Editing Lou Costello (section)

===Abbott and Costello split===
By the mid-1950s, Abbott and Costello no longer ranked among the top box-office stars. They were undermined by overexposure in concurrent film and television appearances, and were eclipsed by [[Martin and Lewis|Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis]], who were as popular in the 1950s as Abbott and Costello had been a decade earlier. In 1955 the team could not reach a contract agreement with Universal and left the studio after 15 years.<ref name="Furmanek 1991"/>

In the early 1950s, troubles with the [[Internal Revenue Service]] forced both men to sell their large homes and the rights to some of their films. Abbott and Costello's final film together, ''[[Dance with Me, Henry]]'' (1956), was a [[box office bomb|box-office disappointment]] and received mixed critical reviews.{{according to whom|date=May 2017}}

Abbott and Costello dissolved their partnership amicably early in 1957.<ref>{{cite news |agency=[[United Press International]] |title=Abbott, Costello Split. Comedy Team Breaks Up to Let Abbott Raise Horses |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1957/07/15/archives/abbott-costello-split-comedy-team-breaks-up-to-let-abbott-raise.html |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |date=July 15, 1957}}</ref> Costello worked with other comedians, including Sidney Fields in [[Las Vegas Strip|Las Vegas]], and sought film and television projects. He appeared several times on [[Steve Allen]]'s ''[[The Tonight Show]]'', most often performing his old routines with [[Louis Nye]] or [[Tom Poston]] in the straight-man role. In 1958, he played a dramatic role in the episode "The Tobias Jones Story" of ''[[Wagon Train]]''.<ref name="washburninterview">{{cite web |last=Fitzgerald |first=Mike |title=Beverly Washburn Interview |url=http://www.westernclippings.com/interview/beverlywashburn_interview.shtml |website=Western Clippings.com |publisher=Mike Fitzgerald |access-date=April 26, 2018}}</ref>