Abbott and Costello

Abbott and Costello William (Bud) Abbott and Lou Costello (born Louis Francis Cristillo) were an American comedy duo whose work in radio, film and television made them one of the most popular teams in the history of comedy. Thanks to the endurance of their most popular and influential routine, "Who's on First?"---whose rapid-fire word play and comprehension confusion set the preponderant framework for most of their best-known routines---the team is, as a result, featured in the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Bud Abbott was born in Asbury Park, NJ, October 2, 1895 and died April 24, 1974 in Woodland Hills, California. Lou Costello was born in Paterson, NJ, March 6, 1906 and died March 3, 1959 in East Los Angeles, California.

The Burlesque Years

The two comedians first worked together in 1935 at the Eltinge burlesque theater on 42nd Street in New York.

Abbott was a veteran burlesque entertainer from a show business family, who had worked at Coney Island and ran his own burlesque touring companies. He worked as a straight man with his wife Betty and with veteran comedians like Harry Steppe and Harry Evanson. At the time that they met, he was performing and acting in Minsky's burlesque shows. Costello became a burlesque comic in 1930 after failing to break into films as an actor and working as a stunt double and extra. Costello appeared momentarily 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 teen, Costello was an amateur boxer in his hometown of Paterson, New Jersey.

Abbott and Costello made their partnership formal in 1936; radio historian Gerald Nachman has suggested Abbott's wife suggested the permanent pairing. ("Costello look(ed) for a smoother straight man and Abbott (needed) a permanent opposite," Nachman has written.) They built an act by refining and reworking numerous routines from their former vaudeville and burlesque sketches into the long-familiar presence of Abbott as the devious straight man and Costello as the stumbling, comprehension-challenged laugh-getter. building an act by adapting and improving numerous old vaudeville and burlesque sketches into their own style.

Fame

The duo's first known radio appearance was on The Kate Smith Hour, where they debuted with a version of "Who's on First?" and ended up replacing Henny Youngman on the show. They stayed as regulars for two years, but the original similarities between their New Jersey-rooted voices made it difficult for listeners (as opposed to stage audiences) to tell them apart thanks to their rapid-fire repartee. The problem, Nachman noted, was resolved by having Costello affect a high-pitched childish voice, and their remaining tenure on the Smith show was successful enough to get the pair roles in a Broadway revue, "The Streets of Paris," in 1939.

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

Universal signed them to a long-term contract, and their second film, Buck Privates, (1941) secured them as box-office stars. The duo made over 30 films between 1940 and 1956 (see below; Nachman credits Abbott and Costello's films with saving Universal, which the duo are believed to have pondered buying themselves at the height of their success). They were among the most popular and highest-paid entertainers in the world during World War II. Their 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 be a top ten box office attraction---helped in no small manner by their popular radio shows---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 (usually, by singers such as Connie Haines, Marilyn Maxwell, the Delta Rhythm Boys, Skinnay Ennis, and the Les Baxter Singers). Regulars and semi-regulars on the show included Artie Auerbrook, 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 & Costello's mishaps (and often fuming in character as Costello insulted his on-air wife routinely); he was succeeded by Michael Roy, with annoncing 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 Meaking, Will Osborne, Freddie Rich, Leith Stevens, and Peter van Steeden. The show's writers included Howard Harris, Hal Fimberg, Parke Levy, Don Prindle, Ed Cherokee, Len Stern, Martin Ragaway, Paul Conlan, and Ed Forman, as well as producer Martin Gosch. Sound effects were handled mostly by Floyd Caton.

Abbott and Costello moved the show to ABC (the former NBC Blue Network) five years after they premiered on NBC. During their ABC period they also hosted a 30-minute children's radio program(The Abbott and Costello Children's Show), which aired Saturday mornings with vocalist Anna Mae Slaughter and announcer Johnny McGovern.

Television

In 1951 they moved to television--first as one of the rotating hosts of The Colgate Comedy Hour (Eddie Cantor and Bob Hope were among the others). Beginning in 1952, The Abbott and Costello Show. was a half-hour series loosely adapted from their radio show, casting 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 himself 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.^[1] The Abbott and Costello Show ran from 1952 to 1954, but the show found a larger viewership via syndicated reruns from the late 1960s to the 2000's. In 2006 the shows were released as part of two five DVD sets for seasons one and two.

Later years

In the 1950s, however, Abbott and Costello's popularity waned. Each year they released two new films, while the studio re-released some of their older hits; between that, their weekly television series, and their frequent appearances on the Colgate program, the duo may have suffered from overexposure at last. They may have been hurt, too, by the fact that they were long reluctant to try newer material. (Parke Levy told Joshua R. Young, in The Laugh Crafters: Comedy Writing in Radio and TV's Golden Age, that the agent who got him a job writing for the team's radio show stunned him by revealing the team were afraid to do new material.)

They had had their conflicts at times (Nachman has noted that, during 1945, they spoke to each other on the air only, due to a feud of unknown origin, though Abbott was known to be a heavy drinker and both men liked to gamble), but what the occasional conflicts started the tax man and their heavy gambling debts finished in 1956---when the Internal Revenue Service charged them for back taxes, forcing them to sell their homes and most of their assets, including their film rights.

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. Nachman and others have noted, too, that Costello wasn't the same man after his infant son died in an accidental drowning at home---the night Costello returned to radio after a year's layoff due to rheumatic fever. On March 3, 1959, shortly after making his lone solo film, The 30 Foot Bride of Candy Rock, Costello died of a heart attack.

Abbott attempted a comeback in 1960, teaming with Candy Candido. Although the new act received good reviews, Bud quit, remarking, "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. A few years later, Bud voiced his character in a series of 156 five-minute Abbott and Costello cartoons made by Hanna-Barbera in 1966 and 1967. Lou's character was voiced by Stan Irwin. Abbott died of cancer on April 24, 1974.

Spin-offs

The cartoon series wasn't the first time Abbott and Costello were immortalized in animation. During the height of their popularity in the 1940s, Warner Bros.'s Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies animation unit produced several cartoons featuring the pair as cats or mice named "Babbit and Catstello." One of the cartoons, "A Tale of Two Kitties," introduced one of the most enduring characters in the history of animation--Tweety Pie. The other cartoon was "A Tale of Two Mice". In both cartoons, Tedd Pierce and Mel Blanc, respectively, did good impressions of the duo's voices and styles.

The revival of their former television series in syndicated reruns in the late 1960s and early 1970s helped spark a renewed interest in the duo. So did the televising of many of their old film hits. Their influence continues; in 1994, comedian Jerry Seinfeld---who claims Abbott and Costello as a strong influence on his own work---hosted a television special Abbott and Costello meet Jerry Seinfeld (the title referenced their popular series of films in which the duo met some of Universal's famed horror picture characters), on NBC; it was said to have been seen in over 20 million homes. Seinfeld himself has always stated that The Abbott and Costello Show was the inspiration for his own popular series.

"Who's on First?" is believed to be available in as many as 20 versions; Abbott and Costello performed subtle variations of the routine in film, on their radio show, and on television (in one of their Colgate Comedy Hour installments and their half-hour TV series). Nachman wrote that the duo's radio contract may have included an agreement to perform "Who's on First?" at least once a month. Perhaps the most successful of the routines "Who's on First?" spawned was "U Drive," about renting a car. On one of the duo's radio broadcasts, they preceded yet another version of "Who's on First?" with a similar routine hooked around Cleveland Indians Hall of Fame pitcher Bob Feller.

Cultural references

"The Abbott and Costello Show" is a catch phrase occasionally used when referring to the Australian government of John Howard due to the names of two prominent members of the ministry—federal health minister Tony Abbott and federal treasurer Peter Costello.

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 when the parents of cast member Tom Jeter (Nate Corddry) visit from Ohio, and he gives them a tour the theater. However, they have little understanding of comedy and have never heard of "Who's on First?" In an attempt to relate to his parents just before they begin the drive back to Ohio, Tom gives them a recording of "Who's on First?", which (according to the show's mythology) was first performed in the Addison Theater—the august building which later became Studio 60 itself.

Filmography

See also

• Laurel and Hardy
• Martin and Lewis

References

• Dunning, John. On the Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio. New York:Oxford University Press, 1998. ISBN,
• Nachman, Gerald. Raised on Radio. (New York: Pantheon Books, 1998.)
• Sies, Luther F. Encyclopedia of American Radio. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2000. ISBN
• Terrace, Vincent. Radio Programs,. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 1999. ISBN
• Young, Joshua R. The Laugh Crafters: Comedy Writing in Radio and TV's Golden Age. (Beverly Hills, California: Past Time Publishing, 1999.)

Listen to

• Free OTR: Abbott and Costello
• OTR Network LIbrary: Abbott and Costello (44 episodes)
• Pokomoko (mp3)

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