List Books » Lou's on First: The Tragic Life of Hollywood's Greatest Clown Warmly Recounted by His Youngest Child
Authors: Chris Costello
ISBN-13: 9780312499143, ISBN-10: 0312499140
Format: Paperback
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Date Published: December 1982
Edition: (Non-applicable)
Chris Costello is Lou Costello's youngest child. She runs her own public relations firm, Costello & Company.
This intimate portrait of Lou Costello (1906-1959) offers a rare look at one of the most talented comedians of all time. Starting in the 1930s, Costello attained enormous fame touring the burlesque circuits with straight man Bud Abbott (1895-1974). Their live skits (including "Who's on First?"), radio programs, and films such as One Night in the Tropics, Buck Privates, Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, and In the Navy made comic history.
Behind the scenes, however, Costello faced numerous crises: a bout with rheumatic fever that left him bedridden for months, the drowning death of his young son, and constant haggles with Universal Studios over its reluctance to adequately finance productions of Abbot and Costello films. Lou's on First goes beyond Costello's clownish persona to explore his Pagliacci nature: the private demons behind the happy public face, the heartbreaking moments in an otherwise storybook marriage, the business ventures soured by unscrupulous managers, and the true nature of the breakup of his twenty-one-year partnership with Bud Abbott.
Foreword | xi | |
Chapter I | The Formative Years | 1 |
Chapter II | Hollywood Failure | 10 |
Chapter III | The Comic Takes a Bride | 18 |
Chapter IV | Abbott & Costello | 27 |
Chapter V | Westward Ho! | 41 |
Chapter VI | Buck Privates | 52 |
Chapter VII | Movie Stars | 62 |
Chapter VIII | The Home Front | 76 |
Chapter IX | Rheumatic Fever | 87 |
Chapter X | Tragedy | 98 |
Chapter XI | Aftermath | 107 |
Chapter XII | Dissention | 118 |
Chapter XIII | A Memorial, a Death, and a Birth | 129 |
Chapter XIV | A Time of Growth | 139 |
Chapter XV | Kissing the Forties Good-bye | 151 |
Chapter XVI | New Adventures | 161 |
Chapter XVII | A Potpourri | 170 |
Chapter XVIII | Television | 184 |
Chapter XIX | McCarthyism and the Patriot | 195 |
Chapter XX | The IRS | 204 |
Chapter XXI | A New Home | 215 |
Chapter XXII | The Split | 227 |
Chapter XXIII | The Final Years | 234 |
Epilog | 249 | |
Filmography of Lou Costello | 253 |