Classic Abbott & Costello Sketch: “Crazy House,” with Hillary Brooke and Murray Leonard

Re-posted by Nicholas Stix
 



Uploaded on Jun 26, 2010 by Kovacs Corner.

[From "Kovacs Corner" on YouTube.com] - Here Bud Abbott and Lou Costello perform one of the most famous and widely copied burlesque and vaudeville interruption sketches, "Crazy House." Also known on the vaudeville circuit as "Nut House," this filmed sketch from the first season of their 1952 half-hour television show is probably one of the very few surviving performances of this well-worn, and now largely forgotten, burlesque classic. The premise of the sketch started with Lou suffering from insomnia. After a number of futile and hilarious efforts to help Lou get his necessary sleep, Bud finally decides to check Lou into a "rest home." More like a mental institution with the patients in charge, Lou is subjected to a series of bizarre intrusions into his hospital room. We get a chance to experience such classic schtick as spit takes, gun fire, and seltzer bottles. Also appearing in this sketch is the constantly career-shifting Hillary Brooke, the constantly character shifting Sid Fields, and the ever present Bobby Barber. Character actor Murray Leonard plays "Dr. Mainey, ME."