What Abbott And Costello's Last Movie Was Like Before They Died

On screen, the relationship between Bud Abbott and Lou Costello was clearly defined: Abbott was the mean schemer who pushed around Costello's bumbling man-child. In life, some who knew them described the relationship as almost reversed. It was Costello who was the hot-tempered and difficult one, with Abbott the loyal follower who endured frequent arguments with his partner. Though they were friends, by the time cameras rolled on "Dance With Me, Henry," the two had weathered severe altercations, and the personal and professional bonds between them were weakening.

One of their fights was over money and credit. The pair's earnings were originally split 60/40 in Abbott's favor, later moving to 50/50. Costello — egged on, in his daughter's estimation, by the sycophants around him (per Chris Costello's "Lou's On First: A Biography") — eventually wanted the 60 percent for himself and top billing, the latter demand only frustrated because Universal refused. "Dad backed off," his daughter wrote, "but from then on, there was a permanent chill between my father and Bud whenever they weren't actually working."

Away from work, Abbott and Costello infamously fell out in 1945 over household staff. Abbott still supported Costello's charitable endeavors, and Costello helped Abbott with his epilepsy. But Abbott's drinking, largely done to cope with his condition, was affecting work by 1956. And Costello had been nursing a desire to change his work, to do something more dramatic, for some time.

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