America’s Favorite Comedy Acts: The Three Stooges, Laurel & Hardy, Abbott & Costello, and Dean Martin & Jerry Lewis

Oh dear, what could have been a good book is ruined by quite a few factual errors throughout the book (as well as some poor quality pictures)Errors include (in the Laurel and Hardy section) - stating that Buster Keaton appeared in their 1944 film Nothing but trouble (he worked on the gags); claiming Oliver Hardy lost weight during the making of Atoll K (he actually put on weight during the making). In the Abbott and Costello section 2 films are wrongly titled "Dance with me Harry" should be "Henry", "Return of Buck Privates" should be "Buck Privates Come Home" and was actually a sequel, not a remake as claimed. In the Martin+Lewis section the author/editors claim that Jerry Lewis wrote, and directed films in 1961 but didn't appear in them - when in fact he was the star of them.Poorly researched.

This book has been brilliant from start to finish,some are my comedy heroes,reading about all their careers has been entertaining. I recommend this book to anyone.

Great 'behind the scenes' information about some of, if the not the, greatest comedy acts of all time (who'd have guessed that Lou Costello was a brilliant sportsman or that Jerry Lewis ended up teaching?). Enjoy!

Laudable collection of comedians that are easily stars in their own right, throw in Burns & Allen and I'd of given this book the full 5 stars! I had already read and reviewed the "Three Stooges" segment back in August, as enjoyable as these brief bios are given the topic matter I stretched them out and read each of the others (Laurel & Hardy, Abbott & Costello and Dean Martin & Jerry Lewis) over the course of three separate evenings (excellent table of contents, by the way, with handy links so you can read it in any order you choose). I came away really impressed with the info regarding Abbott & Costello - I had no idea Bud was drugged and dragged aboard a ship to Norway at age 15 and had to find his way back or that Costello was both a statewide foul-shot basketball champion and one-time professional boxer (Costello was the guy I would have liked to meet as he seemed like an all-around nice fellow with regards to all the charitable work he accomplished). I also liked learning about how Jerry Lewis went on to teach a course at USC that included the likes of Steven Spielberg and George Lucas. Real interesting, good value and also includes the full transcript of "Who's on First?" at the close making it a keeper in my opinion. How about one last passage by Oliver Hardy for the send-off, "Life is serious enough, anyway, so why do a lot of worrying. Just take things as they come." Very good book!

I very much enjoyed this book.