The smarter, meaner, thinner half of one of the top comedy teams of the 1940s, Bud Abbott was the son of a circus advance man and a bareback rider, grew up on Coney Island and was shanghaied to Norway as a teenager. Returning to the U.S., he organized burlesque shows. The duo of Abbott and Costello was formed when Abbott, selling tickets at a burlesque theater, was pulled in as a last-minute substitute for Costello's indisposed straight man. Their blend of bickering cross-talk and zany slapstick got them a regular berth on Kate Smith's radio show and parts in a Broadway revue, "Streets of Paris" (1939)
Universal Pictures came calling, seeing in the team a modern Laurel and Hardy (though their appeal was more akin to Wheeler and Woolsey or Clark and McCullough). The team made more than a dozen films during the WWII years, mostly for Universal (and some on loan-out to MGM). They were light as air, mindless entertainments for wartime, and though critics lambasted them, the public flocked to see films like "One Night in the Tropics" (their first, 1940), "Buck Privates" and "Hold That Ghost" (both 1941), "Pardon My Sarong" (1942), "It Ain't Hay" (1943) and "Lost in a Harem" (1944). The team's classic "Who's On First?" routine was featured in the film "The Naughty Nineties" (1945). In the best of these films, the boys played good-natured, bumbling schemers and con men, caught up in circumstances beyond their meager control. Good leads and supporting casts (e.g., The Andrews Sisters, Martha Raye, Joan Davis) helped also.
With the end of WWII, the team's popularity slipped. This was not helped by the fact that they were put into increasingly juvenile, low-budget films for both Universal and on loan-out (twenty films from 1946 to the end of their career). In their better vehicles, the pair cavorted and double-talked through "Buck Privates Come Home" (1947) and "Mexican Hayride" (1948). But mostly, the titles told it all: "Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein" (1952), "Abbott and Costello Go to Mars" (1953), and so on.
By the time of their last, "Dance with Me, Henry" (1956), Abbot and Costello were as tired of each other as their audiences were of them. They split acrimoniously in 1957, and Costello died two years later. In 1961, Abbott tried a new act with partner Candy Candido, but it did not go over.
Abbott and Costello found a renewed audience on TV; not only were their films popular in reruns, but they briefly had their own "Abbott and Costello Show" (syndicated, 1952-1953). This show itself went into endless reruns, and Abbott supplied the voice for a cartoon version in 1966. Abbott and Costello also appeared on "The Colgate Comedy Hour" (NBC, 1951-1954). The two were tearfully reunited in a segment of "This Is Your Life" shortly before Costello's death. Abbott himself retired in the late 60s after a series of strokes and died in 1974.
Family
FATHER: Harry Abbott Sr. Advance man for Ringling Bros. circus.
SISTER: Olive Victoria Abbott. Actor. Born in 1896; died on August 8, 1997 at age 101.
SON: Bud Abbott Jr. Film technician, actor, cameraman. Adopted son; died of heart attack on January 19, 1997 at age 57.
Companion
WIFE: Betty Abbott.
Milestone
Organized and toured burlesque circuit with "tab shows" (typically consisting of comic, straight man, pianist, chorus girls) in the 1920s
1931: Teamed with Lou Costello in Brooklyn
1938: First radio appearance as Abbott and Costello on Kate Smith's program
1939: Broadway acting debut in revue, "Streets of Paris" alongside Carmen Miranda
1940: Film debut with Costello in comic supporting roles in "One Night in the Tropics"
1940: First starring roles for the duo, "Buck Privates", for Universal Studios
Abbott and Costello consistently voted among top ten boxoffice stars by motion picture exhibitors
1946: Unsuccessfully attempted to work separately within the same film, "The Little Giant"
1948: Flagging popularity revived with success of "Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein"; film initiated a series of onscreen encounters with other monsters
Appeared in 52 episodes of half-hour TV series, "The Abbott and Costello Show", reprising most of their comic routines
1955: Ended association with Universal after "Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy"
1956: Their most famous comic routine, "Who's on First?" placed on permanent display in National Baseball Hall of Fame Museum in Cooperstown, NY, in the form of a gold record and a framed copy of the text
1956: Last film, "Dance with Me, Henry"
1957: Ended partnership with Costello
1959: Death of Costello
1961: Briefly revived some of old routines on stage with new partner, Candy Candido
1966: Supplied voice for 156 5-minute Abbott and Costello cartoons made by Hanna-Barbera
Bibliography
"The Abbott and Costello Book" Jim Mulholland 1975
"The Horror Spoofs of Abbott and Costello: A Critical Assessment of the Comedy Team's Monster Films" Jeffrey S. Miller 2000
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