Guns! Ghouls! Gags! Gals! -- October 26, 2024

Bellville Daily Advocate, 01-October-1949

Halloween is coming. 

Bud Abbott and Lou Costello teamed up in burlesque and went on to Broadway and the radio.  In the 1940s, they made a series of popular comedies for Universal.  Abbott and Costello Meet the Killer, Boris Karloff (Heck of a title) was an attempt to reproduce the success of 1948's Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein. Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein was better.

Castle Films -- Rollicking Good Times With Filmdom's Funniest Comedians -- May 21, 2022

Castle Films Catalog, 1970

I recently came across this scan of Castle Films' 1970 catalog. I never had enough money to buy any of these films, but I enjoyed looking at the catalogue entries. As a subsidiary of a subsidiary of Universal, Castle had access to many of the company's comedies starring Abbott and Costello and WC Fields.

Abbott and Costello Go to Mardi Gras -- February 13, 2018

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In the 1953 film Abbott and Costello Go to Mars, the boys get on a rocket ship which they think will take them to Mars.  Instead they wind up in New Orleans, during Mardi Gras and mistake it for Mars.  Bank robbers force them to take them away on the rocket ship, which goes to Venus.  They never reach Mars.

Ella Fitzgerald 100 -- April 25, 2017

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Ella Fitzgerald, the First Lady of Song, was born 100 years ago today, 25-April-1917.  I grew up hearing her sing on the radio and television.  When I had enough money to buy albums, I bought her American Songbooks.

We saw her in person once, at the Marin Civic Center.  I don't remember what songs she sang, but I remember her trading licks with Joe Pass.

She did not appear in many movies.  Her first, in 1942, was Ride 'em Cowboy with Abbott and Costello.  She sang "A Tisket A Tasket" and "Cow Cow Boogie."

She next appeared in a movie, Pete Kelly's Blues, in 1955.  Jack Webb directed and starred.

In 1958, she played a small part in Saint Louis Blues, a biopic about WC Handy. 

I don't know how big a part she played in Let No Man Write My Epitaph from 1960. 

Grauman's Chinese -- Abbott and Costello -- February 16, 2016

Comedy team Bud Abbott and Lou Costello left hand and foot prints in the forecourt of Grauman's Chinese on 08-December-1941, the day after Pearl Harbor. My daughter and I have done "Who's on First" together since she was very young.

 Bud Abbott and Lou Costello teamed up in burlesque and went on to Broadway and the radio.  In the 1940s, they made a series of popular comedies for Universal.  Buck Privates and Keep 'Em Flying were two of their many service comedies.

DSCN4148. I took this on 18-July-2009.

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Moving Picture Daily, 14-November-1941

Keep 'Em Flying -- March 31, 2014

Bud Abbott and Lou Costello teamed up in burlesque and went on to Broadway and the radio.  In the 1940s, they made a series of popular comedies for Universal.  Keep 'Em Flying was one of their many service comedies. 

The trade ad is from the 14-November-1941 Moving Picture Daily.