BoxRec

I mentioned this before. Lou Costello used to put on the the gloves when he was younger in Paterson, New Jersey. Saw a picture of him once in his boxing attire. He was a fatty even back then. I guess you could qualify him as a boxer from the past.

Maybe some of the old timers know this story,but for the younger guys I'll fill you in. Lou Costello got his comedy training with his partner Bud Abbott in vaudville. By the time they were in the movies they were the most popular comedy team there was during the War. Abbott suffered from epilepsy and Lou had a rheumatic heart so they were deferred from the service. So they entertained the sevicemen and did their weekly Abbott and Costello radio show . They always had big name stars doing skits with them in front of the radio audience.

One morning before Lou's show the police called him to break the news that his son,Lou jr.,had crawled outside and fell in the pool and drowned. They think he saw a toy boat in the pool and fell in trying to play with it. Lou called his son Butch. Butch was only 10 months old. The patio door was open and Butch crawled outside.

Lou's wife went into shock. Everyone said to cancel the night's show. Lou said"No those guys overseas expect me to go on. I'll be all right"

Nobody knew what happened except the crew and guests on that night's show. The news guys weren't going to break the story until the next day.
Well Lou steps up to the microphone. Everyone on stage is looking at him. Lana Turner was the guest that night. Lou gets his key. Then it's"HAAAAY ABBOOOOT!!!!" He's right on the mark. Well tears are goin' down Lana Turner's face ,Paul Douglas,the emcee is weeping,the crew. Well Christ if Costello can come through, they had to too. Everyone was on. The show was great. The crowd was in stitches. The boys overseas laughed their asses off. After the show Lou went back to his dressing room and collapsed from exhaustion.

Remember the old Abbott and Costello TV show?I used to watch it all the time when I was a kid. Abbott and Costello had given way to Martin and Lewis,but they were still popular with the kids. If you listen to the live audience you can hear mostly kids laughter. I always liked their show. You know they lived in Sid Fields boarding house. They were always behind in the rent. Hilary Brooke lived there too. Along with Mr. Bachagalupe. Max and Buddy Baer would be around and there was always Mike the Cop walking the beat . That's where I first heard their routines:The Susquhana Hat Company,Slowly I Turn,and of course their classic,Who's On First? Lou' brother Pat produced the show(I bet his real name was Pasquale). It went off the air in a couple of years. Lou,after Butch died ,had another child with his wife. A girl they named Patty. She used to fight a lot with her dad.

Lou's heart started to give out in the late 50's. I remember his daughter Patty went to visit her Dad at the hospital. When she saw him being wheeled into another room,Lou gave her a big smile. She freaked. She ran up to the doctor and screamed"YOU BETTER NOT LET MY DAD DIE!"
Lou passed away that night.

Lou's modest will went to his family,and he set aside some dough for the Boy's Clubs of America.

I posted Lou Costello under Boxers of The Past because Lou used to box as an amateur in Paterson ,New Jersey. I guess he would qualify.

Great story. Thanks.

BoxBuzz wrote:Great story. Thanks.

Ditto.

Heart-wrenching. You have to wonder what kind of a man it takes to be able to do that. The type of man who can muster the energy for a comedy routine on the back of news like that.

I bet I couldn't.

..i remember that radio show the night lou's child died. his timing was a little off but that wasn't unusual as he liked to adlib and deviate from the script, and abbot, possiby the greatest straight man ever, was always...always able to keep the skit on track. at the end of the show , i don't recall the exact words, but they were something like..."ladies and genlemen, tonight you have heard one of the greatest examples of the tradition, 'the show must go on.'" none of us knew until the next day what he meant.

i heard their debut on the kate smith show, when they did the "who's on first bit" and it was sensational. studio audience was falling out. the next day all of us kids in school were trying to duplicate it." that show made them stars.

to most of us, especially when we were kids, lou was the star of the act. it isn't well known that actually abbot owned the act, and the split was 60 to 40 in his favor. the boys came up through burlesque, when it was still pretty clean,and comedians were plentiful but a good straight man was hard to find, so that'sthe reason for the money split. i think it wa shifted to 55/45..still in abbot's favor later when they were so hot in movies. this was always a contention as lou thought he was getting short shrift. if you have access to any of their radio shows though....they're not hard to find, listen and you'll see how abbot was unshakeable.

because the movies are a visual medium costello got more bits of his own and did a lot lof slapstick . curley howard always claimed costello "stole my personality." they really were best in their two man dialogue bits, which is why i prefer the radio tapes to anything else they did.

sadly, abbot died in poverty, his alcoholism and his epilepsy made him a mental and physical wreck.

Jaclem wrote:..i remember that radio show the night lou's child died. his timing was a little off but that wasn't unusual as he liked to adlib and deviate from the script, and abbot, possiby the greatest straight man ever, was always...always able to keep the skit on track. at the end of the show , i don't recall the exact words, but they were something like..."ladies and genlemen, tonight you have heard one of the greatest examples of the tradition, 'the show must go on.'" none of us knew until the next day what he meant.

i heard their debut on the kate smith show, when they did the "who's on first bit" and it was sensational. studio audience was falling out. the next day all of us kids in school were trying to duplicate it." that show made them stars.

to most of us, especially when we were kids, lou was the star of the act. it isn't well known that actually abbot owned the act, and the split was 60 to 40 in his favor. the boys came up through burlesque, when it was still pretty clean,and comedians were plentiful but a good straight man was hard to find, so that'sthe reason for the money split. i think it wa shifted to 55/45..still in abbot's favor later when they were so hot in movies. this was always a contention as lou thought he was getting short shrift. if you have access to any of their radio shows though....they're not hard to find, listen and you'll see how abbot was unshakeable.

because the movies are a visual medium costello got more bits of his own and did a lot lof slapstick . curley howard always claimed costello "stole my personality." they really were best in their two man dialogue bits, which is why i prefer the radio tapes to anything else they did.

sadly, abbot died in poverty, his alcoholism and his epilepsy made him a mental and physical wreck.

As I have mentioned before I teach 14 and 15 year old kids. If something didn't happen last year they don't know about it. Every year I show them "Who's On First?" on video. They're always laughing and impressed. It's one of the few thing I can show them on history that interests them and that they remember.