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William "Bud" Abbott and Lou Costello were an American comedy duo whose work in vaudeville and on stage, radio, film and television made them the most popular comedy team during the 1940s and early 1950s. Their patter routine "Who's on First?" is one of the best-known comedy routines of all time and set the framework for many of their best-known comedy bits. ==Early years== Bud Abbott (1897–1974) was a veteran burlesque entertainer from a show business family. He worked at Coney Island and ran his own burlesque touring companies. At first he worked as a straight man to his wife Betty, then with veteran burlesque comedians like Harry Steppe and Harry Evanson. When he met his future partner in comedy, Abbott was performing in Minsky's Burlesque shows. Bud had been working at least a decade prior to meeting Lou Costello.〔Zemeckis, Leslie (2013). (Behind The Burly Q ). Delaware: Skyhorse. ISBN 978-1-62087-691-6.〕 Lou Costello (1906–1959) had been a burlesque comic since 1930, after failing to break into movie acting and working as a stunt double and film extra. He appears briefly in the 1927 Laurel and Hardy silent two-reeler, ''The Battle of the Century'', seated at ringside during Stan's ill-fated boxing match. As a teenager, Costello had been an amateur boxer in his hometown of Paterson, New Jersey. Costello was introduced to burlesque through the Ann Corio Show. He was a "dancing juvenile," who came out before the top banana and warmed up the audience - only he would get the laughs.〔 The two men first worked together in 1935 at the Eltinge Burlesque Theater on 42nd Street〔''Abbott and Costello in Hollywood'', ISBN 0-399-51605-0〕—now the lobby of the AMC Empire movie complex in New York City. This first performance occurred due to Costello's regular partner being ill. When AMC moved the old theater west on 42nd Street to its current location, giant balloons of Abbott and Costello were rigged to appear to pull it.〔''The New York Times'', Sunday, February 28, 1998〕 Other performers in the show, including Abbott's wife Betty, advised a permanent pairing. The duo built an act by refining and reworking numerous burlesque sketches into the long-familiar presence of Abbott as the devious straight man and Costello as the stumbling, dimwitted laugh-getter. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Abbott and Costello」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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