Lou's on First: Lou Costello's biography by his kid Chris Costello

Has anybody read this book? I got it from the library, and was amazed I hadn't found it before because I love Costello, and it's amazing to read about his life.

A few things I found out in it is when he was a teenager one Sunday they were at a beach and a 9 year old girl was drowning, and he and another boy ran out and got her, and she wasn't breathing so he started performing artificial respiration, even though everybody told him she was dead, there wasn't anything he could do, but he didn't give up and he got her breathing again.

Another thing was that when he first made it big on the radio, his father was an insurance man, and he got the names of the 25 poorest people in the policy list, and had 25 turkeys cooked with all the trimmings and delivered so they could have a Thanksgiving dinner.

And also that when he and Bud went on the radio, they planned to premiere with Who's on First, but everybody said the listeners wouldn't get it because it was a visual gag. But they pressed and pressed to do it, and one week Lou finally said they didn't have an act prepared for the night, so they'd have to skip it, but they were so popular by that time they couldn't, so they finally got to do their Who's on First skit.

What a cool post! I still like Costello & Abbott and still watch their movies once in awhile. I may just get a copy of the book. At least the son does not appear to be ripping his parent apart.

Yeah, not like Leo Gorcey's son, I read Leo's book Dead End Yells and Wedding Bells and Cockle Shells and Dizzy Spells, but I refuse to read Leo Jr.'s book.

Hmmm, it seems I was in error. I thought Chris Costello was Lou's son, instead it's his daughter. I remember hearing about his youngest kid, his son, drowning in a pool when he was about 3, but I had figured he had another boy and only had one girl that being the oldest child Patricia. My bad.


Another interesting thing is Lou's last name was not really Costello, it was Cristillo, his brother Pat first started using Costello when he started his own band and Lou took it from his brother. Go figure.