Lou Costello
Favored son of Paterson, New Jersey, Louis Francis Cristillo was born on March 6, 1906 in Paterson, New Jersey. Nearly ninety years later the city honored their favorite son with a life sized bronze statue and a park dedicated in his name Lou Costello Park.
Although the public were encouraged to take the bumbling child-like screen persona of bumbling Costello to heart, in real life Lou had a tough streak a mile wide running through him
Not only was he capable of petty bickering over money and status but where the on-screen Costello was a spineless and vulnerable character, the real Lou Costello stood by Abbott's side and performed the classic Who's on First sketch after a one year hiatus due to ill health and only hours after hearing about the tragic death of his infant son.
The radio audience listening at home would not have seen the tears streaming down Costello's face but to them and to the studio audience, Abbott broke the tragic news.
Years later Costello explained that he carried on that night not through some misguided ethos of 'the show must go on', but because tiny Lou (Butch) Costello, jr. had never heard his father on radio so Lou wanted his voice to ring out so that it would reach his tiny son, wherever he was.
Although the public were encouraged to take the bumbling child-like screen persona of bumbling Costello to heart, in real life Lou had a tough streak a mile wide running through him
Not only was he capable of petty bickering over money and status but where the on-screen Costello was a spineless and vulnerable character, the real Lou Costello stood by Abbott's side and performed the classic Who's on First sketch after a one year hiatus due to ill health and only hours after hearing about the tragic death of his infant son.
The radio audience listening at home would not have seen the tears streaming down Costello's face but to them and to the studio audience, Abbott broke the tragic news.
Years later Costello explained that he carried on that night not through some misguided ethos of 'the show must go on', but because tiny Lou (Butch) Costello, jr. had never heard his father on radio so Lou wanted his voice to ring out so that it would reach his tiny son, wherever he was.