In the fall of 1940, with the Draft Bill freshly signed into law by FDR, the Hollywood studios were scrambling to develop screenplays centered on the selective service. Amongst those houses was Universal, which opted to roll the dice and place their project square on the shoulders of a pair of burlesque comics who had only appeared in supporting roles in one previous movie, the unmemorable musical revue One Night in the Tropics (1940). The end result, Buck Privates (1941), launched Bud Abbott and Lou Costello as the dominant draws of WWII-era show business and spawned numerous imitations (Caught in the Draft (1941) with Bob Hope, Tramp, Tramp, Tramp (1942) starring Jackie Gleason, and others). The film also grossed $4.7 million in a time when tickets cost a quarter, and outdrew such prestigious contemporary productions as Citizen Kane, How Green Was My Valley, Sergeant York and Here Comes Mr. Jordan. What passes for a plot in Buck Privates would set the formula for Abbott & Costello's run in Hollywood, providing just enough story to give the gifted clowns of patter a setting to perform their stage-honed shtick. Sidewalk hucksters Slicker Smith (Bud) and Herbie Brown (Lou) are rousted from their attempts to earn a marginally honest living by an angry cop (Nat Pendleton), and duck into a busy theater in hopes of escape. They wind up realizing too late that the movie house has been converted into an enlistment center, and that the "prize drawing" they signed for was a stint with Uncle Sam. Things get even worse when they report to boot camp, and discover that Pendleton is their master sergeant. Basic training lent a contemporary context for A&C's brand of comedy, and audiences of the day responded enthusiastically. From Abbott's attempts to fleece the alleged novice Costello at craps, to goading him to blast the radio in defiance of Pendleton's orders, their interplay is captured in peak form.