Who is Anne Battler?

Anne Battler is an American dancer and also the wife of Lou Costello. Anne Battler’s husband was an American comedian and actor. He was best known for his double act with straight man Bud Abbott and their routine “Who’s on First?”.

Anne Battler: Bio Summary

Anne Battler was the second of three daughters born to William and Isabelle Battler of Glasgow, Scotland in 1912 as Hannah Battler. At the age of eight, Anne and her father immigrated to the United States. They settled in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. After 6 months later, her mother and  two sisters also came after her father came down with pneumonia.

In America, the Battler sisters all changed their names; Hannah became Anne. Anne took up dancing while she was a teenager, and also became a children’s dance teacher later. In 1930, she decided to enter show business as a tap dancer.

How did Anne and Costello meet?

How did Lou Costello and his wife meet? After starting out a dancing career in Providence, Anne moved to New York a year or two later to dance in the chorus line at the Republic Theater on Broadway, in the Ann Corio show ‘This Was Burlesque.’

 She met comic Lou Costello there and the two then started working as a burlesque comic at the same theater. There were mutual friends with Corio, who eventually persuaded her to say yes to going on a date with him. While waiting in the wings before their first date, Anne was hit on the head by a clothes tree Costello had knocked over when coming onstage, and from that moment on, they were a devoted couple.

Anne Battler and her husband Lou Costello got married in 1934 in Massachusetts, using her own mother’s ring, as her new husband had forgotten Anne’s own wedding ring. The two got married in a beautiful ceremony in the presence of their friends, family, and loved ones.

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Her Dancing Career Came to an End After a Car Accident

Not long after her wedding, Anne’s career as a dancer was brought to an end when she and Costello were driving home from their theater and got into a very serious car accident, which broke Anne’s neck and put her into a full body cast for months.

Anne Battler and Lou Costello’s Children

After her dancing career came to an end, though, she switched all of her energy and focus into being a full-time wife and mother. Two years after they tied the knot, the pair welcomed their first child together, daughter Patricia “Paddy” Costello, in 1936.

Their second child, daughter Carole, arrived in 1938. Their son, Lou “Butch” Costello Jr., was born in 1942. The couple became parents once more with the arrival of their fourth child, Christine “Chris” Costello, in 1949.

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The death of her Son and her husband

Tragedy struck Lou Costello and his wife Anna Battler on November 4, 1943 when their only son Louis Jr drowned in their family pool. Anne blamed herself for her son drowning. She was on the phone at the time of the tragedy.

In March of 1959, she was left a widow when Lou died of a heart attack, brought on by his longtime problems with rheumatic fever. Anne Battler had problem with drinking in the past and the problems she had had with drinking had been increasing in recent years, and coupled with her grief over losing her husband as well as her son, took a large toll on her emotional and physical health that finally caught up to her. She died at the age of forty-seven.

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