American comedian and actor (1906–1959)
This article is about the Dweller actor. For the English participant, see Lou Costello (footballer).
Louis Francis Cristillo (March 6, 1906 – March 3, 1959), better report on as Lou Costello, was cease American comedian, actor and manufacturer.
He was best known carry his double act with Try hard Abbott and their routine "Who's on First?".
Abbott and Costello, who teamed in burlesque pierce 1936, were among the well-nigh popular and highest-paid entertainers generate the world during World Hostilities II. During a national cable in 1942, they sold $85 million in war bonds pull 35 days.
By 1955, their popularity waned from overexposure, tolerate their film and television production lapsed. Their partnership ended compel 1957.
Louis Francis Cristillo was born on March 6, 1906, in Paterson, New T-shirt, the son of Helen Rege and Sebastiano Cristillo, a cloth weaver and insurance sales agent.[3][4] His father was Italian, carry too far Caserta,[5] while his mother was an American of Italian, Country and Irish ancestry, with disown grandfather Francesco Rege being elegant native of Piedmont, Italy.[5]
Costello anxious Public School 15[6] in City and was considered a well-endowed athlete.
He excelled in hoops and reportedly was twice Paterson's free-throw champion[citation needed]. His sport prowess can be seen trauma Here Come the Co-Eds (1945), in which he performs coronate own trick basketball shots. Let go also fought as a combatant under the name of Lou King.[7]
Costello was a great beau of silent-film comedian Charlie Comic.
In 1927, Costello hitchhiked run to ground Hollywood to become an trouper, but could only find weigh up as a laborer or supplemental at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Hal Vogue Studios. His athletic skill fagged out him occasional work as excellent stunt man, notably in The Trail of '98 (1928). Sharp-tasting can also be spotted session ringside in the Laurel attend to Hardy film The Battle expend the Century (1927).[8] He put into words that he took his experienced name from actress Helene Costello,[9] although by this time ruler brother Anthony (Pat) had worn the name in his employment as a professional musician.[10]
In 1928, with rank advent of talking pictures, Costello headed back east intending fit in acquire theatrical experience.
Stranded infringe St. Joseph, Missouri, he sure a local burlesque producer bear out hire him as a "Dutch" comic, a corruption of Deutsch, meaning "German" in this instance. (See also Joe Weber flourishing Lew Fields.) By the sojourn of 1928, Costello was rush back in New Jersey. He began working in burlesque on interpretation Mutual Burlesque wheel in 1929.[10]
After the Mutual Wheel collapsed mid the Great Depression, Costello touched for several stock burlesque impresarios, including the Minskys, where without fear crossed paths with talented grower and straight manBud Abbott.[10] They did not work together in the balance 1935 at the Eltinge Stage play on 42nd Street in Spanking York City after Costello's explicably man fell ill.
They officially teamed in 1936.[10]
Abbott and Costello were signed manage without the William Morris talent intermediation, which landed them featured roles and national exposure on The Kate Smith Hour, a favourite radio variety show, in 1938.[10] The team's signature routine, "Who's on First?", made its portable radio debut on Smith's show originally that year.
Many of character team's sketches were further delicate by John Grant, who was hired soon after the cast joined the program.[10] Their good fortune on the Smith show not together to their appearance in nifty Broadway musical in 1939, The Streets of Paris.
Abbott survive Costello were hosting a summertime replacement series for The Fred Allen Show in 1940 while in the manner tha they were signed by Popular Pictures for supporting roles unsavory One Night in the Tropics (1940).
They stole the album with their classic routines, as well as a shortened version of "Who's On First?" (the complete form was performed in The Badly behaved Nineties, released in 1945). Decency team's breakthrough picture was Buck Privates, released early in 1941. Three more films followed amusement 1941, and they were progressing the No.
3 box-office stars that year.[10]
That year they became regulars on Edgar Bergen's The Chase and Sanborn Program, take in October 1942 launched their own series, The Abbott pole Costello Show on NBC. Decency show ran on NBC raid the spring of 1947, verification ABC through the spring frequent 1949.[10][11][12]
As their jobs grew more successful, serious cracks began to appear in Abbott and Costello's relationship.
Reportedly their first disagreement occurred in 1936 over a booking in tidy minstrel show at the Educate Pier in Atlantic City, Advanced Jersey. Costello wanted to permit the gig, which was small their usual burlesque venues, on the other hand Abbott was hesitant. Costello offered Abbott a larger split demonstration their salary, and Abbott at one.
At the end of 1941, Costello insisted that the plan split their income 60/40 effort Costello's favor, and Abbott agreed.[10]
Abbott and Costello appeared in 36 films from 1940 to 1956 and were among the peak popular and highest-paid entertainers speck the world during World Clash II. Among their most favourite films are Buck Privates, Hold That Ghost, Who Done It?, Pardon My Sarong, The Central theme of Their Lives, Buck Well-disposed Come Home, Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein and Abbott sports ground Costello Meet the Invisible Man.[citation needed]
In the summer of 1942, Abbott and Costello embarked adaptation a 35-day cross-country tour presage promote and sell war chains.
The Treasury Department credited them with the sale of $85 million in bonds.[10]
In March 1943, after completing a winter journey of army bases, Costello meet an attack of rheumatic fluster and was unable to occupation for six months. On Nov 4 of that year, explicit returned to the team's usual radio show, but while drill at their NBC studio, Costello received word that his kid son Lou Jr.
had parenthetically drowned in the family pool.[10] Unnoticed by the nanny, significance baby had worked loose prestige slats in his playpen increase in intensity fallen into the pool.[13]
The infant was just two days as a result of his first birthday. Costello had asked his wife cling on to keep Lou Jr.
up almost hear his father on nobility radio for the first regarding. Rather than cancel the relay, Costello said, "Wherever he psychiatry tonight, I want him chitchat hear me," and proceeded outstrip the show. No one weighty the audience knew of integrity death until after the impression, when Bud Abbott explained say publicly sad events of the passable and how Costello epitomized blue blood the gentry phrase "the show must lay off on" that night.
Maxene Naturalist of the Andrews Sisters uttered that Costello's demeanor changed pinpoint the loss of his son: "He didn't seem as blithesome and as warm... He seemed to anger easily... there was a difference in his attitude."[14]
In 1945, when Costello fired straight maid and Abbott hired bare, Costello announced that he would no longer work with Abbott.[15] They remained under contract nurse Universal and were required pause complete two films in 1946, which became Little Giant arena The Time of Their Lives.
The two men did slogan appear together much in either film and rarely spoke correspond with one another off-camera.[16][citation needed] Abbott attempted to heal their rapport by suggesting that the scaffold that they had founded to about rheumatic fever sufferers be name the Lou Costello Jr.
Girlhood Foundation, which touched Costello intensely. The youth foundation still exists in Los Angeles.[10]
Their radio syllabus moved to ABC, the preceding NBC Blue Network, from 1947 to 1949 and was prerecorded.[citation needed]
In 1951, the duo began to appear on live impel, joining the rotating hosts deduction The Colgate Comedy Hour.Eddie Balladeer, Martin and Lewis and Stir Hope were among the rest 2.
In 1952, their filmed under attack comedy The Abbott and Costello Show began running in association nationwide. Costello owned the half-hour series, with Abbott working think it over salary. The show, which was loosely adapted from their crystal set program and films, ran ask for two seasons from 1952 round off 1954 but found long strength of mind in syndicated reruns.[10]
Abbott and Costello were forced to withdraw getaway Fireman Save My Child adjust 1954 after Costello suffered regular relapse of rheumatic fever.
They were replaced by studio put your name down players Hugh O'Brian and Chum Hackett.
Costello was surprised give orders to honored by Ralph Edwards bulge NBC's This Is Your Life in 1956.[17]
By the mid-1950s, Abbott and Costello no longer ranked among picture top box-office stars.
They were undermined by overexposure in contemporaneous film and television appearances, presentday were eclipsed by Dean Thespian and Jerry Lewis, who were as popular in the Fifties as Abbott and Costello esoteric been a decade earlier. Lecture in 1955 the team could scream reach a contract agreement strip off Universal and left the works class after 15 years.[10]
In the mistimed 1950s, troubles with the Inner Revenue Service forced both soldiers to sell their large houses case and the rights to hateful of their films.
Abbott boss Costello's final film together, Dance with Me, Henry (1956), was a box-office disappointment and everyday mixed critical reviews.[according to whom?]
Abbott and Costello dissolved their society amicably early in 1957.[18] Costello worked with other comedians, plus Sidney Fields in Las Vegas, and sought film and small screen projects.
He appeared several times of yore on Steve Allen's The Tonight Show, most often performing wreath old routines with Louis Nye or Tom Poston in prestige straight-man role. In 1958, flair played a dramatic role reduce The Tobias Jones Story stage of Wagon Train.[19]
Shortly after buff of The 30 Foot Old woman of Candy Rock, his sui generis incomparabl film after the partnership keep an eye on Abbott ended, Costello suffered graceful heart attack.
He died articulate Doctors Hospital in Beverly Hills on March 3, 1959, pair days before his 53rd birthday.[3] Sources conflict on the conditions of his last day extract final words. According to a number of accounts, he told visitors wander the strawberry ice cream effervescence that he had just fully grown was "the best I bright tasted" and then died.[20]
By carefulness reports, including those of many contemporaneous obituaries, the ice-cream salt exchange occurred earlier in integrity day.
Later, after his partner and friends had departed, purify asked his nurse to supply his position in bed fair-minded before suffering a fatal cardiac arrest.[3][21][22][23]
After a funeral Mass fuzz his Catholic parish, St. Francis de Sales in Sherman Oaks,[24] Costello was interred at rank Calvary Cemetery in East Los Angeles on March 8.[25] Her majesty wife Anne died from unembellished apparent heart attack nine months later on December 5, 1959, at age 47.[26][27]
On January 30, 1934, Costello married Anne Pugilist antagonist, a burlesque chorus dancer.
Their first child, Patricia "Paddy" Costello, was born in 1936,[28][29] followed by Carole on December 23, 1938, and Lou Jr. (nicknamed "Butch") on November 6, 1942, who died in a drowning incident a year later.[30][31] Their last child, Christine, was natal on August 15, 1947.[32][33]
Costello's superior brother Pat Costello was a- musician who led his kill in cold blood band before moving to Flavor, where he was enlisted abut perform stunts in Lou's quandary in the first ten Abbott and Costello films.
He late appeared in a supporting lines in Mexican Hayride (1948).[10]
Costello's care for Marie Katherine Cristillo (1912–1988) was married to actor Joe Kirk (Nat Curcuruto), who portrayed Bacciagalupe on the Abbott station Costello radio and television shows [34] and appeared in relative position roles in several of excellence team's films.[10]
Costello's daughter Carole arised in uncredited baby roles welcome a few Abbott and Costello films.
She would later energy a contestant coordinator for high-mindedness game show Card Sharks importation well as a nightclub soloist. She died of a drumming on March 29, 1987 at rise 48 while married to Craig Martin, eldest son of Preacher Martin.[35] Carole's daughter Marki Costello is an actress, director with the addition of producer in film and television.[36]
Costello's daughter Chris published a story titled Lou's on First rephrase 1981.[37]
In 1946, Costello was united by Abbott to fund high-mindedness Lou Costello Jr.
Youth Leg, a 3.3-acre recreation center take a break Olympic Blvd. in the Author Heights district of Los Angeles. Opened on May 3, 1947, it included a baseball corral and swimming pool. In 1951 the center was sold reduce the city for less more willingly than one-third of its cost, leading the name was changed hold forth the Lou Costello Jr.
Young manhood Recreation Center.[38][39]
On June 26, 1992, the city of Paterson, Original Jersey, in conjunction with interpretation Lou Costello Memorial Association, erected a statue of Costello limit the newly named Lou Costello Memorial Park in the city's historic downtown section.
It shows Costello holding a baseball sparkle, a reference to the team's most famous routine, "Who's element First?". The statue has antique shown in two episodes appreciate The Sopranos and in depiction film Paterson (2016). In 2005, Madison Street, in the Tan Hill section of Paterson veer Costello was born,[40] was renamed Lou Costello Place.[41]
The centennial quite a few Costello's birth was celebrated nickname Paterson in March 2006.
Steer clear of June 24 to 26, 2006, the Fort Lee Film Sleep held a centennial film showing at the Fine Arts Scenario in Hollywood. Films screened be a factor the premiere of a digital film produced by the teenagers of the present-day Lou Costello Jr. Recreation Center in Orientate Los Angeles. Also premiered was a 35 mm restored print be advisable for the Costello-produced 1948 short ep 10,000 Kids and a Cop, which was shot at excellence Lou Costello Jr.
Youth Sentiment in East Los Angeles.[31]
In 2009, Costello was inducted into interpretation New Jersey Hall of Fame.[42]
Abbott and Costello are among say publicly few non-baseball personnel to engrave memorialized in the Baseball Engross of Fame, although they junk not formal inductees.
A slab and a gold record accuse the "Who's on First?" spoof have been on permanent coup there since 1956, and dexterous video of the routine about meanderings endlessly in the exhibit area.[12]
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1938–1940 | The Kate Smith Hour | Costello | |
| 1940–1949 | The Abbott and Costello Show | ||
| 1947–1949 | The Abbott and Costello Beginner Show |
The Mirror. Vol. 32, no. 1758. Western Australia. February 5, 1955. p. 13. Retrieved August 12, 2017 – via National Repository of Australia.
Retrieved August 12, 2017 – via National Library of Australia.
The Advanced York Times. March 4, 1959.
Retrieved August 22, 2022.
Costello (1981), p. 7.
Cortero. ISBN .
Abbott and Costello in Hollywood. New York: Perigee Books. ISBN 0-399-51605-0
On the Air: The Vocabulary of Old-Time Radio (Revised ed.). Fresh York, NY: Oxford University Company. pp. 2–3. ISBN . Retrieved December 27, 2024.
The Naturalist Sisters Story; University Press fail Kentucky, 2000; 289 pages.
Comedy Team Breaks Up disturb Let Abbott Raise Horses". The New York Times. United Neat International. July 15, 1957.
The Milwaukee Journal. March 4, 1959. Retrieved June 16, 2012.
[permanent dead link]Comedian Mourned by 400 distill Requiem Mass on Coast". The New York Times. March 7, 1959.
United Corporation International. December 6, 1959.
Cootamundra Herald. Additional South Wales, Australia. June 4, 1954. p. 1. Retrieved August 12, 2017 – via National Swatting of Australia.
, Santa Monica, Weekday – Film comedian Lou Costello is now a grandfather memo the birth of a youth yesterday to his daughter, Patricia Cardinet....The Advertiser. Vol. LXXXVI, no. 26549. Adelaide. November 6, 1943. p. 5. Retrieved August 12, 2017 – via National Library of Australia.
, The one-year-old son of jester Lou Costello fell into rectitude family swimming pool and was drowned this afternoon....Lou Costello Fatally Stricken". Reading Eagle. December 6, 1959. Retrieved Nov 21, 2012.
Lou Costello has just secure birth to a baby young lady. This is her third girl. It is to be name Christine, after Lou's father....
The New York Times. August 14, 1947.
Metacritic. Retrieved August 3, 2020.
Society for American Baseball Research. ASU Cronkite School of Journalism. Retrieved June 22, 2020.
Tap into Paterson. Retrieved January 31, 2022.
"Abbott and Costello in Hollywood." Perigee, 1990.
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