This is Your Life Lou Costello (1956)

Starring Bud Abbott, Carole Costello, Chris Costello, Lou Costello , Paddy Costello-Humphreys, Ralph Edwards, and Edward Sherman...

Lou Costello was surprised and honored by Ralph Edwards on NBC's This Is Your Life in 1956. Louis Francis "Lou" Costello (March 6, 1906 -- March 3, 1959) was an American actor and comedian best known as half of the comedy team of Abbott and Costello, with Bud Abbott. Costello was famous for his bumbling, chubby, clean-cut image that has appealed to many over the decades, and for his shouted line of "HEEEEYYY ABBOTT!!"

Lou Costello was born Louis Francis Cristillo in Paterson, New Jersey to an Italian father from Calabria, and a mother of French and Irish ancestry. He attended School 15 in Paterson, NJ and was considered a gifted athlete. He excelled in basketball and reportedly was once the New Jersey state foul shot champion. (His singular basketball prowess can be seen on film, in Here Come The Co-Eds (1945), in which Lou performs all his own tricky hoop shots without special effects). He also fought as a boxer under the name "Lou King". He took his professional name from actress Helene Costello. "There was a girl named Helene Costello, and I took her name".

Abbott and Costello made 36 films between 1940 and 1956, and were among the most popular and highest-paid entertainers in the world during World War II. Among their most popular films are Buck Privates, Hold That Ghost, Who Done It?, Pardon My Sarong, The Time of Their Lives, Buck Privates Come Home, Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, and Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man.

The team also appeared on radio throughout the 1940s. On October 8, 1942 the team launched their own weekly show on NBC sponsored by Camel cigarettes. They moved to ABC (the former NBC Blue Network) from 1947-49.

In 1951, the duo became one of the rotating hosts of The Colgate Comedy Hour (Eddie Cantor and Bob Hope were among the others) and then, the following year, inaugurated their own situation comedy, The Abbott and Costello Show. Costello owned the half-hour series, with Abbott working on salary. The show, which was loosely adapted from their radio program, ran for two seasons, from 1952 to 1954, but found a new life as syndicated reruns. They were forced to withdraw from Fireman Save My Child in 1954 due to Costello's health and were replaced by lookalikes Hugh O'Brien and Buddy Hackett, and were subsequently dropped by Universal the following year.

Category:

Comedy

Tags:

• This Is Your Life
• Cash
• Reality
• Wallet
• Sing
• This Is Your Life (song)
• Song
• Simple
• Man
• Song Dynasty
• Alex Song
• Second
• Own
• Eyes
• Real
• Your Love
• Heaven
• Reaper
• New
• Real (hypermarket)
• New Song
• Arnold
• New (film)
• Love Song
• Singing
• New (C++)
• Sad
• Cover
• Sings
• Your Own
• Delta
• 88
• Cover Band
• Oldsmobile
• Rocket
• V8
• Mercury
• Comet
• Caliente
• Film
• Short
• Short Film
• Johnny
• Fred
• Elvis
• Johnny Cash
• Country
• Presley
• Cross
• Elvis Presley
• Heartbreak
• Country Music
• afraid
• absolutely
• predictable

[skat1140]

Thoughts:

* wow -- Abbot looks so much older than Costello; stooped, etc. And he's so kindly(!)

* "You got the whole story!"

* Lou's discomfort is perhaps that he wants to be "in character" in front of an audience, and cannot.

* Lou is 50 here; he only died 3 years after this, in 1959. Crazy.

* Too bad the advertisements arent included; ads for outdated products can be fun.

Thanks for uploading this! It's beautiful to see the different facets of A&C

[DeputyDoug829]

@skat1140 Thank you for your thoughts. You put this into an awesome perspective. It would have been cool to have the commercials for this show, I agree. :)

[dlbmn70]

I felt very sorry for Costello. He looked VERY uncomfortable. I wrote to his daughter Chris, and she responded how wonderful her dad was and thanked me for being a fan.

[DeputyDoug829]

@dlbmn70 Thank you for sharing the awesome story. You are right though about Lou Costello, he really did look VERY uncomfortable!

[ParanormalEvidence01]

My parents who lived on 33rd St in Paterson NJ five houses away and knew the Cristillo very well, my parents told me that Lou's mom and dad where very nice people and friendly, Lou and his brother Pat were really funny. It's a shame to see the street and home that the Cristillo's use to live is the aboslute horrid conditions as time marched on, those days in Paterson NJ was clean and safe, parents use to tell me that noone locked the doors or ever robbed, it most of been a life worth living for

[4thekidsTV]

Poor Lou..he didn't need to be exploited by that B-! Ralph Edwards and damn,stupid celebrity tv surprise party.

[sliat1981]

he easily could have survived until at least the 80's.