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Lou Costello and Bud Abbott in Newsweek 1940

The Feud of Abbott and Costello

(originally published in TV Forecast and Guide, March 7, 1953)

Loafing - Bud Abbott confuses Lou Costello about loafing around vs. making loaves of bread -- loafing -- at a bakery

 One of the worst kept secrets in show business a few years back was the backstage feuding of the top comedy team of Abbott and Costello. It seemed hard to believe that the finely balanced pair could be anything but the best of friends. Yet the evidence was there.

It burst out in the open in 1945. Rotund  Lou Costello, the buffoon of the team, suddenly charges in the public prints that  Bud Abbott  was a drunk.

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Bud Abbott: the man everyone forgot!

Bud Abbott: the man everyone forgot!

Bud Abbott: the man everyone forgot
(originally published in Screen Stories, June 1960)

Gray-haired Bud Abbott stared bleakly out of his breakfast-room window, at the brown, untended lawn and grounds of his Encino, California home. Although it was past noon, he still wore his bedroom slippers, pajamas and white flannel robe. Why get dressed? He had no place to go, no job to do.

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Lou Costello in From Bed to Worse

My cure for sorrow, by Lou Costello

(originally published in Journal of Living, January 1954)

Lou Costello: My Cure For Sorrow, As told to Vivian Cosby

Mexican Hayride, Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, 1948

A funny man’s prescription for grief that can work for everyone as it has for him.

“Why did this have to happen to me?”

A few years ago, when I was  stricken with rheumatic fever, this question kept repeating itself in my mind. As I lay in bed week after week, I searched for the answer. And what made it all the more bewildering was that  I had become ill while making a tour to raise charity funds. While striving to help others, I had been stricken myself. Why? The more I thought about it, the more sorry I became for myself.

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Lou Costello - breaking through a drum in Rio Rita

How I fought back – Lou Costello’s account of his recovery from rheumatic fever

Lou Costello, Hollywood’s best-loved comedian, tells how he fought his way back to health through prayer and undying faith.This an exclusive account to Motion Piture’s Readers

I think I’m a pretty lucky guy to be alive to tell this story.

With more than a half a year in bed spent grimly facing the terrifying prospect that I might never walk again, I found myself suddenly projected into a new world. A world that I never knew existed until then. And because I had never before come in contact with sickness and disaster, I suddenly saw a lot of things for the first time – things that before had meant very little to me.

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In the Navy - Admiral Lou Costello

Lou Costello biography

Lou Costello (March 6, 1906 – March 3, 1959)

Bud Abbott and Lou Costello in "Biuck Privates"

Lou Costello, the man who would ask the eternal question, Who’s on First?, was born as Louis Francis Cristillo on March 6, 1906.  He grew up in his hometown of  Patterson, New Jersey, which he mentioned in virtually every movie and television episode that he appeared in. After high school, he had been bitten by the entertainer bug, and worked as a carpenter at both MGM and Warner Brothers movie studios in an attempt to break into show business

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Bud Abbott - breaking through a drum in Rio Rita

Bud Abbott biography

William Alexander Abbot, aka. Bud Abbott (October 2, 1895 – April 24, 1974)

Some people are said to have show business in their blood – in  Bud Abbott’s case, it’s almost literally true.  Abbott’s mother was a bareback rider for the Ringling Brothers Circus. And his father worked as an advance man for the same circus. Bud Abbot was born and raised in Asbury Park, New Jersey, and was smitten with the performing bug at an early age. He dropped out of school at the age of 14 and began working in carnivals. Later he began working in theaters across the country, eventually becoming the manager of the Nation Theater in Detroit. While there, Abbott began performing on stage as straight man to vaudeville performers. This led to a chance encounter that changed his life.

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