Bud Abbott & Other Stars Asking For Money??

[Matt_InTheWoods]

Bud Abbott died in the mid- '70's, but seems I read that, in his twilight
years, he had asked fans to send him a dollar or two each so he could pay
his bills.

How sad. Any other celebrities ever got this destitute?

How far have they sunk to pay bills and eat toward the end? Also, if "Ed
Wood" was factual, Bela Lugosi was pretty far down the desperation trail as
well.

[Matt J. McCullar]

Post by Matt_InTheWoods
Bud Abbott died in the mid- '70's, but seems I read that, in his twilight
years, he had asked fans to send him a dollar or two each so he could pay
his bills.
How sad. Any other celebrities ever got this destitute?

I've read quite a bit about Abbott & Costello, but I never did run across
that particular tidbit. Bud Abbott was in poor financial shape in later
years (he had to sell his house to pay back taxes), but I never heard about
"begging" for a dollar from fans. If this was true, he would have had a
very hard time getting any money out of me; he and Costello were raking in
millions of dollars but they blew it all on gambling.

[Brad Ferguson]

Post by Matt J. McCullar

Post by Matt_InTheWoods
Bud Abbott died in the mid- '70's, but seems I read that, in his twilight
years, he had asked fans to send him a dollar or two each so he could pay
his bills.
How sad. Any other celebrities ever got this destitute?

I've read quite a bit about Abbott & Costello, but I never did run across
that particular tidbit. Bud Abbott was in poor financial shape in later
years (he had to sell his house to pay back taxes), but I never heard about
"begging" for a dollar from fans. If this was true, he would have had a
very hard time getting any money out of me; he and Costello were raking in
millions of dollars but they blew it all on gambling.

Abbott begged for money at least twice that I can remember. Once was
when I was a little kid. Bud did a live shot on a show called "On the
Go" ca. 1959 that was co-hosted by Jack Linkletter. (The show did live
remotes from state fairs and people's homes and so forth -- a tricky
thing to pull off in those days.) Given when this was, Bud's
appearance may have had something to do with Lou's death.

I remember Bud being asked about his circumstances, and Bud saying (and
this is a very close quote), "If everybody who ever enjoyed our movies
would send in one dollar -- just one dollar -- I'd be fine."

Around 1971 Bud's picture appeared on the front page of one of the
supermarket tabloids -- probably the Enquirer. Bud was dressed in
pajamas and a robe, and was sitting in a wheelchair. He was slumped to
one side. He looked awful. The story contained the "one dollar, just
one dollar" line.

Both Abbott and Costello were nailed by the IRS for back taxes. It's
hard to pin down just what was going on; accounts of their lives
describe the debt as having been as much as $750,000 for each man. One
account says Abbott reached a settlement with the IRS in 1959 and was
well enough off after that, which counters all the other stories still
going around about how the settlement had left him destitute. To his
death, Costello remained bitter about the IRS, saying that he and Bud
had sold millions of dollars of war bonds and that they had traveled
around the country at their own expense to do so, and yet had gotten no
consideration for this.

[A]

x-no-archive: yes

Post by Brad Ferguson

Post by Matt J. McCullar

Post by Matt_InTheWoods
Bud Abbott died in the mid- '70's, but seems I read that, in his twilight
years, he had asked fans to send him a dollar or two each so he could pay
his bills.
How sad. Any other celebrities ever got this destitute?

I've read quite a bit about Abbott & Costello, but I never did run across
that particular tidbit. Bud Abbott was in poor financial shape in later
years (he had to sell his house to pay back taxes), but I never heard about
"begging" for a dollar from fans. If this was true, he would have had a
very hard time getting any money out of me; he and Costello were raking in
millions of dollars but they blew it all on gambling.

Abbott begged for money at least twice that I can remember. Once was
when I was a little kid. Bud did a live shot on a show called "On the
Go" ca. 1959 that was co-hosted by Jack Linkletter. (The show did live
remotes from state fairs and people's homes and so forth -- a tricky
thing to pull off in those days.) Given when this was, Bud's
appearance may have had something to do with Lou's death.
I remember Bud being asked about his circumstances, and Bud saying (and
this is a very close quote), "If everybody who ever enjoyed our movies
would send in one dollar -- just one dollar -- I'd be fine."
Around 1971 Bud's picture appeared on the front page of one of the
supermarket tabloids -- probably the Enquirer. Bud was dressed in
pajamas and a robe, and was sitting in a wheelchair. He was slumped to
one side. He looked awful. The story contained the "one dollar, just
one dollar" line.
Both Abbott and Costello were nailed by the IRS for back taxes. It's
hard to pin down just what was going on; accounts of their lives
describe the debt as having been as much as $750,000 for each man. One
account says Abbott reached a settlement with the IRS in 1959 and was
well enough off after that, which counters all the other stories still
going around about how the settlement had left him destitute. To his
death, Costello remained bitter about the IRS, saying that he and Bud
had sold millions of dollars of war bonds and that they had traveled
around the country at their own expense to do so, and yet had gotten no
consideration for this.

The IRS is heartless and cruel, as many other non-celebrities have
found out.
Another reason the entire Income Tax and IRS should finally be thrown
into the dustbin of history.
And if anybody claims you can't fund a Government without the Income
Tax, they ignore the years 1789-1913 when there wasn't any (save for the
fleeting 1862 Income Tax because of that War), and the economic growth in
the U.S. was the best in the world.

[lynn]

Post by Matt_InTheWoods
Bud Abbott died in the mid- '70's, but seems I read that, in his twilight
years, he had asked fans to send him a dollar or two each so he could pay
his bills.
How sad. Any other celebrities ever got this destitute?

Last year [1959], Hollywood was startled to read in a wire
service story that Bud was asking each of his former fans for
fifty cents to help him get off the tax hook.

Unhappily, Abbott said, "That story wasn't true. It wasn't
presented right. The reporter who wrote it called and asked me a
hypothetical question: 'If all my fans gave me fifty cents each,
wouldn't I get out of debt?' I said, "I guessed so.' Then the
story came out that I was asking for a half a buck from everyone.

"I don't want to beg. I never asked. 'Brother can you spare fifty
cents?' Even so, half dollars came in from all over the U.S. and
Canada. Many of them came with nice letters.

"But the whole thing didn't total up to more than a few hundred
bucks."

http://www.abbottandcostello.net/nw_article7.htm



jamison

[The Kentucky Wizard]

Post by Matt J. McCullar

Post by Matt_InTheWoods
Bud Abbott died in the mid- '70's, but seems I read that, in his
twilight years, he had asked fans to send him a dollar or two each
so he could pay his bills.
How sad. Any other celebrities ever got this destitute?

I've read quite a bit about Abbott & Costello, but I never did run
across that particular tidbit. Bud Abbott was in poor financial
shape in later years (he had to sell his house to pay back taxes),
but I never heard about "begging" for a dollar from fans. If this
was true, he would have had a very hard time getting any money out of
me; he and Costello were raking in millions of dollars but they blew
it all on gambling.

From Wikipedia: In 1971 Terry-Thomas was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease,
and by 1977 he had retired. Richard Briers organised a benefit concert for
his cousin after discovering he was living in virtual obscurity and ill
health in the late 1980s.

He died in 1990 at the age of 78.

[Brian Watson]

Post by The Kentucky Wizard
From Wikipedia: In 1971 Terry-Thomas was diagnosed with Parkinson's
disease, and by 1977 he had retired. Richard Briers organised a benefit
concert for his cousin after discovering he was living in virtual
obscurity and ill health in the late 1980s.
He died in 1990 at the age of 78.

I saw T-T a couple of years before that in an English pub garden.

He was sitting in a wheelchair with several (I assume) friends, relations
and neighbours and didn't look well but under the circs that is not
surprising.