Costello's Own Copy: The Earliest Surviving "Who's On First?" Radio Script From the Kate Smith Show

In February 1938, Abbott and Costello joined the cast of The Kate Smith Hour, and "Who's On First?" was first performed for a national radio audience on March 24 of that year. What followed became one of the most celebrated comedy routines in American history. Kate Smith's producer Ted Collins had initially refused to let them perform it, fearing it would "get them hissed off the air," and only relented when the duo claimed to have run out of material for that week's show. That gamble paid off and cemented Abbott and Costello as national stars. An early recording of the routine from October 6, 1938 was later placed in the Library of Congress's National Recording Registry, but no copy of the original March broadcast is known to survive. This script comes from that same formative window, when the routine was still being shaped into the version the world would come to know.

What sets this piece apart is its connection to Costello himself. The consignor notes that Costello's name is handwritten into the top right corner, suggesting this was his own personal copy of the script. By their own (likely exaggerated) accounts, Abbott and Costello performed "Who's On First?" thousands of times over their careers, refining it slightly with each performance, though the core structure never changed. The routine was later inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1956, and Time magazine named it the Best Comedy Sketch of the 20th Century in 1999. Surviving radio scripts from this earliest era of the routine's development are exceptionally rare, and one bearing Costello's own handwriting connects directly to the man who turned "Who's On First?" into a piece of permanent American culture.

Walter Johnson owned a dairy farm in Germantown, Maryland from 1935 until his death in 1946, on the land where Seneca Valley High School currently stands. This letter was written from that exact property, on his personal Germantown letterhead, postmarked September 1940. As a Seneca Valley alumni, this one is personal. The hallways, the fields, the parking lot, all of it was once Walter Johnson's farm. This is not just a piece of baseball history sitting in a collection. It is a piece of the ground I walked every day for four years.

Johnson writes that he is heading to St. Louis, passing through on his way west and again on the 18th and 19th, planning to attend games being played there for his old Washington Senators batterymate Gabby Street. Street had just begun his second career in 1940 as a radio broadcaster, providing color commentary for Browns ballgames - a natural fit for the man Johnson himself once described as "always talking, always hustling, full of pep and fight." Street had spent four years as Johnson's personal catcher in Washington, and the two clearly remained close long after their playing days ended. Johnson had compiled 417 wins, struck out 3,509 batters, and spent 21 seasons as the heart of the Washington Senators - yet here he is in 1940, just a Germantown neighbor writing a casual note about catching up with an old friend in St. Louis.

This is an original official British military press photograph, taken May 1, 1918 at Etaples, France - the largest British military base on the Western Front. The image captures members of the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC) playing basketball alongside convalescent soldiers recovering from the front lines, part of a deliberate program in which WAAC members invited wounded soldiers to their camps to participate in sports during recovery. The back bears the original typed caption, Associated Illustration Services press stamp, "Transmission Abroad" clearance stamp, and reference number O 7041, confirming this was distributed through official British wartime media channels. The Portuguese caption printed along the bottom edge indicates this copy was specifically routed for publication in a Portuguese-language market.

What makes this photograph historically significant goes beyond the game being played. In September 1917, the YMCA sent James Naismith - the man who invented basketball - to France, where he spent most of his time near the front lines working to improve the morale of troops. Naismith spent 19 months in France, longer than most U.S. soldiers who served overseas. Basketball, the game he invented in a Springfield, Massachusetts gymnasium in 1891, had followed the armies to Europe and was being played in military camps across the Western Front. This photograph is a direct visual document of that moment - the game spreading through war, on foreign soil, played by soldiers and servicewomen alike, just miles from where the fighting was happening

Luther Halsey Gulick was a pioneering educator whose ideas helped shape modern physical education and directly influenced the creation of basketball. As founding superintendent of physical education at the International YMCA Training School in Springfield, Massachusetts, Gulick encouraged a young instructor, James Naismith, to develop an indoor game suitable for winter months. That challenge led to the invention of basketball, a sport Gulick later helped promote nationally and internationally through his work with the Amateur Athletic Union and the United States Olympic Committee. His broader legacy includes leadership in youth development, recreation, and fitness, and his induction into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1959 as a contributor.

This Bible, printed in 1877, was presented to Gulick as a child by his grandmother, as recorded in an ink inscription dated November 26, 1878. Pencil inscriptions inside the back cover include the name “Frances Jewett Gulick,” likely written by his daughter, indicating the book was later passed down within the family. Measuring approximately 6 x 4.5 x 2 inches, the Bible shows significant wear consistent with long use, including torn hinges, loose sections, dulled gilt edges, and a detached ribbon marker. The volume was acquired from an antique bookseller specializing in Bibles, and its layered inscriptions and wear trace a clear line of provenance from Gulick’s childhood, through his family, and into the present.

Luther Halsey Gulick was a pioneering educator whose ideas helped shape modern physical education and directly influenced the creation of basketball. As founding superintendent of physical education at the International YMCA Training School in Springfield, Massachusetts, Gulick encouraged a young instructor, James Naismith, to develop an indoor game suitable for winter months. That challenge led to the invention of basketball, a sport Gulick later helped promote nationally and internationally through his work with the Amateur Athletic Union and the United States Olympic Committee. His broader legacy includes leadership in youth development, recreation, and fitness, and his induction into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1959 as a contributor.

This Bible, printed in 1877, was presented to Gulick as a child by his grandmother, as recorded in an ink inscription dated November 26, 1878. Pencil inscriptions inside the back cover include the name “Frances Jewett Gulick,” likely written by his daughter, indicating the book was later passed down within the family. Measuring approximately 6 x 4.5 x 2 inches, the Bible shows significant wear consistent with long use, including torn hinges, loose sections, dulled gilt edges, and a detached ribbon marker. The volume was acquired from an antique bookseller specializing in Bibles, and its layered inscriptions and wear trace a clear line of provenance from Gulick’s childhood, through his family, and into the present.