Poker games on the sets of Abbott & Costello movies were legendary. It was not unusual for tens of thousands of dollars (much of it in $100 bills) to be on the poker table. Bud and Lou were famous for inviting all kinds of players to the high-stakes games. If no one else was available, the duo would play against each other.
According to Norman Abbott, Bud’s nephew who worked on many of the Abbott & Costello movie sets, these poker games would go on for hours, sometimes even days. It was also not unusual for these marathon gambling sessions to interfere with the production of whatever film they were working on at the time. Indeed, there were times when production came to a temporary standstill because nobody could get them away from the poker table.
This was long before Texas Hold ‘Em so the games of choice were stud poker and five card draw, popular poker card games of that time.
During the 1940’s and early 1950’s – the height of Abbott & Costello’s popularity – the comedy duo was literally the biggest and highest earning stars in Hollywood. They made millions of dollars, but also spent millions of dollars. The high-stakes poker games were just one illustration of this fact.