1991 Comedians: Abbott & Costello

On August 29, 1991, the U.S. Postal Service issued a 29-cent stamp honoring Bud Abbott and Lou Costello in Hollywood, California. One of five designs in the Comedians issue, the stamp has a special connection for baseball collectors through the duo’s signature routine, “Who’s on First?” The other stamps honor Laurel and Hardy, Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy, Jack Benny, and Fanny Brice.

The routine turns a baseball lineup into a masterpiece of misunderstanding. Abbott explains that “Who” plays first base, “What” plays second, and “I Don’t Know” plays third, while Costello struggles to distinguish the players’ names from answers to his questions. The duo brought the routine to a national radio audience in 1938 and performed its best-known filmed version in The Naughty Nineties in 1945.

In 1956, Abbott and Costello donated a gold record of “Who’s on First?” to the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum. The routine became a beloved museum attraction, preserving their contribution to baseball’s place in American popular culture. A 1938 radio performance was also selected for the Library of Congress’s National Recording Registry in 2003.

Caricaturist Al Hirschfeld created the stamp’s artwork in his distinctive style. He hid his daughter Nina’s name in Bud Abbott’s necktie, on the left side of the stamp, continuing the hidden-name tradition familiar to admirers of his theatrical drawings.

The five Comedians designs were sold together in booklets of twenty stamps, with four examples of each design. A total of 139,995,600 Abbott and Costello stamps were issued at 29 cents each, representing a total face value of $40,598,724. The stamp is cataloged as Scott 2566.