30 minute comedy/variety show episodes

Bud Abbot (the thin straight man) and Lou Costello (the fat, loud one) started on vaudeville, made many movies together (Abbott and Costello meet the Mummy, one of my personal favorites), and they had a successful radio show. The two met in 1929, Costello got a comedy gig in New York, Abbott worked at the theater, and started helping Costello by acting as his straight man.

Their routines worked particularly well for radio, quite often involving grammatical foibles and plays on words. They were featured as regulars on the Kate Smith Hour, then came the Hollywood movies, then in 1940 they got their chance at their own radio show, as a replacement for a summer of the Fred Allen show.
In 1942 They got their own regular time slot show. They were hugely popular at this time in America. Their movies had rescued the Universal Pictures film studio. The radio show lasted from 1942 to 1949, and was heard by over 20 million people each Thursday night. They were successfully able to blend all of their entertainment skills, what they learned on vaudeville, what people saw in their movies, and combine them for a memorable, comfortable, and funny 30 minutes. And yes, our collection does include their famous "Who’s on First" routine.

Unfortunately, their private lives were not as successful as their careers. Lou Costello became known in Hollywood as ‘hard luck lou." He was suffered from rheumatic fever, (Abbott refused to do the radio show with anyone else), then on the first day that Costello was able to go back on the air, during dress rehearsal, he learned that his one year old son had drowned in their pool. He rushed home, then came back to do the show, and broke down in front of the audience, just after the announcer read the sign off. The team had their heights in the 30s and 40s. They were still a team in the 50s, making many movies and a television show. And then the IRS came calling. Although they had made millions, they hadn’t kept up with their taxes, and owed more than they could pay from their falling careers. Lou Costello passed away in 1959, and Bud Abbot died in 1974, both broke, even after all of their huge blockbuster movies and shows.