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You are here: Home / Archives for Bud Abbott

Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein: My Love for this Classic Knows NO Limits!

October 25, 2022 By Joi

Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Bela Lugosi, and Glenn Strange in Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein

Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Bela Lugosi, and Glenn Strange

When it comes to horror movies, I’m a bit of a chicken… okay, I’m a big chicken, feathers and all. Sure, I can handle most classic horror films (with Mark of the Vampire and The Spiral Staircase being a few of my favorites), but when it comes to modern era horror movies…. thanks but no thanks. All the buttered popcorn in the world couldn’t get me to watch.

I’d much, much, MUCH rather watch Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (one of my favorite movies in the world). I’d rather watch ANY of their movies for that matter. They were comedic geniuses and their films never fail to make me laugh so much my cats think I’ve finally and completely lost it.

You can (and should!) find Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein on dvd (Amazon link). You can also find the Abbott and Costello Meet the Monsters Collection on Amazon… it’s linked below.


Abbott and Costello Meet the Monsters Collection

Filed Under: Abbott and Costello, Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, Bela Lugosi, Glenn Strange, Perfect Movies, Picture of the Day Tagged With: Abbott and Costello, Bela Lugosi, Bud Abbott, classic horror movies, Glenn Strange, Lou Costello, perfect movies

Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein: More Than Just a Favorite… Kind of An Obsession!

September 15, 2021 By Joi

Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein Lobby Card
Bud Abbott and Lou Costello Meet Frankenstein
One of my favorite things in the world is to watch old movies with my husband and one of my favorite things to watch are Abbot and Costello movies. There are few things any better than kicking back with Bud, Lou, and Michael (that’d be the husband).

One of my favorite of their movies is Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein (Amazon link to the dvd). It is nothing short of Entertainment Heaven, each and every time I watch it.

I love this one to distraction – in spite of the fact it is the most inappropriately named movies of all time!  Meet Frankenstein? Old Frank is seldom actually onscreen (especially when compared to Dracula or the Wolf Man) and doesn’t have much to say for himself when he is!  I can only assume that since Frankenstein was big at the time, they went with Frankenstein over Dracula or the Wolf Man, both of whom are onscreen a lot more.

Title aside, I love everything about this movie.  When you sit down to watch an Abbott and Costello movie, you do so with the intentions of leaving everything behind – work, chores, headaches, news, politics, crazy drivers, and so on. You have to just let yourself have fun and enjoy the laughs – you also have to remember that this particular movie was made in 1948, so the effects are going to be…. wellll, you can see more realistic effects on Scooby Doo, but Frank-ly I absolutely do not care.

Truth be told, they’re part of what makes this movie (and all classic movies, as far as I’m concerned) so darn special. I wouldn’t change a thing about this movie – not even the title, because in its own way it’s part of what makes Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein deliciously unique.

Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein

Bud Abbott and Lou Costello Meet Frankenstein

Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein features a wonderful cast. Count Dracula is deliciously played by Béla Lugosi.  The Wolfman is brought to furry life by Lon Chaney Jr., and Frankenstein is played by veteran monster Glenn Strange.

At the end of the movie, watch (and listen) for an appearance by the Invisible Man. You’ll recognize the voice as that of Vincent Price.  This was actually before he went on to superstardom.

 Trivia:

  • The movie was originally titled, “The Brain of Frankenstein” (apparently they were adamant that Frankenstein appear in the title somewhere!)
  • The director was Charles Barton, a close friend of both Abbott and Costello’s. Most people consider him to the the duo’s best director.
  • One of the funniest scenes in the movie involves Wilbur (Costello)  unknowingly sitting on Frankenstein’s lap. The scene required multiple shots because Costello was allowed to  improvise, which caused Glen Strange (Frankenstein) to constantly break out laughing!
  • Charles Barton also directed 1959’s classic The Shaggy Dog .
  • Lenore Aubert (Sandra) was born in present-day Slovenia. She teamed up with the duo again 1949’s Abbott and Costello Meet the Killer, Boris Karloff.

Quotes:

Chick: I don’t get it. Out of all the guys around here that classy dish has to pick out a guy like you.
Wilbur: What’s wrong with that?
Chick: Go look at yourself in the mirror sometime.
Wilbur: Why should I hurt my own feelings?

Larry Talbot (Wolfman): You don’t understand. Every night when the moon is full, I turn into a wolf.
Wilbur: You and twenty million other guys.

Chick Young: You’re making enough noise to wake up the dead!
Wilbur Grey: I don’t have to wake him up. He’s up.

You can buy Bud Abbott and Lou Costello Meet Frankenstein on dvd (Amazon link) or watch the hilarious perfection on Prime Video.

Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein Lobby Card with Lou Costello and Lenore Aubert

 Lenore Aubert and Lou Costello

Filed Under: Abbott and Costello, Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, Movie Reviews, Picture of the Day Tagged With: Abbott and Costello, Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, Abbott and Costello movies, Bud Abbott, Lenore Aubert, Lou Costello

Things You May Not Have Known About Abbott and Costello

March 12, 2018 By Joi

Abbott and Costello Meet the Killer Boris Karloff

Abbott and Costello Meet the Killer Boris Karloff

You are looking at a picture of one of my greatest obsessions – Abbott and Costello. I could watch their movies and/or routines daily and laugh as though it were the first time EACH time. As someone who loves few things as much as laughing, I guess it’s only expected that they’d float my boat so perfectly.

There was a lot more to Bud Abbott and Lou Costello than most of us realize. They were much more intellectual (and certainly more serious) than we envision them. In fact, off screen, the men barely resembled the characters they played.

Below are a few fast facts about these brilliant men.

Facts about Bud Abbott

  • William Alexander Abbott was born in 1895.
  • Both of his parents (Rae and Harry) at one time worked for the Barnum and Bailey Circus.
  • Bud worked in carnivals, as a child, and dropped out of school in 1909.
  •  In 1931, he stood in for comic Lou Costello’s straight-man who was ill. The two clicked almost immediately and… the rest is history!
  • In 1940 he made his film debut in One Night in the Tropics, which was also his first film pairing with his partner Lou Costello.
  • Bud has three stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for Radio (6333 Hollywood Boulevard), Motion Pictures (1611 Vine Street), and Television (6740 Hollywood Boulevard).
  • Bud Abbott was a lifelong epileptic.
  • His twin sister, Olive Victoria Abbott, was in vaudeville and lived to be 101 years old!
  • He was an avid gun collector and once owned an Adolf Hitler shotgun.
  • One story has it that, at Lou Costello’s insistence, the monies earned from the their act were split 60/40, favoring Bud Abbott. Lou Costello reasoned that “…comics are a dime a dozen. Good straight men are hard to find.”
  • After Abbott and Costello broke up, Bud Abbott said, “I never understood Lou.”
  • Married Betty Smith in 1918. They adopted two children.
  • A favorite Bud Abbott Quote was, “You never heard of a comedy team that didn’t fight, did you?“
  • Died in 1974 (prostate cancer).

Facts About Lou Costello

  • Born in 1906 in New Jersey.
  • His parents were Helen and Sebastiano Cristillo. His father was from Calabria, Italy, and his mother was an American of Italian, French, and Irish ancestry.
  • Before teaming with Bud Abbott, Lou Costello worked as a stuntman.
  • Lou Costello was married to Anne Battler from January 1934 – March 1959 (his death)
  • Lou mentioned his hometown (Paterson, New Jersey) in virtually every episode of his TV show and in many of his films – listen for it, it’s amazing (and touching) how he works it in.
  • Tragically, his only son, Lou Jr., drowned in the family’s swimming pool just days before his first birthday.
  • Lou Costello simply took home any prop or furniture from a set that he took a liking to. Once, during filming of Hit The Ice, the director was reshooting a scene when he noticed all the furniture was gone! Sure enough, Lou had hauled it off to his place – so an arrangement was made for him to bring it back just long enough to reshoot the scenes.
  • Costello wanted to change the name of the duo to “Costello and Abbott.” Naturally, Universal Pictures wasn’t for the idea. The result was a “permanent chill” between the partners that lasted until their split in the late 1950s.
  • After the death of his son, Lou Costello Jr., he somehow performed the “Who’s On First” routine as usual, but with tears running down his face.
  • Lou was an amateur boxer.
  • He was awarded three stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame: for Motion Pictures at 6438 Hollywood Blvd., for Radio at 6780 Hollywood Blvd. and for Television at 6276 Hollywood Blvd.
  • In 1943, Lou developed rheumatic fever. The disease damaged his heart and led to the heart attack that killed him – three days before his 53rd birthday.
  • Bud’s one starring role in a feature film, without Bud Abbott, was in The 30 Foot Bride of Candy Rock (1959). He died before it was released.

Facts About the Team…

  • Abbott and Costello are known in Italy as “Gianni and Pinotto”, Abbott being Gianni and Costello being Pinotto.
  • Abbott and Costello are the only two non-sportsmen honored in the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY, for their “Who’s On First” routine. They aren’t, of course, members of the Hall of Fame, but the fact that their wonderful routine is so appreciated is priceless.
  • Bud Abbott and Lou Costello were so popular that there was an “Abbott and Costello” comic book that was published for about ten years until their partnership ended in 1956.
  • They performed the “Who’s on first” routine for President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Abbott & Costello: The Complete Universal Pictures Collection

Filed Under: Abbott and Costello, Classic TV, Getting to Know..., Old Movies Tagged With: Abbott and Costello, Bud Abbott, Lou Costello

Welcome to Hollywood Yesterday!

Ann Sheridan, It All Came True

Ann Sheridan
My name is Joi (“Joy”) and I created Hollywood Yesterday as my personal tribute to Old Hollywood. It’s my effort to help keep the stars from Old Hollywood, Classic Television, and Old Radio Shows alive and shining forever. Old Hollywood was positively magical and I see no reason for the magic to ever die.

Be warned, I am (by nature) overtly positive, I never take anything too seriously, I say extraordinary so often you’d think I invented the word, and I overuse exclamation points to distraction. I’m perpetually over-caffeinated.. we’ll blame that.

Read more about Hollywood Yesterday (and see my personal favorites) here!

Old Hollywood Actresses

Lena Horne, Meet Me in Las Vegas

See the Old Hollywood Actresses page for the index of Classic Hollywood Actresses and Classic TV Actresses.

Old Hollywood Actors

Henry Fonda, Behind the Scenes The Grapes of Wrath

See the Old Hollywood Actors page for the index of Old Hollywood and Classic TV actors.

Old Hollywood Book Reviews

Ann Dvorak: Hollywood's Forgotten Rebel by Christina Rice

I love reading old Hollywood biographies and memoirs as much as I love watching classic movies, and that’s truly saying something!

To see my Old Hollywood book reviews, please see the index listed here: Book Reviews.

Pictures of the Day

Maureen O'Hara, The Parent Trap

Maureen O’Hara

The Old Hollywood & Classic TV Pictures of the Day are published as regularly as possible. If I miss a few days, please just know that the husband, daughters, sons-in-law, grandbabies, and/or my cats were demanding my attention. I’ll be honest, nothing comes before any of them! Not even Maureen O’Hara or Henry Fonda.

Priorities, y’all.

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Recent Posts

  • Shirley Jones: Beautiful and Talented Star of Film, Musicals, and Television
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Thank You for Visiting!

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Thank you so much for visiting Hollywood Yesterday! You truly HONOR me with your presence. ~ Joi (“Joy”)

Olivia de Havilland

Olivia de Havilland, The Adventures of Robin Hood

My main goal with Hollywood Yesterday is to keep the names, faces, and films of the stars that mean so much to me shining brightly. When I’m guilty of focusing more time on my personal favorites (such as Olivia de Havilland) than other stars, I hope you’ll forgive me. I am, by all indications, very human!

Also, please know that I try to keep my posts (except for book reviews) short and to the point, so you can enjoy the pictures, grab the information, and get back to your life. I don’t appreciate anything that’s overly wordy, so I don’t want to do that to others. For better or worse, I write as I talk, so if you ever feel like you’re reading the words of someone who’s a cross between Lucy Ricardo, Daisy Duck, and a Jerry Lewis character, that’s just because you are!

Wait. What did I just admit to?? 

Barbara Stanwyck Quotes

Another personal absolute favorite of mine is Barbara Stanwyck. Not only was she beautiful and outrageously talented, she was exceptionally bright, charismatic, and colorful. This growing collection of Barbara Stanwyck Quotes will give you an idea of just how colorful she was!

Old Hollywood Movies

Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire Top Hat Cheek to Cheek

There’s nothing quite like watching a movie from the Golden Age of Hollywood. Whether it’s a Musical, Western, Comedy, Romance, Film Noir, or Drama – if it’s on, I’m not too far away… with popcorn and raspberry tea in hand and a couple of cats nearby.

Below are a few Old Hollywood movie reviews I’ve done on the blog. There are, as you’d imagine, a lot more to come. – Joi (“Joy”)

We’re in the Money (Joan Blondell, Glenda Farrell)

The Naked Spur (James Stewart, Janet Leigh)

The Prince and the Showgirl (Marilyn Monroe, Laurence Olivier)

The White Sister (Helen Hayes, Clark Gable)

Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (Howard Keel, Jane Powell, Russ Tamblyn, Julie Newmar)

Rio Bravo (John Wayne, Dean Martin, Angie Dickinson, Ricky Nelson, Walter Brennan)

El Dorado (John Wayne, Robert Mitchum, James Caan, Charlene Holt, Michele Carey)

Rio Grande (John Wayne, Maureen O’Hara)

Frankenstein and Bride of Frankenstein (What is it With Me and These Movies??)

The Stooge (Jerry Lewis’ favorite Lewis and Martin Movie… for good reason.)

Critic’s Choice (Hilarious movie starring Bob Hope and Lucille Ball)

To Please a Lady (Clark Gable and Barbara Stanwyck team up in a fast track movie)

Grand Hotel (Joan Crawford, Greta Garbo, John Barrymore, Lionel Barrymore)

Hearts Divided (Marion Davies, Dick Powell)

The Quiet Man (John Wayne, Maureen O’Hara, Barry Fitzgerald)

More Old Hollywood Movie Reviews

Classic Hollywood Books & Biographies (Reviews)

Maureen O'Hara's Autobiography 'Tis Herself

‘Tis Herself by Maureen O’Hara
I Know Where I'm Going (Katharine Hepburn Biography) and Princess

I Know Where I’m Going: Katharine Hepburn

 

Debbie Reynolds Unsinkable
Unsinkable: A Memoir by Debbie Reynolds

 

Ginger Rogers Autobiography - Ginger: My Story

Ginger by Ginger Rogers
Love, Lucy by Lucille Ball

Love, Lucy by Lucille Ball
Vitagraph by Andrew A. Erish
Vitagraph by Andrew A. Erish
More Old Hollywood Book Reviews!

Dorothy Dandridge

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Getting to Know the Gorgeous and Talented Dorothy Dandridge

My Lucy Obsession

Lucille Ball

Find out just how much I (truly) Love Lucy in the Lucille Ball category. I’m warning you, I call it an obsession for a very good reason…

Legalities…

Aside from pictures of books I review, I do not claim to have taken any of the pictures on this website, nor do I own the pictures – the ones of the stars or the affiliate (product) pictures.  Other, far more talented photographers than me have the credit for the beautiful photos you see. If you would like credit for a photograph or would like one removed, please e-mail me (joitsigers@gmail.com).

Movie posters and promotional photos are used in the belief that they qualify for the Fair Use law. Fair use is a doctrine in the law of the United States that permits limited use of copyrighted material without having to first acquire permission from the copyright holder. Fair use is one of the limitations to copyright intended to balance the interests of copyright holders with the public interest in the wider distribution and use of creative works by allowing as a defense to copyright infringement claims certain limited uses that might otherwise be considered infringement.

When you click through an affiliate (product, book, dvds..) link, I earn a small portion of the money you spend IF you purchase anything. This does not cost you any extra money, of course. This is how I am able to work from home and support my cats! – Joi (“Joy”)

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