Who is Lou Costello?

Lou Costello dropped out of high school and headed west to break into the movies. He got a job as a carpenter at MGM and Warners. He went from there to stuntman and then to vaudeville as a comic. In 1931, while working in Brooklyn, his straight man became ill and the theater cashier, Bud Abbott, filled in for him. The two formed their famous comedy team and, through the 1930s, they worked burlesque, minstrel shows, vaudeville and movie houses. In 1938 they got national exposure through the Kate Smith Hour radio show, and signed with Universal Pictures the next year. They debuted in One Night in the Tropics (1940). Their scene-stealing performances in that film landed them their own picture the next year, Buck Privates (1941), with The Andrews Sisters. It was a runaway hit, grossing what was then a company record $10 million on a $180,000 budget. In 1942 they topped a poll of Hollywood stars. They had their own radio show (ABC, 1941-46, NBC, 1946-49) and TV show (The Abbott and Costello Show (1952)). After the war their movies shifted formula to one in which they met various monsters or found themselves in exotic locations. The team split up in 1957, with both winding up completely out of money after troubles with the Internal Revenue Service. After that Lou appeared in a few television shows and the movie The 30 Foot Bride of Candy Rock (1959), released a few months after he died.

Overview

Nicknames
Abbott & Costello, Abbott and Costello, Costello, Lou Cristillo, Sebastian Cristillo

Trivia

  • He learned of the death of a family member in a swimming-pool accident at home just moments before going on the air to do his radio show with Bud Abbott. However, being the old-school professional who believed that "the show must go on", he went right out and did the show--including their famous "Who's on First" routine--without a hitch, but with tears streaming down his face. Once they were finished, Costello went over in a corner and passed out.
  • He invented the very first commercial automatic ice machine. He planned to market this but lost money on the deal.
  • He and Bud Abbott are the only two non-sportsmen honored in the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York, for their "Who's On First" routine. However, they are not members of the Baseball Hall of Fame.
  • At the beginning of their career, he insisted that any joint earnings with Bud Abbott be split 60-40 in Abbott's favor because of Bud's skill as a straight man.
  • He had a habit of taking home any prop or furniture item from a set that took his fancy. During filming of Hit the Ice (1943), director Charles Lamont went back to reshoot some scenes that took place at an ice-skating rink only to discover that all the wrought-iron patio furniture at the rink was gone--Costello took it home with him when he finished shooting the scene the previous day. An arrangement was worked out whereby Costello brought back the furniture, the scene was reshot, and then he took the furniture back home with him.