Bud and Lou teamed up 90 years ago

This month marks the ninetieth anniversary of Abbott and Costello’s partnership.

Although the boys had crossed paths in the early 1930s, it wasn’t until January 1936 that they formally teamed up. Their collaboration would last 21 years, include 36 feature films, more than 70 television shows, over 400 radio broadcasts, and produce arguably the greatest comedy sketch of all time, “Who’s On First?” During that time they had been among the most popular and highest paid movie stars.

Bud and Lou first met at Minsky’s flagship theater, the Republic, on 42nd Street. Before then, they had been in separate shows touring on the Mutual burlesque wheel. After the circuit collapsed during the Depression, Bud, Lou and hundreds of other performers landed in local theaters in stock burlesque. Abbott and Costello each began working for the Minskys in 1932. Their first meeting may have been that June at the Republic.

The Minskys had three other theaters in their domain: the Central on 47th Street; the Apollo on 125th Street (later the world-famous venue for black artists); and Minsky’s Brooklyn Theater. Minsky’s roster of performers rotated through these theaters, and the boys met up again at Minsky’s Brooklyn in January 1933. Lou’s partner was Jimmy Francis at the time, but Costello worked with Abbott for one sketch—the “Piano Scene” (also known as “All Right’’). The Abbott, in this case was not Bud, but Betty, who was an excellent straight woman in her own right.

The boys also worked for other local burlesque impresarios. Beginning in late 1933, Bud staged the shows at the Empire Theater in Newark for four months. Many comics came in and out of the theater, including recent newlywed Lou Costello. He played the Empire for a week in February 1934. This was the boys’ third confirmed encounter.

Abbott and Costello’s pivotal meeting, however, was a year later at the Eltinge Theater on 42nd Street. Lou and his partner, Canadian-born straight man Joe Lyons, and Bud and his partner, stone-faced comic Harry Evanson, overlapped for several weeks. When Lyons became ill, Bud pinch-hit for him. According to Bud’s wife, Betty, “Bud put on a scene for Lou. It was the ‘Lemon Bit’ that Bud had done with Harry Steppe, and they worked wonderfully together. People started to say, ‘Why don’t you team up?’”

Although they went their separate ways after the Eltinge, Abbott and Costello recognized their unique chemistry and kept in touch. According to Chris Costello in Lou’s On First, Bud wrote to Lou,“When you’re through with your engagement, come and see me.” Lou wrote back, “Don’t do anything, Bud, till I get there.”

In January 1936, they made it official. They were signed by the Minskys and one of their first shows–if not the first–was at Minsky’s Brooklyn Theater in February. Two years later, they became regulars on Kate Smith’s popular radio show, and two years after that, they were in Hollywood making movies.