Who’s NFT Is On First?: Classic Abbott And Costello Routine Hits The Playing Field
Thursday, October 20, 2022 at 05:12PM By Barry Janoff
October 20, 2022: The estates of Bud Abbott and Lou Costello said they plan to release "Who's on First" NFTs on Oct. 28, 2022, the day of the first scheduled game of the 2022 World Series.
The sale is being handled by via Unforgettable Licensing and presented by Power Up NFTs.
Each of the 8,791 NFTs contains a unique still frame from Abbott and Costello's famous six-minute routine from a 1951 episode of The Colgate Comedy Hour.
The NFTs also commemorate the upcoming 85th anniversary of the first national airing of "Who's On First,” performed for a national audience on the Kate Smith Radio Show in 1938.
"I'm delighted that the 'Who's On First' legacy lives on with over 50 million YouTube views," Chris Costello, daughter of Lou Costello, said via Unforgettable Licensing.
"And now, in addition to being enshrined in the Baseball Hall of Fame, the routine will be forever preserved as NFTs." (Details here.)
Abbot and Costello appeared as a team in numerous movies from 1940 through the mid-1950s. They also had a popular TV show in the early 1950s that was re-run for more five decades.
Abbott and Costello did the routine in their movies, including their 1940 film debut, One Night in the Tropics and the 1945 film, The Naughty Nineties. (See it here.)
A gold record of "Who's on First?" is in the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, NY.
It was donated by Abbott and Costello to then Hall of Fame director Sid Keener live on TV’s The Steve Allen Show on Oct. 7, 1956, according to the Hall of Fame.
A video of the routine plays on a screen in the Hall. 
In 1999, Time Magazine named “Who’s on First” the “Best Comedy Sketch of the 20th Century.”
In 2003, an early radio recording was placed in the Library of Congress’s National Recording Registry.
The line “Who’s on First” is among the American Film Institute’s 2005 list of "100 Memorable Movie Quotations."
Photos: Unforgettable Licensing
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