Services for Lou Costello, Advice to Young Ballplayers, March 8, 1959

Lou Costello's service at Calvary Cemetery was attended by Danny Thomas, Red Skelton, George Jessel, Joe E. Brown, Jerry Colonna, Ronald Reagan, Leo Carrillo and Virginia Grey. Longtime partner Bud Abbott was a pallbearer.  Word in Hollywood is that "Some Like It Hot" is the funniest film in years -- or one joke stretched out to two hours.   Jack Lemmon says of co-star Marilyn Monroe: "Something happens when she gets before a camera. It's something between her and the lens. Not something you can see. I couldn't see it and I was right next to her, watching right square in the eyeballs. But when I got in the projection room and saw the rushes, there it was ... a magnetism ... a magic."

Little Leaguers dreaming of becoming major league stars should not read this story. Fresco Thompson, director of the Dodgers' minor league system, said it's harder to find talented young players. "You would think that with the great growth in the number of Little Leagues each year that there would be more players," Thompson told The Times' Paul Zimmerman. "Up to now we've seen nothing to indicate this. ... about the best that Little Leagues have done is make for more fans--we hope." Thompson said the scouts found players lacked desire and sounded like he was meeting couch potatoes searching for long-term deals. "Maybe this is the new age of living. For instance, we used to interview baseball prospects. Now they interview us and so do their parents, their agent and often their lawyer," he said. "And mind you, this is in an era where baseball players make more, travel better, eat better than ever before." --Keith Thursby