Description:

Abbott Bud

Abbott and Costello signed Hollywood wartime menu

 

Hollywood restaurant menu pencil signed by comedians Bud Abbott (1897-1974) as "Bud Abbott" and Lou Costello (1906-1959) as "Lou Costello" at top of front. The Brown Derby menu dates from September 15, 1942, and is from its famous Hollywood location on 1628 North Vine Street. In very good condition, with expected wear including toning, wrinkled or folded corners, minor tape residue, and minimal rusting to stapled paper inserts. Each page of the menu measures 9.875" x 13.5".

 

The menu, printed on bifold stock paper, opens to reveal a 2-page spread of luncheon offerings for Tuesday, September 15, 1942. The menu covers are decorated with actor caricatures arranged in a checkerboard pattern. Abbott and Costello have signed at top, Costello over President Franklin D. Roosevelt's caricature at center, and Abbott over the left of two American flags flanking it. Featuring a red cross stamp captioned "War Emergency Campaign" at center. Abbott and Costello likely signed this menu sometime during their 35-day countrywide war bond selling drive. (Abbott and Costello purportedly raised about $85 million!)

 

The Brown Derby restaurant chain was established in the 1920s, and its extremely popular Hollywood location attracted many film professionals from nearby studios. The Spanish Mission style building was decorated with dozens of actor caricatures and celebrity portraits. Clark Gable is said to have proposed to Carole Lombard here.

 

Wartime luncheon options at the fine dining restaurant included Parisian style rack of lamb, a variety of seafood, and its 90 cent House Specialty Spaghetti Derby with mushroom and meat sauce.

 

Bud Abbott and Lou Costello were both seasoned vaudeville comedians when they first partnered in the late 1930s. The comedic duo quickly dominated radio and film. In 1942, the year they signed this menu, Abbott and Costello starred in no fewer than three films, Rio Rita, Pardon My Sarong, and Who Done It. Two of these films were capers about uncovering Nazi spy missions.

 

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