done It? Mervyn Milgrim Chick Larkin 1943 It Ain't Hay Wilbur Hoolihan Grover Mickridge 1943 Hit The Ice Tubby McCoy Flash Fulton 1944 In Society Albert Mansfield Eddie Harrington 1944 Lost in a Harem Harvey Garvey Peter Johnson 1945 Here Come The Co-Eds Oliver Quackenbush Slats McCarthy 1945 The Naughty Nineties Sebastian Dinwiddie Dexter Broadhurst 1945 Abbott and Costello in Hollywood Abercrombie Buzz Kurtis 1946 Little Giant Benny Miller John Morrison/Tom Chandler 1946 The Time of Their Lives Horatio Prim Cuthbert/Dr. Greenway 1947 Buck Privates Come Home Herbie Brown Slicker Smith Sequel to Buck Privates 1947 The Wistful Widow of Wagon Gap Chester Wooley Duke Egan 1948 The Noose Hangs High Tommy Hinchcliffe Ted Higgins 1948 Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein Wilbur Gray Chick Young 1948 Mexican Hayride Joe Bascom/Humphrey Fish Harry Lambert 1949 Africa Screams Stanley Livington Buzz Johnson 1949 Abbott and Costello Meet the Killer, Boris Karloff Freddie Phillips Casey Edwards 1950 Abbott and Costello in the Foreign Legion Lou Hotchkiss Bud Jones 1951 Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man Lou Francis Bud Alexander 1951 Comin' Round The Mountain Wilbert Al Stewart 1952 Jack and the Beanstalk Jack Mr. Dinklepuss 1952 Lost in Alaska George Bell Tom Watson 1952 Abbott and Costello Meet Captain Kidd Oliver "Puddin' Head" Johnson Rocky Stonebridge 1953 Abbott and Costello Go to Mars Orville Lester 1953 Abbott and Costello Meet Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde Tubby Slim 1955 Abbott and Costello Meet the Keystone Kops Willie Piper Harry Pierce 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") 1956 Dance with Me, Henry! Lou Henry Bud Flick 1959 The 30-Foot Bride of Candy Rock Artie Pinsetter - Lou Costello only. 1965 The World of Abbott and Costello - - Compilation film
The Burlesque YearsBud Abbott was a veteran burlesque entertainer from a show business family. He had 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 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 first worked together in 1935 at the Eltinge Burlesque Theater on 42nd Street in New York.[1] Other performers in the show, including Abbott's wife, advised a permanent pairing with Costello. 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.[edit] FameThe team's first known radio appearance was on The Kate Smith Hour in February, 1938. "Who's on First?" was first performed for a national radio audience the following month.[2] Abbott and Costello stayed on the program as regulars for two years, but the similarities between their New Jersey-accented 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, and their remaining tenure on the Smith show was successful enough to get them roles in a Broadway revue "The Streets of Paris" in 1939.In 1940 they were signed by Universal Studios 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. They made over 30 films 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 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.In 1942, Abbott and Costello were the top box office draw with a reported take of $10 million. They would remain a top ten box office attraction until 1952.[edit] RadioAfter 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, Jack Meakin, Will Osborne, Freddie 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 Stern, Martin Ragaway, Paul Conlan, and Eddie Forman, as well as producer Martin Gosch. Sound effects were handled primarily by Floyd Caton.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.[edit] TelevisionIn 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 a theater audience, revitalizing the comedians' performances and giving their old routines a new sparkle.Beginning in 1952, a filmed half-hour series, The Abbott and Costello Show, appeared in syndication on local stations across the county. 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. Another semi-regular was Joe Besser as Stinky, a 40-year-old sissy dressed in a Little Lord Fauntleroy suit. Gordon Jones was Mike the cop, who always lost patience with Lou. The Abbott and Costello Show ran two seasons, but found a larger viewership in reruns from the late 1960s to the 1990's. In 2006 the shows were released in two five-DVD sets.[edit] Private livesBoth Abbott and Costello met and married women they knew in burlesque. Bud Abbott married Betty Smith in 1918, and Lou 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 "Butch" (born November 6, 1942) died in an accidental drowning in the family's swimming pool.[3]During 1945, a rift developed when Abbott hired a domestic servant who had been fired by Costello. Stung by Abbott's move, Costello refused to speak to his partner except when performing. The team's films of 1946 reflect the split, with the comedians appearing separately in character roles. Abbott resolved the rift in 1947 when he volunteered to help with Costello's pet charity, a foundation for underprivileged children.[edit] Later yearsIn the 1950s Abbott and Costello's popularity waned as their place as filmdom's hottest comedy team was taken by Martin and 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 they did the same routines 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, and after one more independent film, Bud Abbott retired from performing.In 1956, the Internal Revenue Service charged them for back taxes, forcing them to sell their homes and most of their assets, including their film rights. In 1957 they formally dissolved their partnership.Lou Costello made about ten solo appearances on The Steve Allen Show and headlined in Las Vegas. He appeared in episodes of GE Theater and Wagon Train. On March 3, 1959, shortly after making his lone solo film, The 30 Foot Bride of Candy Rock, Lou Costello died of a heart attack just 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." A serious weakness of the new act was that it copied the old act. Abbott and Candido simply reprised old Abbott & Costello routines, with Candido blatantly imitating Costello. Candido would then do a comedic monologue in his own persona while Abbott took a break backstage, then the finale consisted of both men performing the classic "Who's on First?" routine.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. [1] Lou's character was voiced by Stan Irwin. Bud Abbott died of cancer on April 24, 1974.