Some time ago here, I hooked you all up with a video of Bud Abbott and Lou Costello performing their famous "Who's on First?" routine on some fifties TV show. Today, we have a clip of them performing it on radio in the early forties when it was a little fresher for them and for audiences. It's interesting to compare the two performances. I like the radio one better even though — for obvious reasons — it isn't as physical and based around Costello's facial reactions. But the timing's better and there's more sense of the two guys playing off each other.
Also note that on radio, Lou made a conscious attempt to keep his voice higher so it would be easier to differentiate him from Bud and that when they did this routine during the war, the Shortstop's name changed from I Don't Give a Darn to I Don't Give a Damn. The logic, as I understand it, was that these shows were being broadcast to Our Boys Overseas and those who were offended stateside would have to accept that our fighting men deserved a little earthier entertainment. Frankly, I think the soldiers would have preferred a couple of strippers but they had to settle for the naughtiness of Lou Costello saying "damn" instead of "darn."
This clip runs three minutes. It goes way outta-sync near the end and when it does, you might want to just listen and not look.
